Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 27, 1993 TAG: 9303270155
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A federal court jury in Roanoke also convicted Neely of possessing cocaine for personal use and distributing marijuana to a court reporter who slipped him secret federal grand jury testimony.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, he faces a possible 10 to 12 years in prison with no chance of parole. Sentencing was delayed pending completion of a presentence report.
Normally, people convicted of felony drug charges are jailed immediately. Neely, however, was allowed to remain free pending a hearing Tuesday to determine whether his law office should be forfeited to the government because Neely used it to store drugs, launder money and arrange drug deals.
The jury, which deliberated for eight hours over two days after a three-week trial, acquitted Neely on charges of racketeering and conspiracy to distribute drugs.
Neely declined to comment as he left the courtroom. But in an interview minutes after the verdict was returned, he maintained he was innocent.
He said he had been so confident of acquittal that he had rejected a plea bargain offered by the government. Under that offer, all other charges would have been dropped if Neely pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering. The most he would have gotten would have been a three-year sentence.
Why didn't he take it? "Cause I didn't do it," Neely said.
He said he was willing to risk a much longer sentence so he could maintain his innocence. "It takes a little intestinal fortitude, doesn't it?"
Neely said he'd still reject the plea bargain if given a chance. "I'd do it again, because I didn't do it."
Karen Peters, the assistant U.S. attorney who headed the investigation of Neely, stared straight ahead as the court clerk read the verdict. Her head bowed slightly when the clerk finished.
"I think it's sad," she said afterward. "He had a gift, and through his poor choices or whatever reason he lost what he had."
She denied defense allegations that she was out to get Neely because of his flashy lifestyle and his aggressive representation of clients, including many drug dealers.
If she'd been out to get him, she said, she wouldn't have offered him the plea bargain and short sentence.
The key evidence against Neely came from several convicted or admitted drug dealers who were given immunity or reduced sentences in exchange for their testimony.
They testified that in the late 1980s Neely acted as a middleman, helping drug suppliers and buyers arrange deals. Among those was Donald Kimbler, a former federal firearms agent from Florida, who worked as a private eye and testified that he brought numerous 10- to 16-ounce packages of cocaine from Florida to Montgomery County with Neely's help.
Neely got one-third of the profits, Kimbler said. According to testimony, Neely helped bring in about 19 pounds of cocaine from 1986 to 1989.
Kimbler, who was serving a 15-year sentence on a Florida drug conviction, was allowed to go free last month in exchange for his testimony and because he is dying from cancer.
Two other drug dealers Neely was convicted of helping are Michaal Giacolone and Jamel Agemy, two former Virginia Tech football players, who were convicted in 1990 of participating in a drug ring that brought in 2-pound packages of marijuana shaped like footballs.
Neely, 43, readily admitted in testimony this week that he is an alcoholic and used a lot of cocaine. But all he did was share cocaine and marijuana with fellow users, he said. He denied ever dealing in drugs and claimed he had no idea that some of the close friends and associates who testified against him were dealers.
Defense attorneys Tom Blaylock of Roanoke and Marvin Miller of Alexandria contended during the trial that Neely was being set up by liars who were willing to say whatever the government wanted in exchange for immunity or reduced sentences.
They accused the government of letting major drug dealers go just to get even with Neely because of his cocky, abrasive style as an attorney.
Judge Jackson Kiser ordered jurors not to talk about the case until after Tuesday's forfeiture hearing.
by CNB