ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 26, 1996 TAG: 9607260044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: Associated Press
The attorney who defended Jens Soering, a former University of Virginia honors student convicted of the 1985 murders of his girlfriend's parents, has been suspended from practicing law in Michigan for mishandling portions of Soering's case.
The Michigan Attorney Discipline Board found attorney Richard A. Neaton guilty of five counts of misconduct and suspended him from practicing law for four years, according to records obtained by The Daily Progress.
Neaton was Soering's chief defense attorney at Soering's 1990 trial for the knife slayings of Derek and Nancy Haysom in Bedford County. Soering, 29, the son of a German diplomat, was convicted and is serving two life terms in prison.
Last November, Soering filed a series of misconduct charges against Neaton, who was licensed in Michigan but received a special waiver to handle Soering's Virginia trial.
The discipline board concluded that Neaton failed to competently handle Soering's habeas corpus appeal following his trial, misappropriated $5,000 of Soering's funds, lied to Soering about obtaining witnesses, created phony affidavits with fictitious notary signatures and refused to turn over files to Soering once Soering decided to drop Neaton as his attorney.
Soering, commenting Wednesday from the Keen Mountain Correctional Center, said the board's findings support his appeal claim that Neaton failed to provide a competent defense.
However, the Virginia Supreme Court, in a ruling last month, rejected Soering's claim of ineffective counsel.
Neaton, reached in Florida where he now lives, said he will appeal the board's rulings.
``Jens is in prison because he made a conscious decision to help Elizabeth Haysom,'' Neaton said of Soering's former girlfriend. ``I was his lawyer, not his magician.''
Soering initially confessed to the slayings but later said he lied to protect Haysom, a fellow honors student who Soering now claims killed her parents without his prior knowledge.
Haysom is serving a 90-year sentence as an accessory to the murders. She denied participating in the killings.
The state Supreme Court, in its June ruling on Soering's case, ordered a hearing on Soering's claim that Bedford County investigators withheld evidence from the defense on other possible suspects in the slayings.
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