FORT SMITH -- A federal judge won't reconsider his ruling last month rejecting a request by an associate of former Northwest Arkansas developer Brandon Barber to withdraw his guilty plea to money laundering, court records show.
U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III filed an order last week denying the request by New York attorney James Van Doren. Van Doren is to be sentenced Nov. 3.
"Assuming, however, that the court has the inherent power to reconsider its earlier order based on nothing more than a defendant's belief that the court got it wrong the first time, the court finds no reason to reconsider its order in this instance," Holmes wrote in the three-page ruling.
Van Doren pleaded guilty in federal court in August 2013 to one count of money laundering, accused of returning to Barber $20,000 from a $64,000 check that Barber had signed over to him, the government alleged, to help Barber hide his assets from his creditors.
Van Doren asked Holmes in March to allow him to withdraw the guilty plea and let him go to trial, claiming that he was not truthful when he admitted to the money laundering charge.
When Holmes rejected the request in June, Van Doren asked for reconsideration after Holmes overturned jury verdicts against co-defendant K. Vaughn Knight, ruling that the government failed to prove Knight's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Van Doren argued that if Holmes ruled that the government didn't prove Knight's guilt, there was evidence the government did not have enough proof to convict him.
After a two-week trial in November, a jury convicted Knight of conspiracy to commit bankruptcy fraud, bankruptcy fraud, aiding and abetting in making false statements and five counts of money laundering. Holmes granted a new trial on all the charges except the aiding and abetting in making false statements, for which he granted Knight an acquittal.
Metro on 08/24/2014