Timeline of Woods case

Former state Sen. Jon Woods of Springdale was convicted Thursday on fraud charges. Woods took kickbacks from Oren Paris III, president of Ecclesia College in Springdale, in return for directing state grants to the college. Randell Shelton Jr., of Kemp, Texas, was also convicted of fraud for being the middleman who passed the bribes to Woods through his consulting firm in return for a share.

The following timeline is based on federal court records, records from the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District and reporting by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

2017

• Jan. 4: Former state Rep. Micah Neal of Springdale pleads guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud.

• March 1: Woods, Shelton and Paris indicted.

• April 19: U.S. attorney files revised indictment removing and adding additional wire fraud charges against Woods, Paris and Shelton.

• April 24: Paris files motion requesting a separate trial. The request is denied.

• May 23: Remarks at a pretrial hearing reveal the federal investigation is still underway and more indictments are expected.

• July 31: Woods asks judge to disallow secret audio recordings made by Neal.

• Sept. 8: Judge rules secret audio recordings Neal made of conversations with Woods can be used at trial. Paris files motion to keep from evidence any incriminating statements Woods made to prosecutors while he was cooperating with them. The motion is later denied.

• Sept. 13: A second revised indictment is filed against Woods, Paris and Shelton, adding a count of conspiracy to commit fraud.

• Sept. 27: Defense complains at hearing that government provided its evidence in 4.3 million computer files with no usable format.

• Sept. 29: Government replies to computer dispute saying the files can be searched using a program that can be downloaded for free.

• Nov. 3: Judge rules government provided defense more information than law requires; that it did so in a timely manner; and it was in a usable format.

• Nov. 30: Judge rejects Woods' motion to delay the trial because his defense attorneys has not had time to thoroughly review the government's evidence.

• Dec. 1: Judge delays trial after 79 additional audio recordings, secretly made by Neal and not provided to the defense, are discovered.

• Dec. 18: Defense files renewed motion to dismiss, attaching a government letter disclosing the laptop with copies of Neal's secret audio recordings has been erased by FBI agent Robert Cessario.

2018

• Jan. 10: Woods calls his former attorney W.H. Taylor to testify at hearing in judge's chambers about information Taylor shared with the government after he no longer represented Woods.

• Feb. 15: Government tells judge it doesn't believe Cessario's stated reason for erasing his laptop.

• March 2: Judge denies motions to dismiss the case from Woods, Paris and Shelton. Brooks also rules the Neal audio recordings cannot be used at trial and Cessario cannot testify for the government.

• March 20: Appeals court refuses to hear appeal of Brooks' refusal to dismiss the case.

• April 4: Paris pleads guilty to one count of wire fraud. This is a conditional plea that will be dropped if an appeal to have the case dismissed is successful.

• April 9: Trial for Woods and Shelton begins.

Metro on 05/04/2018