22 MAY 09: Shelnutt's Top 40
Well, well - the rumors were true. At least about what a federal grand jury in Macon has been doing. Muscogee County District Attorney Julia Slater did NOT go there simply to find another prosecutor to take her conflicted cases.
A federal grand jury in Macon indicted Columbus attorney Mark Shelnutt Thursday on 40 counts. They range from money laundering to cocaine conspiracy. Three of the counts accuse Shelnutt of making "false statements" -- but really now, don't most defense lawyers have to do that during closing arguments from time to time?
The 13-page indictment makes accusations against Mark Shelnutt we hadn't heard before. For instance, he's accused of attempting to bribe an assistant federal prosecutor by offering him Georgia football tickets. The indictment calls them "a thing of value" -- so I'm assuming it was NOT for a game against Louisiana-Lafayette.
District Attorney Julia Slater could have a role in several counts of the indictment. Mark Shelnutt is charged with directing someone identified only as "J.S." to put $7,000 from a defendant in a personal bank account in 2006. Of course, Josh Smith of the Atlanta Hawks could give this trial more pizzazz....
Based on my reading of the indictment, that $7,000 apparently wound up in the bank account of Shelnutt's law office secretary. Then the secretary reportedly wrote a personal check for $6,500 back to Shelnutt. So where do you think that extra $500 went - to Peachtree Mall or a day spa?
The indictment accuses Mark Shelnutt of "witness tampering" with J.S., by claiming several times last summer the $7,000 was a loan when it really wasn't. Shelnutt reportedly did this "with the intent to influence the testimony of J.S. before the federal grand jury." I will resist the temptation to make a joke connecting J.S. with B.S....
(I suppose this means Mark Shelnutt will NOT be able to have former law firm partner Julia Slater as his attorney in federal court. He'll have to find some other high-powered attorney - and this could be the biggest case of Ken Nugent's career.)
Most of the counts against Mark Shelnutt involve his work for federal drug suspect Torrance Hill. He's accused of hiding cocaine and drug money, with some of the money reportedly going to pay an expensive mortgage on land Shelnutt owns in Florida. If the indictment is accurate, Shelnutt may have to retire there -- after an all-expenses-paid trip to prison.
The federal indictment claims 11 times between 2005 and 2007, Mark Shelnutt made mortgage payments in Florida which were partly in cash. The indictment alleges the cash really was drug money. Either that, or Shelnutt found the most expensive poker games in Columbus.
F.B.I. agents reportedly visited Mark Shelnutt's law office Thursday, after the indictment was unsealed. It's not clear if they removed any possible evidence - you know, like a Rolodex with Julia Slater's private cell phone number in it.
Mark Shelnutt was NOT arrested after the indictment was unsealed. He'll apparently be a free man until his first court appearance 3 June. After that, who knows - Shelnutt might wind up moving in with some of his old clients.
Mark Shelnutt talked with reporters about the indictment late Thursday. He told WRBL he looks forward to going to court and winning. But it's a shame this is a federal case, where TV cameras normally aren't allowed. That means we won't get to see a full-press court.
We still have two key audio clips posted online from late last year, relating to the Mark Shelnutt case [10 Dec 08 and 15 Dec 08]. They come from a DVD a tipster quietly left at our front door. We didn't hear from that tipster about the indictment Thursday - perhaps because this time we actually were awake in the middle of the day.
-> How are the Thursday night poker games going? Sometimes things get wild. Read about it at our other blog, "On the Flop!" <--
E-MAIL UPDATE: Perhaps this also should be labeled a "Big Prediction"....
Is this really Columbus,GA in late may,cool and breezy or did I fall down the rabbit hole? I bet we pay for it in mid July when the weather hits the 100 mark and the humidity reaches 99%
No, this is Columbus -- where the high Thursday was only 71 degrees F. You have NOT moved to San Francisco. If you had, the AIDS candlelight memorial last weekend would have filled the Civic Center.
We've had some cool late May days in the past. I recall one in the late 1990s, when a man called to report a wildcat strike. A group of outside workers wanted to light a fire barrel, and their boss wouldn't allow it. Then again, maybe this was a liberal boss who was trying to prevent global warming.
The two murder cases in the Columbus news Thursday were nothing to joke about. But we found other interesting news....
+ Josh McKoon confirmed to the late-night news he's running for the State Senate seat Seth Harp is giving up. But isn't McKoon going to have to do more, beyond simply moving to Harp's district? An opponent will note his Phenix City law office, and accuse him of being on both sides of the water issue.
+ School-by-school results were announced for this year's CRCT exam. Amazingly, 77 percent of the fifth-graders at Rigdon Road Elementary failed the math test. Talk about a sea change! This wouldn't have happened if Phyllis Jones was still the principal - with all that mysterious extra money for buying class road trips and bicycles.
(Middle school math students also had troubles. About two-thirds of the eighth-graders at Baker, Marshall and Rothschild all hath to take the math CRCT a second time this week - so clearly something doesn't add up here.)
+ The United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley announced its allocations for the coming year. Contact Helpline will receive nothing, because the office computer crashed at the deadline to file a request for funds. Some of us would have been smart enough to go to OfficeMax with a bottle of liquid paper, to make photocopies of last year's forms.
+ Fort Benning gave reporters a tour of new buildings under construction for base realignment. An officer said the relocations are "disturbing 20,000 acres" of land. And here I thought a live-fire exercise with heavy tanks would disturb every square inch of land on post.
(I didn't realize until WRBL mentioned it that Fort Benning only has two generals. BRAC will double that number to four - which meant a couple of majors won't feel any more pressure in golf foursomes.)
+ The Jonesboro, Georgia mayor fired the police chief, because the chief wore blue jeans on the job. Mayor Luther Maddox wants the chief to wear a police uniform, instead of a coat and tie. In a related note, all undercover investigations in Jonesboro now will focus on Baptist churches and country clubs.
+ Georgia Tech was eliminated from the Atlantic Coast Conference baseball tournament, after only two games. Thursday's loss was embarrassing -- 7-3 to Boston College. I thought the only people who cared about baseball in Boston were spending $500 a ticket to watch the Red Sox.
+ Instant Message to Muscogee County's graduating high school seniors: Have a safe and fun celebration this weekend. And don't overlook that card the school board stuffed alongside your diploma - so you register to vote in time for the September sales tax referendum.
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