The federal appeals court in Richmond yesterday vacated the drug-trafficking convictions of Dr. William E. Hurwitz and ordered a new trial for the physician who specialized in treating pain. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the trial judge, Senior U.S. District Judge Leonard D. Wexler of Alexandria, should not have instructed the jury that it must not consider whether Hurwitz acted in good faith in prescribing large doses of OxyContin and other painkillers. The instructions allowed the jurors to consider good faith only on two fraud counts. [continues 303 words]
The four major localities in the greater Richmond area are being added to the federal Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, putting drug-fighting law enforcement here in line for hundreds of thousands of dollars. "This is terrific news for law enforcement in the Richmond area," said Paul J. McNulty, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. "Interstate 95, the main north-south artery on the East Coast, runs through greater Richmond," he said. "It is a hub for moving drugs from Miami and Atlanta to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York." [continues 220 words]
The Abuse And Manufacture Of Methamphetamines Grow, Leading To Tougher Proposals Law officers and prosecutors from across the state gathered in Richmond yesterday to learn more about how to quell the growth of methamphetamine manufacturing and trafficking in Virginia. The Methamphetamine Leadership Summit was sponsored at the Greater Richmond Convention Center by the state's two U.S. attorneys, Paul J. McNulty of the Eastern District and John L. Brownlee of the Western District, and by Virginia Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore. [continues 255 words]
Admits He Failed To Report Drug Dealer; Other Counts Dropped; Co-Defendant Still Faces Trial Former state trooper Marshall Lewis King, who won a new trial after being convicted on drug-conspiracy charges, pleaded guilty yesterday to failing to report a drug dealer he knew about. King pleaded to one count of misprision of a felony and is scheduled for sentencing May 27 by U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne. King and Bruno Lewis Crutchfield, a former police officer in Brodnax, were scheduled for a new trial March 23. Crutchfield's status had not changed yesterday. [continues 484 words]
Ex-State Trooper Also To Face Drug Charges Again At New Trial Federal prosecutors have filed new drug-conspiracy and related charges against former law officers Marshall L. King and Bruno L. Crutchfield, whose first convictions were set aside because of perjury allegations. The superseding indictment charges King, a former state trooper, with conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine, four counts of failing to report a felony and two counts of obstructing justice. Crutchfield, the former police chief of Brodnax, is charged with the same crack-conspiracy count and one count of failing to report a felony. [continues 384 words]
3 Fulton Hill Hustlers Convicted On All Counts Tension building up in the courtroom since last week between relatives of the Fulton Hill Hustlers defendants and those of the drug gang's victims erupted as trial verdicts came in late yesterday afternoon. Guilty on all counts, the jury decided. Two women on the defendants' side of the courtroom wept loudly and a man angrily stormed from U.S. District Court as the verdicts were read. Then, after the judge adjourned court and the audience started to file out, Robert Bradby, using expletives, shouted from the gallery to defendant Marcus Johnson a hope that he rot in jail. [continues 564 words]
The Fulton Hill Hustlers drug-racketeering and conspiracy case that federal prosecutors say clears six metropolitan Richmond murders from the middle 1990s opened yesterday in U.S. District Court. All but three of more than a dozen original defendants have pleaded guilty. Marcus "Pep" Johnson, Angelo "Peedie" Irving and Corey "Popeye" Murchison are facing a jury. Some of their convicted co-defendants will be testifying for the prosecution in the trial, which is scheduled to run through next week. The prosecution case holds that Johnson is responsible for three killings and Irving for one, among other violent acts that are alleged in the indictment as part of the racketeering charges. Murchison is accused of drug-trafficking conspiracy. [continues 294 words]
Mobile Station To Use Three Sites Three Petersburg houses seized from a drug dealer will become sites for a mobile police station to put more officers in blighted and crime-troubled areas of the city. Deeds to the three properties were transferred yesterday from the U.S. government to the city of Petersburg in a ceremony led by Paul J. McNulty, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. The transfer of the three properties forfeited by Hassan J. Llewellyn - now serving 24 years in prison - was done under the federal Weed and Seed Initiative. [continues 202 words]
Paul J. McNulty, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, on Thursday handed over nearly $100,000 taken from criminals - money that will be used in fighting more criminals. McNulty presented checks to the Virginia State Police and the Virginia attorney general's office. The state police got $62,000 and the attorney general's office $37,500, McNulty said. The money was forfeited through federal cases in which the two agencies participated. The $62,000 was part of $300,000 in cash seized in a major drug case centered in Newport News. [continues 58 words]
16 SUSPECTS IN CUSTODY IN COCAINE CASE FBI agents and local police forces made arrests this week under an indictment charging 18 people from Surry and Isle of Wight counties with conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. By last night, 16 of the accused were in custody and 14 of them had made their initial appearance in U.S. District Court here before Magistrate Judge Dennis W. Dohnal. Two more were still at large. At least three of the defendants surrendered to police after the arrests began Monday, authorities said. The alleged activities go back several years and the investigation was aided by still-unnamed cooperating witnesses who authorities say bought illegal drugs from many of the defendants. [continues 346 words]
A native of Colombia is scheduled to stand trial in Henrico County next month on charges that he smuggled 2 kilograms of heroin on a Miami-to-New York Amtrak train. But the man's lawyers say a federal judge in Richmond should stop the prosecution because it is based on evidence that was already thrown out of federal court. U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne will hear arguments June 1 from lawyers with the Virginia attorney general's office and lawyers for defendant John Londono, who is also known as John Jairo Londono Rivera. [continues 735 words]
Federal Judge Denies Her Appeal In Drug Case A federal judge in Norfolk last week denied the appeal seeking a new trial or sentence reduction for Smith, the 27-year-old former debutante from middle-class Glen Allen who is serving a quarter-century term in federal prison In his Aug. 4 opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Robert G. Doumar called her part in the drug trafficking conspiracy "direct and extensive" and said the trial and sentencing procedures were correct. [continues 658 words]
