Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 30, 1993 TAG: 9311300194
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Leigh Hurst had pleaded guilty to money laundering earlier in U.S. District Court in Roanoke. Under a plea agreement, he promised to testify against friends and partners in the cocaine business.
"I admire you for your courage, but by the same token I don't think I can totally let you off the hook," Judge Jackson Kiser told Hurst.
The car salesman provided important testimony for federal prosecutors in the trial of Keith Neely, a Christiansburg lawyer who was convicted of using his practice to help smuggle drugs and launder drug profits. Neely is scheduled to be sentenced in January.
Witnesses testified that Neely acted as a middleman in an illegal enterprise that brought about 19 pounds of cocaine into Montgomery County from 1986 to 1989. He also was accused of assisting two former Virginia Tech football players in a marijuana operation.
Hurst has also provided the government with information in other cases, Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Peters said.
In testimony Monday, Hurst said he was lost "99 percent of my friends" since word got out in Montgomery County that he was a government informant.
"It's been one of the hardest things I've ever had to do," he said.
Kiser allowed Hurst to remain free on bond over the holidays before starting his term. He was also fined $5,000, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and complete three years of probation after his release.
by CNB