Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 5, 1995 TAG: 9504050074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
David F. Breen, 33, of Charlottesville, was acquitted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and filing a false claim with the government. Breen was charged, along with 13 others, with conspiring to file false income tax returns claiming refunds that were not owed to them.
The ringleader, Jimmy Blankenship, and 11 others pleaded guilty - four of them Monday after the trial had begun - leaving Breen the lone defendant. One former inmate charged in the indictment still has not been found.
Breen said some of his co-defendants were unaware of the scam led by Blankenship - as he says he was - but pleaded guilty out of fear.
"I feel I've been vindicated," he said. "But I feel a great injustice has still been done to the other inmates. I believe a lot of these men were innocent and set up without their knowledge."
Breen had an attorney retained by his father. All the other defendants had court-appointed lawyers, which he said he believed was a factor in their agreeing to plea bargains.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson said once the other defendants left the trial, a lot of the "cumulative evidence" couldn't be used.
"We were down to simply [defendant Ernest "Wes" Garraghty 's] word and Blankenship's word against Breen's word," he said. "The case turned on the credibility of two inmates."
Breen's attorney, Richard Lawrence, tried to portray Blankenship as a con man who, even after he confessed the scam to the IRS, filed two more false returns for other inmates when he was transferred to a Botetourt prison camp.
Breen was close to being paroled and wouldn't have risked involvement in something that would have cost him his freedom, Lawrence argued.
by CNB