Pubdate: Tue, 09 Mar 2004
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
Copyright: 2004 Richmond Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://www.timesdispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/365
Author: Tom Campbell
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)

EX-TROOPER PLEADS GUILTY

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.

As for King, all other charges were dropped yesterday, including those 
arising from an accusation that - in the summer of 2002, just after the 
convictions were set aside - he tried pay one of the prosecution witnesses 
against him to say a police officer asked him to lie in court.

"We saw resolving the case this way as an opportunity to bring it to a 
close," said Matthew P. Geary, King's lawyer. "It gives him some certainty 
about what will happen. . . . We've been fighting this battle with the 
government since 1999."

Geary said the guilty plea that King made yesterday acknowledged that he 
was aware of illegal activity and did not report it.

But King had adamantly maintained from the beginning that he was not guilty 
of the drug-conspiracy charge and the multiple charges of drug-dealing and 
other misdeeds in the original prosecution case.

The original charges against King and Crutchfield were conspiracy to 
distribute cocaine, failing to report a felony and multiple other charges 
based on actions that were alleged to be part of the conspiracy.

He and Crutchfield, who also sought exoneration, were accused of providing 
protection for a drug-dealing operation run by King's nephew. The U.S. 
attorney's office alleged that they had traded drugs to crack-addicted 
women for sex, taken money and drugs from dealers and warned some dealers 
about police investigations.

The illegal activities allegedly took place over several years in the 
jurisdictions King was assigned to patrol as a state trooper. He was based 
in Brunswick County.

In November 2000, a jury convicted them both of the drug-conspiracy charge 
and King of failing to report a felony. But the jury acquitted them of the 
other counts of specific misdeeds that supported the conspiracy charge.

Payne, in April 2001, sentenced King to 15 years and 8 months in prison and 
Crutchfield to 12 years and 7 months. A year later, Geary went to court 
seeking a new trial on evidence that King's nephew and other key witnesses 
had perjured themselves.

In the summer of 2002, Payne set aside that conviction and ordered a new 
trial. Payne's decision was affirmed by the federal appeals court in July 
last year.

Geary said he and King hope Payne will sentence King to the time he has 
already served in prison. That's about 25 months, Geary said, based on his 
calculations and information from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Failure to 
report a felony carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison.

King has been free on bond, with restrictions, since the end of 2002.

Geary said King is starting a trucking business by himself that will do 
mostly short-haul trucking within Virginia.

"Marshall's doing really well now," Geary said yesterday. "He's back with 
his family, and they are all doing really well."
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