Friday, January 28, 2011

NVDaily.com THOMSON'SLAWYERS SEEK CASE DISMISSAL; 2/14 HEARING SET


Thomson's lawyers seek case dismissal; Feb. 14 hearing set


http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2011/01/defense-claims-feds-mishandled-informant.php

By Alex Bridges -- abridges@nvdaily.com

HARRISONBURG -- A judge may rule next month whether to dismiss federal drug and tampering charges against embattled Winchester attorney Paul H. Thomson.

Thomson's attorneys, John P. Flannery II and J. Benjamin Dick, have accused federal prosecutors of misconduct in the handling of an informant authorities used to levy an indictment against the former Winchester commonwealth's attorney. Authorities have charged Thomson with two counts of witness tampering and one count each of evidence tampering, conspiracy to tamper with evidence, altering documents to influence a federal investigation and misdemeanor cocaine possession.

Judge James P. Jones scheduled a hearing for Feb. 14 to address the defense motions filed late Wednesday afternoon with the U.S. District Court in Charlottesville.

The defense also has asked the court to disqualify Assistant U.S. Attorney Grayson Hoffman as well as his supervisory and associate counsel "for prosecutorial misconduct."

The defense states Hoffman and Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeb Terrien "encouraged and suffered false and misleading statements in court pleadings and ... misused a public defender in their 'investigation.'" The prosecutors also made themselves potential witnesses, should the case proceed, by handling an informant in a "highly questionable manner," the motion states. Terrien and his cooperating colleagues must recuse themselves from the case as a result of this conflict, according to the defense attorneys.

"Not only was this 'investigation' a case study in the impermissible excess of prosecutorial zeal, these same prosecutors, both Messrs. Hoffman and Terrien, are still handling this case, and one or both of them presented this case to the grand jury against Mr. Thomson," the defense argues. "We respectfully insist that these Assistants may not appear to prosecute a matter when they have been inextricably involved in the investigation, playing a role, indeed donning more hats than is constitutionally permissible even under the most cavalier sufferance of prosecutorial extravagance."

Thomson's attorneys leveled sharp criticism against the prosecutors' involvement in the investigation.

"We respectfully submit this is a wrongful usurpation of the law in a manner and fashion that may be unprecedented when one considers the alternative legal investigative means ordinarily available and appropriate to conduct a righteous investigation," the defense attorneys state.

Flannery and Dick cite the government's use of Oscar Alberto Salvatierra-Jovel as an informant. Salvatierra-Jovel had retained Thomson as his legal counsel for a short time before the attorney's arrest and indictment.

Salvatierra-Jovel, in an interview after his arrest, but without an attorney present, implicated Thomson in drug use but, "afterwards told a third party witness, 'They are threatening my family,'" the defense states. Salvatierra-Jovel later admitted he did not witness drug use firsthand, the motion states.

The defense argues prosecutors manipulated Salvatierra-Jovel's appointed attorney in the federal case, Frederick Heblich, to steer Thomson into taking over as the defendant's legal counsel. Thomson switched with Heblich per a court order Dec. 10.

Hoffman and Terrien, prosecutors of the Salvatierra-Jovel case, currently represent the government in the prosecution of Thomson.

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