Federal charge carries up to 5 years

By Larry Fisher-Hertz
Poughkeepsie Journal

WHITE PLAINS -- Poughkeepsie attorney Donald Roth and private investigator David St. John were convicted Thursday on federal conspiracy charges.

The jury deliberated for almost 18 hours Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday and Thursday before deciding Roth and St. John had tried to convince an informant to lie to federal authorities to shield Roth's clients from prosecution in a 2001 Newburgh drug case.

Roth, 34, and St. John, 50, a former Dutchess County sheriff's deputy who lives in Millerton, were convicted on charges of conspiracy to tamper with a federal witness and to obstruct justice. They face prison terms of up to five years. A felony conviction also carries with it automatic disbarment.

Judge Stephen C. Robinson presided over the two-month trial.

Attorneys representing Roth and St. John, Lawrence Hochheiser and William Aronwald, had contended throughout the trial their clients were merely gathering information to defend Roth's clients and had never tried to convince the federal informant, Charles ''Flip'' Melvin, to lie.

Signing false affidavits

But Melvin and Roth's clients, Raymond Bryant and Tim Cherry, all testified Roth and St. John had talked to them about having Melvin sign a false affidavit swearing he had never engaged in drug dealing with Bryant and Cherry.

Federal prosecutors introduced evidence during the trial that Roth and St. John had used the same tactics -- having witnesses sign affidavits recanting statements they had made to police -- to help another client, Antonio Bryant, avoid prosecution for murder in a fatal shooting in Newburgh.

The witnesses testified after they had told police they had seen Bryant shoot a man in the back, they took back those statements in affidavits prepared by Roth and St. John.

After the witnesses recanted, Orange County prosecutors dropped second-degree murder charges against Bryant. They agreed to allow him to plead guilty to manslaughter and receive a five-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors also introduced evidence Roth had on several occasions billed Dutchess County for more than 24 hours of work in a single day for representing indigent clients. Assistant U.S. Attorney Glen Colton said the evidence regarding the murder case and Roth's billing practices had been introduced in an attempt to demonstrate for the jury Roth's apparent disregard for honorable behavior.

''This lawyer crossed the line,'' Colton told the six-man, six-woman jury in his 2 1/2-hour summation Monday.

Lawyers for Roth and St. John contended throughout the trial that most of the witnesses who testified against their clients could not be trusted to tell the truth because they were convicted felons who were being offered sentence reductions in exchange for their testimony.