FAYETTEVILLE — UPDATE: Trial begins April 9 in the corruption case involving former state Sen. Jon Woods, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks ordered Friday.
The trial is expected to take three weeks and a pretrial hearing is set for April 4. Hearings on motions are set for Jan. 10 and again on Jan. 25.
The hearing on Jan. 10 will deal with Wood’s claim of attorney-client privilege “over certain documents and disclosures,” according to a previous order by Brooks. The order did not give details, and the hearing itself will be in the judge’s chambers with only attorneys for Woods and for the government present.
The Jan. 25 hearing is on Randell Shelton Jr.’s motion to dismiss charges against him. Woods was indicted for accepting kickbacks passed through Shelton from Ecclesia College in Springdale. Shelton’s consulting contract was approved by Oren Paris III. Paris, who is also charged, is president of Ecclesia. He is accused of paying kickbacks in return for state grants to the private Christian college. Woods and Paris have asked the court to join Shelton's motion to dismiss.
The hearings were originally set for Thursday and today. The federal government, which is prosecuting the case, asked to delay the hearings because of issues in the handling of recently revealed audio recordings, court filings show. Also, one of its investigators and the interim U.S. attorney have been summoned as defense witnesses and need time to prepare, according to the government’s motion for delay, which was filed Wednesday.
Brooks set the hearings concerning 79 recently revealed, covertly recorded audio files created by former state Rep. Micah Neal of Springdale. Neal pleaded guilty Jan. 4 to accepting kickbacks in return for state grants and is expected to testify against Woods.
The government learned information Tuesday about FBI Special Agent Robert Cessario’s actions relating to the laptop computer used to access the Dropbox shared folder containing the recordings, the government said in its request to delay the hearing. Dropbox is an internet-based electronic file-sharing service.
Shelton’s motion to dismiss is sealed and not available to the public. However, a Nov. 29 addendum to that motion is not sealed and provides details. “Cessario has had access to these 79 recordings since Nov. 2, 2016, as they are electronically stored in a shared location as other previously disclosed audio recordings,” the addendum states.
The government said in a letter that it first learned about the recordings and informed defense counsel about them on Nov. 15 of this year.
“The government does not have these recordings in its possession and does not intend to obtain them unless obtained by defense counsel,” the Nov. 15 letter also says.
Shelton’s motion argues that the government’s claim it “never obtained” the audio recordings is not true.
Asked about Cessario’s role, a spokesman for the FBI headquarters in Little Rock said this was an internal personnel matter and the agency has no further comment.
Neal’s plea agreement says Woods, Paris, Shelton and lobbyist Milton R. “Rusty” Cranford all participated in kickbacks in return for state grants. Cranford — an executive in the now-defunct nonprofit corporation Alternative Opportunities and its offshoot, AmeriWorks — hasn’t been charged.
The kickbacks were in return for state General Improvement Fund grants to Ecclesia College and AmeriWorks, according to the indictment and plea agreement. Woods, Paris and Shelton have pleaded not guilty. Shelton passed the kickbacks for Ecclesia to the lawmakers through consulting fees paid by the college, according to the indictment.
Woods faces 15 counts of fraud, all relating to either wire or mail transfers of money. Paris and Shelton are named in 14 of the fraud charges. All three are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit fraud. Woods is also charged with one count of money laundering in connection with the purchase of a cashier’s check.
Doug Thompson can be reached by email at dthompson@nwadg. com or on Twitter @NWADoug