Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 21, 1994 TAG: 9401210163
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
At a hearing earlier this month, Neely's attorney, Tom Blaylock, accused prosecutors of withholding information that could have helped Neely during his trail.
Blaylock called it "the dirtiest prosecution that has ever come to this valley."
In a 70-page response filed Thursday in federal court in Roanoke, Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Peters said Neely's attorneys have not hesitated "to lie" and "misrepresent" facts during the four-year case.
She urged Judge Jackson Kiser to deny Blaylock's motion that the charges against Neely be dismissed because of prosecution misconduct - a request Kiser already has denied.
"Keith Neely is hardly the picture of the unsophisticated defendant ambushed by the government's failure to fully inform him of facts material to his defense," Peters wrote.
"If Keith Neely was not the best-prepared defendant who has ever gone to trail in the Western District of Virginia, it was not for lack of money spent, manipulation of witnesses and years of effort."
After quickly reviewing the prosecutor's response, Blaylock said it was "as long on emotion as it is short on substance."
Kiser is expected to rule on the motion Jan. 28, when Neely - who faces up to 12 years in prison - is scheduled to be sentenced.
The issue of prosecution conduct has come up before during Neely's case. Kiser barred the testimony of one prosecution witness after ruling the defense was not properly informed of the witness' drug activity.
Defense attorneys have asserted that Peters was out to get Neely because of his flamboyant lifestyle and aggressive representation of clients, including many drug dealers - a charge Peters flatly denies.
"Long forgotten in the defense litany of governmental misconduct," she wrote, is that Neely took cocaine from his pocket and provided it to a 23-year-old Virginia State Police informant in 1989.
Key evidence against Neely came from several convicted or admitted drug dealers, who were given immunity or reduced sentences. They testified that Neely acted as a middleman, helping drug suppliers and buyers arrange deals - often from his Christiansburg office.
by CNB