Font Size: 
Criminal Defense Lawyer Facing Drug, Money Laundering Charges 'Ready to Fight'
Charges relate to attorney J. Mark Shelnutt's representation of the leader of a drug ring
Fulton County Daily Report
May 29, 2009
Columbus, Ga., criminal defense attorney J. Mark Shelnutt says he is "ready to fight" a federal indictment that accuses him of joining in a Columbus drug conspiracy and laundering money from the drug ring whose leader he defended in federal court.
One of Shelnutt's lawyers, Charles E. Cox Jr., said Wednesday that the money laundering charges appear to stem from legal fees paid to Shelnutt by a drug dealer client.
A federal grand jury in Macon, Ga., handed down the 40-count indictment against Shelnutt, 46, on May 21 after what the lawyer, an Emory University law school graduate, described as an extended whisper campaign of rumors and grand jury leaks that sought to link him to the illicit activities of the Columbus drug ring headed by Shelnutt's client, Torrance Hill.
"There have been people talking, rumors going around," Shelnutt said in a telephone interview with the Fulton County Daily Report from his law office in Columbus. "But everything has been done in the shadows. ... You can't really fight a ghost."
But, he added, "you can fight an indictment full of bogus charges. That's what we're gearing up to do."
The indictment charges Shelnutt with conspiring to launder drug money from Hill's organization and with 31 separate money-laundering counts. He has also been accused of aiding and abetting the drug ring in its conspiracy to distribute cocaine; failing to report cash payments greater than $10,000 that were made to him; the attempted bribery with college football tickets of an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Georgia's middle district; witness tampering and three counts of making false statements to FBI agents.
The indictment comes four years after Hill -- one of several drug ring members whom Shelnutt defended -- was arrested in May 2005 during a three-year joint investigation by federal, state and local authorities. The arrest, and others that followed, broke up the drug ring and culminated in the seizure of more than 270 kilograms of cocaine, more than a ton of marijuana and more than $740,000 in cash, according to federal court pleadings.
News accounts of the arrests by the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer placed the street value of the seized drugs at more than $37 million and cited local authorities who called it the biggest drug bust in Columbus' history.
Court pleadings filed by federal prosecutors alleged that Hill was a "major distributor of illegal narcotics" in the Columbus area and supplied at least 22 other drug dealers with cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana.
Along with Atlanta criminal defense attorney Bruce S. Harvey, Shelnutt began representing Hill shortly after Hill's arrest. Hill began cooperating with the government in 2006, according to court records. In February 2007, Hill -- after pleading guilty to four drug trafficking charges -- was sentenced to 24 and a half years in federal prison.
Harvey said he has not represented Hill since the sentencing and that he has "no clue" about what prompted the federal indictment against his former co-counsel. Harvey described the witness tampering allegation, in particular, as "so f--king ridiculous it's not even worth comment."
The indictment accuses Shelnutt of collecting money owed to Hill by other members of the drug ring from three women with ties to Hill, including Hill's wife, Tamika.
It also accuses the lawyer of depositing more than $50,000 in funds he knew were derived from illicit drug sales -- in amounts smaller than $5,000, which would trigger federal reporting requirements -- in his wife's bank account between May 13, 2005 and Aug. 22, 2006.
Hill was arrested May 4, 2005. He entered his initial plea agreement on July 13, 2006.
The indictment also claims that, beginning in September 2005 after he was retained to defend Hill, Shelnutt used cash derived from drug proceeds generated by Hill's drug ring to make mortgage payments on property he owned in Florida.
The deposits and mortgage payments involving money derived from illegal drug sales are described as money-laundering in the federal indictment.
In addition, the indictment charges that Shelnutt directed a secretary at his firm to deposit $7,000 of his money (which the indictment alleges that he knew was derived from drug sales) into her personal bank account and then, later, write him a $6,500 check.
It also accuses Shelnutt of witness tampering by later attempting to "intimidate" the secretary (who is identified only by the initials "J.S.") by repeatedly telling her that the financial transaction was a "loan" -- an attempt, according to the indictment "to influence the testimony of J.S. before the federal grand jury."
The indictment also accuses Shelnutt of attempting to bribe an Assistant U.S. Attorney identified only as "M.H." by offering him "Georgia football tickets" in order "to influence his actions in the case of Torrance Hill."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Melvin E. Hyde Jr. of Columbus prosecuted Hill, according to court documents.
Finally, the indictment accuses Shelnutt of three times lying to FBI agents by telling them that Hill had not arranged for the payment of legal fees on behalf of other defendants whom Shelnutt was representing; by telling the FBI that he had given Hill's wife, Tamika, a receipt for money she had paid him; and by telling the FBI that Tamika Hill had paid him a total of $7,000.
Shelnutt was not taken into custody and, according to Cox, learned of the indictment when a reporter called him asking for comment shortly after the grand jury handed down the indictment.
"The typical practice in the Middle District, from my experience, is that indictments are sealed until the person makes their appearance in court," Cox said. "This one was handled differently."
Shelnutt is scheduled to make a first appearance on June 3 before U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Mallon Faircloth in Columbus. Shelnutt is also represented by Savannah attorney Thomas A. Withers, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in Georgia's southern district and a partner with Atlanta's Gillen, Withers & Lake.
Shelnutt would not specifically address the bulk of the allegations in the indictment, saying, "We're not going to try the case in the media."
But he singled out the bribery allegation as "absolutely ridiculous."
"I'm ready for all the facts to come out in court. I'm looking forward to my day in court. In the meantime, I'm down here practicing law as usual."
Although Shelnutt was indicted in the Middle District, he will be prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carlton R. Bourne Jr. and David M. Stewart in the Augusta offices of Georgia's Southern District because the U.S. Attorney's Office in Georgia's middle district has recused due to an unspecified conflict.
Joseph D. Newman, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for Georgia's Southern District in Savannah, would not comment as to why the Middle District recused and whether it was related to the bribery charge involving "M.H."
On Wednesday, Hyde cited unspecified conflicts as the reason why his office had recused from Shelnutt's prosecution. "Mr. Shelnutt is a very active defense attorney here in Columbus," he said. "He had a lot of casework here." Hyde declined to comment on the bribery allegation.
Hyde also said that while his office has recused from prosecuting the case against Shelnutt, a grand jury in Macon, rather than Savannah, handed down the indictment against Shelnutt. And he acknowledged that charges against some members of Hill's drug ring are still facing prosecution in the Middle District by Assistant U.S. Attorneys in Albany.
Atlanta attorney L. David Wolfe, who represented Shelnutt in the early stages of the investigation, said the allegations "don't seem to be supported by the evidence I reviewed."
On Wednesday, Cox called the government's decision to charge Shelnutt as a co-conspirator in a drug trafficking case "astounding," described the bribery charge as "preposterous" and deplored "the length to which the federal government has gone to pursue a respected and zealous criminal defense attorney."
Cox also questioned the propriety of federal prosecutors in the Middle District who are "continuing to prosecute various members of this alleged gang in their attempts to secure cooperation against [Shelnutt]. ... I don't know how they came to that decision as to how that was appropriate."
But now that the indictment is public, Cox said that Shelnutt "is now going to be able to fight this in the appropriate forum, which is in court, and that's what he intends to do very vigorously. Mark absolutely maintains his innocence."
The case is United States v. Shelnutt, No. 4:09-14 (M.D. Ga.) It has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Clay D. Land of Georgia's Middle District.
