Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 16, 1994                   TAG: 9404180138
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

ONE CHARGE AGAINST NEELY DISMISSED

Neely and two brothers, Eric and Kevin Wiltsee, were scheduled to appear in Montgomery County General District Court on April 26 on cross warrants they obtained against each other following a Feb. 12 incident at Neely's home. Neely rents a house from the Wiltsees' mother.

The Wiltsee brothers charged in their complaints that Neely attacked them after finding them in his house on Farmview Road loading wood into his basement during one of the winter storms. Neely, however, swore out warrants against his two accusers and said he acted in self-defense after he was attacked.

Thursday, lawyers representing Neely and Kevin Wiltsee took the case before Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Patrick Graybeal and asked him to dismiss the charges against both men.

Graybeal dismissed the warrant against Neely and Neely's cross warrant against Kevin Wiltsee that charged Wiltsee with assault and battery, destroying property - a clothes iron - and trespassing.

The charges were filed while Neely was out of jail on bond pending appeal of federal convictions that he used his law office to help smuggle drugs and launder drug profits. If Neely had been found guilty on the misdemeanor charges, federal authorities probably would have revoked his bond, forcing him to begin his 10-year prison term.

The assault and battery charges that Neely and Eric Wiltsee filed against each other are set for a hearing April 26.

Robbie Jenkins, a Radford lawyer representing Kevin Wiltsee, said he and Neely's attorney, John Huntington of Christiansburg, agreed Wednesday to seek dismissal of the charges. Jenkins said they took the case to Graybeal because they were both in his court the next day on other matters and wanted to resolve the issue.

The Wiltsee brothers are the sons of Lynda Nelson, for whom Neely won a large settlement from Wal-Mart. In 1991, a jury awarded Nelson $700,000 plus interest for injuries she sustained in the Christiansburg store in 1989 when she was hit in the head by a display rack carried by an employee.