Wife of detained physician charged

New counts added in grenades case

By Linda Satter

Posted: August 8, 2009 at 7:12 a.m.

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LOWELL — The wife of a Pope County doctor awaiting trial on a grenade-possession charge joined her husband in jail Friday after federal prosecutors accused both of conspiring to impede an investigation and concealing documents.

In addition, Sangeeta "Sue" Mann, 48, is accused of lying to a federal grand jury during the investigation of her husband, Randeep Mann, 51. He also faces three new charges of possessing illegal firearms - an unregistered shotgun and a machine gun.

The new charges were revealed in an indictment that was handed up earlier this week by a federal grand jury but remained under seal until Sangeeta Mann was in custody Friday morning.

The indictment marked the first time that Sangeeta Mann has faced charges. It also added additional charges to the grenade-possession charge that Randeep Mann has faced since March, when authorities found 98 live grenades partially buried in the woods near the couple's home in London, about one-half mile from Entergy's Arkansas Nuclear One power plant.

Sangeeta Mann was detained Friday at the order of U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Ray after prosecutors argued during her initial court appearance that she is a flight risk. Another judge will hear testimony and more extensive arguments Monday to decide whether she must remain jailed until her trial, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 8.

Her attorney, Cathi Compton of Little Rock, participated in the hearing by telephone and couldn't be reached laterfor comment.

In March, U.S. Magistrate Judge David Young ordered Randeep Mann detained until trial after hearing testimony that led him to declare Mann a flight risk with the financial means, motive and foreign connections to flee the country. Young noted that an ongoing civil lawsuit against Mann and a State Medical Board investigation could provide extra incentive to flee.

Mann is from India but has been a naturalized U.S. citizen for more than 20 years.

The updated indictment alleges that the Manns have conspired since March 4 - the day a search warrant was executed at their home - to impede proceedings against Randeep Mann.

In a news release issued hours after Sangeeta Mann's court appearance Friday, U.S. Attorney Jane Duke and Stuart L. Lowrey of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the couple concealed from investigators some pre-signed blank checks that had once been in the doctor's office "with the intent to impair their availability for use in proceedings against Mann."

It says that on April 8, when Sangeeta Mann testified before a grand jury looking into possible firearms violations charges against her husband, she was asked if she had taken "anything else" out of her husband's desk at his clinic. The first part of the conversation wasn't revealed.

A transcript of her testimony shows that she at first replied, "No," but when asked a more specific question, acknowledged taking home some checks that were in her husband's desk.

When asked why, she said the clinic was empty at the time, and "I just thought it would be safer."

"Is that the only reason you removed them?" she was asked.

"Yes. Yes," she replied.

The indictment alleges that Sangeeta Mann was lying, "in that the checks had not been removed from the clinic because she thought it would be safer but because she had been instructed by Randeep Mann to remove the items."

The day before Randeep Mann's arrest by federal agents, a London city employee was walking in woods near the Manns' home and discovered a partially buried plastic bag. Once unearthed, the bag was found to contain a military canister filled with 98 M406 grenades, which are considered "weapons of war" and are illegal to possess. The grenades are designed to be fired from a launcher.

Suspicion immediately fell on Mann because his home is about 875 feet from the site and because a month earlier, during an interview with officers investigating a bombing in West Memphis, he had shown investigators a grenade launcher that he legally owned.

Mann was arrested after a search of his home turned up five military canisters that were the same shape, size and color as the buried canister, according to reports. One even had the same lot number as the buried canister. Agents also reported finding a box containing 45 practice rounds of ammunition for a grenade launcher, as well as two grenade launchers in a safe in the basement.

Investigators said that in addition they found 110 semi- and fullyautomatic firearms, the majority of which were lawfully registered to Mann and valued in excess of $1 million. At the time, agents saidthey had to do more research on a few of the guns.

Two of the new gun charges against Mann accuse him of possessing unregistered guns - a .12-gauge shotgun and a 7.62-caliber machine gun. A third charge, for possession of a machine gun, concerns the same 7.62-caliber weapon.

The Manns have pleaded innocent to the charges. Randeep Mann faces up to 10 years in prison on the gun charges, with a fine of up to $10,000 on the unregistered firearms charges and a fine of up to $250,000 on the machine gun charge, if convicted.

If convicted on the obstruction charge, the Manns each face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The false declaration charge against Sangeeta Mann carries a potential maximum penalty of five years and a fine of up to $250,000.

The bombing for which Randeep Mann and numerous other people were interviewed occurred Feb. 4 outside the West Memphis home of Dr. Trent Pierce, chairman of the State Medical Board.

The board had indefinitely suspended Mann's license to prescribe controlled substances and was investigating whether he had bought prescription drugs over the Internet and sold them to patients in violation of the ban.

Pierce lost his left eye in the blast, which occurred just before 8 a.m. as he prepared to drive to Little Rock for the board's monthly meeting. Shrapnel from the explosion caused extensive damage to his face, right leg and right arm.

On Thursday, for the first time since the attack, Pierce appeared again at the helm of the board meeting, a glass eye and facial scars serving as constant reminders of the bombing in which no suspects have been arrested.

Arkansas, Pages 11, 17 on 08/08/2009

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