FAYETTEVILLE -- U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks denied defense motions to dismiss the corruption case involving former state Sen. Jon Woods, R-Springdale, revealing in his court order the chief FBI investigator in the case is under investigation and may face criminal charges.
Special agent Robert Cessario had the hard drive of the computer used in investigating the Woods case wiped after being ordered to turn it over for investigation. "Agent's Cessario's actions are currently being investigated by the FBI's Office of the Inspector General," Brooks noted in Friday's ruling. "And depending on the results of that investigation, he may face criminal charges.
"But those are not the crimes that have been charged in this case. The grand jury has issued an indictment against theses defendants. The public has an interest in seeing that indictment prosecuted, just as the defendants have an interest in holding the government to its burden of proof at trial."
Earlier in the ruling, Brooks said "There may be readers of this opinion who feel that this court, by declining to dismiss the indictment, is somehow allowing Agent Cessario -- and by extension, the government -- to 'get away with' bad conduct. The court would emphasize here that it does not condone Agent Cessario's actions; it finds them reprehensible. But the public does not forfeit it's interest in seeing crime prosecuted simply because one government agent happened to engage in bad conduct along the way."
Brooks also refused a defense motion he step aside from the case, confirming a closed court hearing Jan 9 was about whether his former employment at the law firm of attorney W.H. Taylor of Fayetteville, who has represented both Woods and Cessario in the past, was raised as an issue by the defense.
Woods; Oren Paris III, president of Ecclesia College in Springdale; and consultant Randell G. Shelton Jr., formerly of Alma, are accused in a federal indictment of participating in a kickback scheme involving state grants. The Justice Department alleges Paris paid Woods and then-state Rep. Micah Neal, R-Springdale, kickbacks in return for $550,000 in grants from them to his college from 2013 through 2014.
Neal pleaded guilty to a conspiracy count Jan. 4, 2017, for his role.
Neal made secret audio recordings from March 2016 to October 2016, hoping to find more evidence and mitigate the sentence he expects to receive, according to his testimony in an earlier hearing. Neal did this without the government's encouragement or participation, according to prosecutors, but he did inform them he was doing it.
Defense attorneys for Woods and his two co-defendants asked Brooks to dismiss the case last year, arguing they never received a complete copy of Neal's recordings. They received 39 files originally and discovered gaps in the dates between recordings. They also found text messages between Neal, his attorney and Cessario referring to recordings not among the ones the defense team received.
Further investigation found 79 recordings on a computer at the office of Neal's attorney, Shane Wilkerson of Bentonville, that were given to the defense.
The discovery of the gap resulted in the U.S. attorney's office ordering Cessario to turn in the laptop for inspection. That inspection found Cessario had the hard drive erased. Cessario's role as lead investigator taints the whole case, defense attorneys argue.
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. Each is 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. Their trial is set to begin April 9.
The case involves grants from the state General Improvement Fund, which is controlled by legislators. The state Supreme Court declared the method of distribution unconstitutional in a ruling Oct. 5. The Justice Department alleges Paris paid Woods and Neal kickbacks in return for $550,000 in grants from those two legislators to his college from 2013 through 2014. Shelton is accused of using a consulting firm he owned as a way to pass along the kickbacks to Neal and Woods through consulting fees approved by Paris.
Neal pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud, admitting he took two kickbacks totaling $38,000 in exchange for directing grants to two nonprofit groups. He hasn't been sentenced.
The indictment doesn't give a total figure of what Woods is accused of receiving because portions of it were reportedly paid in cash.
All three defendants have entered not guilty pleas. They face up to 20 years in prison on the fraud and conspiracy charges, if convicted. Woods faces an additional 10 years on the money-laundering charge, if convicted.
NW News on 03/03/2018
