Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 19, 1993 TAG: 9403100018
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Short
Douglas Carroll Price, 58, had faced a charge of attempting to extort from Keith Neely, a former lawyer in Christiansburg.
Price was indicted in April on two counts of attempted extortion. The indictments alleged that Price attempted to extort property from Neely and also from Radford lawyer Max Jenkins.
Price was accused of sending threatening letters to the two lawyers in July and August 1992. Neely and Jenkins have represented Price's ex-wife in divorce and child-support proceedings. They gave the letters to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and asked for an investigation.
Earlier this year, the indictment involving Jenkins was thrown out of court because Jenkins received the letter at his office in Radford, meaning Montgomery County did not have jurisdiction.
Monday, Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith told Judge Kenneth Devore he did not wish to prosecute Price for the charge involving Neely. Keith said only that the case did not have ``prosecutive merit.''
In the letters, Price demanded return of a Giles County farm he lost in court after his divorce, according to an investigation report filed by the Sheriff's Office.
Jenkins and Neely say Price lost his property in judgments obtained against him for failing to pay child support and that they had no way of returning the property.
by CNB