Pubdate: Tue, 24 May 2005
Source: Times, The  (Munster IN)
Copyright: 2005 The Munster Times
Contact:  http://www.nwitimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/832
Author: Bill Dolan

JUDGE OVERTURNS JURY VERDICT IN MONEY LAUNDERING CASE

Courts: Gary Defense Fell Victim To Vindictive Prosecution

HAMMOND -- A Gary defense lawyer won the biggest case of his life Monday 
when a federal judge overturned a jury's verdict that he was guilty of 
laundering drug money.

Attorney Jerry Jarrett was a victim of vindictive prosecution, U.S. 
District Court Judge William C. Lee ruled.

"We are elated. We are ecstatic," Bob Lewis, one of Jarrett's law 
associates, said Monday.

Lewis said it is extremely rare for a judge to overturn a jury's guilty 
verdict.

Neither U.S. Attorney Joseph Van Bokkelen nor Jarrett, who successfully 
argued for the reversal, could be reached for comment.

Lee refused a month before Jarrett's trial to declare the charges against 
Jarrett a case of vindictive prosecution. A federal jury convicted Jarrett 
on Dec. 14 of disguising drug profits as legitimate investments for two 
drug dealers for a cut of the money.

The judge had a change of heart, which he may have signaled during the 
trial by publicly questioning the credibility of the prosecution's star 
witnesses, drug dealers Carlos Ripoll and Gregory Goode.

The dealers testified Jarrett offered in the spring of 1999 to clean their 
drug profits by selling them stock in Left Filled, a business Jarrett 
started to sell convenience items for left-handed people. The dealers said 
they couldn't deposit large amounts of cash without generating suspicion.

They said Jarrett wrote them checks that appeared to be returns on their 
investment, keeping about 20 percent for himself. The government alleges 
the business had failed and only served in this case to launder money.

Lee states in his 38-page opinion that federal prosecutors had collected 
enough evidence to charge Jarrett more than five years ago, but only moved 
against him after he began successfully defending Dr. Jong Bek, a Gary 
doctor charged in state and federal court with prescribing commonly abused 
drugs to addicts for profit.

Bek dumped Jarrett after a grand jury indicted Jarrett for money laundering.

Jarrett claims he has angered state and federal prosecutors by successfully 
representing a number of criminal defendants over the years and that the 
money-laundering indictment was meant to end his career.

The Indiana Supreme Court suspended Jarrett's license to practice law March 
1. Donald Lundberg, executive secretary of the Indiana Supreme Court 
Disciplinary Commission, said Monday that the suspension will still stand 
until Jarrett cooperates with an unrelated investigation into his ethical 
practices.

The U.S. attorney's office denied Jarrett's allegation, pleading to the 
judge its money-laundering case against Jarrett didn't come together until 
2003, coincidentally at the same time Bek was indicted.

Judge Lee said he found the government's denial "to be a complete sham."

The judge added the U.S. attorney's office didn't follow its own rules of 
procedure in pressing charges against Jarrett.

"While the government has great latitude in deciding when to bring a 
federal case, it may not indict simply to remove a foe from a highly 
publicized case in which the prosecutors have suffered criticism, even if 
it has overwhelming evidence that a (money-laundering) crime has been 
committed," Lee wrote.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman