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Ga. Lawyer Jailed for Alleged Escape Plot for Client
Prosecutors say William Keenan gave his armed robbery client a 14-inch pruning saw blade
Fulton County Daily Report
July 06, 2007
A Douglas County, Ga., grand jury has indicted a Georgia lawyer with at least 28 years of experience on allegations that he gave a weapon to a client awaiting trial in the county jail.
The indictment charges William P. Keenan with furnishing a dangerous weapon to an inmate and conspiracy to commit escape, both felonies. Prosecutors say that on Feb. 22 Keenan gave a client facing armed robbery charges a 14-inch pruning saw blade.
According to the indictment, Keenan first gave his client Dareon Varner a photograph of the saw blade as requested by Varner. A separate indictment of Varner says that Varner obtained a diagram of the area outside the jail so as to map out an escape route -- although the indictments do not say Keenan helped Varner get that.
Keenan is incarcerated, according to his lawyer, Frank C. Winn of Douglasville, Ga. Winn declined to comment on Keenan's response or defense to the charges.
According to the clerk's office of the Douglas County Superior Court, Keenan's case is next up for a calendar call Aug. 16 and is on a crowded trial calendar for the week of Aug. 20. On June 20, a jury convicted Varner on charges of armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime; sentencing in that case is set for next week.
Charges of attempted escape and possession of a weapon by an inmate remain pending against Varner. Varner's new lawyer, Jason W. Swindle of Drummond & Swindle in Carrollton, Ga., said that his client had entered a not guilty plea to those charges and that he expects a trial sometime this summer.
Keenan has been a member of the Georgia Bar since 1979 and has no public bar disciplinary history. He attended the University of Georgia School of Law.
Winn said that Keenan has had law offices in Atlanta and Albany, Ga. While Keenan's current bar directory entry lists an Albany address, recent court opinions show him as practicing in Atlanta.
Those opinions include medical malpractice and premises liability cases, with Keenan representing both plaintiffs and defendants.
In a Dougherty County case decided by the state Court of Appeals in April 2004, Keenan was on the team of lawyers who represented the estate of a convenience store customer shot and killed during an armed robbery in the estate's case against the store. The court ruled for Keenan's client.
The previous year, the same court ruled in another premises liability matter where Keenan counseled the plaintiff, a rape victim who sued in Fulton County the owner of an abandoned church building near the site of her attack. The court ruled against Keenan's client.
Douglas County District Attorney J. David McDade, the prosecutor on the case against Keenan, is making headlines nationwide for his prosecution of Genarlow Wilson.
Wilson is challenging the 10-year mandatory sentence he received for what's been called voluntary oral sex that a 15-year-old girl performed on him at a party when he was 17.
McDade could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
