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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990                   TAG: 9003222096
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

MYSTERY-FLIGHT LAWYER INDICTED

Thomas L. Root, the Washington lawyer found with a bullet wound in his abdomen after ditching his private plane in the Atlantic Ocean last July, was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on charges of defrauding a series of broadcast clients and the government.

The 33-count indictment charges that, among other offenses, Root filed a series of forged and fraudulent documents with the Federal Communications Commission, misrepresented clients' positions and obstructed a grand jury probe.

U.S. Attorney Jay B. Stephens said that the charges "depict a tangled web of fraud, falsehoods, deceit, and forgery."

It was two days after giving a client a $50,000 check drawn on insufficient funds as part of what the indictment charges was one fraudulent scheme that Root set out in his private plane on a trip from Washington to North Carolina that remains shrouded in mystery.

At the time of the flight, Root, 37, was aware of the probe, according to Stephens.

Shortly before he was to arrive in Rocky Mount, N.C., Root complained to air traffic controllers he was having trouble breathing. His plane flew far beyond his destination and eventually was ditched in the Atlantic. When rescued at sea, Root had a bullet wound in his stomach.

The gunshot was determined to have come from inside the cabin. All accounts indicate that Root was alone on the flight.

After the mishap threw a spotlight on Root's tangled legal and business affairs, he continued in illegal schemes, according to the indictment - first, by getting an employee to withhold records from a grand jury and, second, by offering a partner in a planned radio station a $3,000 fee to induce him to accept only partial payment of a settlement.

Stephens said that his investigators would pursue any evidence that turns up that Root had been involved in drugs, noting that last spring authorities discovered a large quantity of guns, including semi-automatic weapons, at Root's hangar. But he said the current probe focused on Root's business affairs.

Root was reported out of his Washington office and unreachable Wednesday.

by CNB