Bomber’s wife loses high-court appeal bid

Report to prison by Jan. 7, Mann told

Sangeeta “Sue” Mann, the wife of a Russellville doctor convicted in a grenade attack on the chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board, was ordered Tuesday to report to prison by the afternoon of Jan. 7 to begin her year-long sentence.

Just last month, Chief U.S. District Judge Brian S. Miller allowed Mann, 51, to remain free while appealing her convictions to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mann appealed to the high court after the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld her Aug. 9, 2010, jury verdicts on July 17, letting stand convictionsfor conspiring with her husband to obstruct the investigation and tampering with evidence.

On Monday, however, theSupreme Court denied her petition for a writ of certiorari, refusing to hear her arguments that she should have been tried separately from her husband to avoid being tainted by his more serious charges, as well as her claims of potential juror bias. She said pretrial questionnaires showed that some jurors were bi-ased against her because of her Indian heritage or had their minds made up about her guilt before hearing the evidence.

In a half-page order signed Tuesday, Miller approved Mann’s request to allow her to self-report to the prison to which she is assigned by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. She had cited health problems that could be complicated by the arduous process of being transported by the U.S. Marshal’s Service.

Miller also recommended that the bureau allow Mann to serve her sentence at a federal prison camp in Alderson, W.Va. The minimum security facility houses female offenders and is located in the foothills of the AlleghenyMountains. The bureau isn’t obligated to accept judicial recommendations.

One of Mann’s attorneys, Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock, said Tuesday that she requested the West Virginia facility based on the facility itself and its programs, notbecause it is close to any family members.

Meanwhile, Rosenzweig said that the Mann house in the small Pope County town of London is still in the family’s name and that the couple’s grown children are taking care of it.

There has been no activity in more than a year in the divorce case that Sue Mann filed against her husband, Randeep Mann, after he was sentenced to life in prison.

Federal prosecutors intervened in the divorce case to prevent assets from being sold or transferred into Sue Mann’s name before the government can seize them to satisfy a restitution order of more than $1 million against Randeep Mann.

Miller ordered the restitution to be paid to Dr. Trent Pierce to cover lost income and medical bills as a result of injuries he suffered on Feb. 4, 2009, when he triggered a grenade by moving a tire that someone had propped against the bumper of his car in the driveway of his West Memphis home.

Pierce, then 54, was nearly killed in the explosion that left him blind in one eye and partially deaf, among other injuries. After months of hospitalization, he returned to work as a physician and to his medical board duties.

In addition to his life sentence on convictions for using a weapon of mass destruction to injure Pierce and damage his vehicle, and for being in possession of 98 grenades, Randeep Mann, now 54, was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine and make full restitution.

He is being held in a highsecurity federal prison in northeastern Pennsylvaniaand is awaiting the outcome of his appeal to the 8th Circuit.

At the time of the explosion, the Medical Board, at Pierce’s direction, was beginning a new investigation of Randeep Mann that had the potential to permanently strip him of his medical license. Previous investigations by the board that stemmed from complaintsof his patients dying from overdoses resulted in Mann being prevented from prescribing narcotics, which put a huge dent in his income.

Sue Mann has already paid a $50,000 fine that Miller imposed against her in addition to the year-long sentence. Parole is not available in the federal system, so Sue Mann must serve the full year of her sentence.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 11/28/2012

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