By JAY CONLEY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

Archives Reprint

   Federal fraud charges against Richard Burrow may have moved one step closer to dismissal Wednesday when a federal judge ruled that Burrow's retrial must begin within the next 10 days or the case will be dismissed.

    That means federal prosecutors would have to start a retrial of the former president of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation by March 28. If that doesn't happen, Senior U.S. District Judge James Turk will dismiss mail, wire, bank and loan application charges against Burrow "without prejudice."

    Such a dismissal would not necessarily be a complete victory for Burrow, however. Prosecutors would have until the federal statute of limitations expires to reindict him. That time limit won't be up until 2006.

    Whether there is a trial or a dismissal, Burrow's defense attorney, John Lichtenstein, said Turk's ruling satisfies Burrow's interest in moving the case toward a conclusion.

    "We are very pleased one way or another that it is going to be resolved," Lichtenstein said.

    He said he hopes prosecutors won't go forward with a retrial, and that Burrow is aware that he could be re-indicted on the charges if there is a dismissal.

    "A dismissal without prejudice is still a dismissal," Lichtenstein said.

    U.S. Attorney John Brownlee, a major in the U.S. Army Reserve who is stationed at at Fort Eustis in Newport News, said it was too soon to tell if prosecutors will schedule a retrial.

    "I need to talk with the guys and see if, quite frankly, we can be ready to go to trial" in 10 days, he said.

    Burrow could not be reached for comment.

    It has been three months since Burrow's December trial on fraud charges, which stemmed from his raising millions of dollars for construction of the Bedford monument.

    Turk ruled at the end of the trial that there was insufficient evidence that Burrow defrauded the foundation. He declared a mistrial after the jury deadlocked 7-5 in favor of acquitting Burrow on charges he defrauded banks and the state of Virginia.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Hogeboom filed a motion to continue the case Feb. 14. One reason he cited was the government is still waiting for transcripts of the testimony from some witnesses at the trial.

    In his response to Hogeboom's motion, Lichtenstein moved to have the cased dismissed.

    Lichtenstein argued in court Monday that prosecutors violated the Speedy Trial Act by not setting a trial date within 70 days of the mistrial. In a ruling released Wednesday, Turk wrote that prosecutors had not violated the Speedy Trial Act, because Hogeboom's Feb. 14 motion was filed 10 days before the deadline expired. The Speedy Trial clock stopped ticking when the government filed the motion, the judge said.

    But the judge also wrote that the problems prosecutors are having in deciding whether to retry Burrow are insignificant compared to "the defendant's and the public's interest in a speedy trial."

    The judge denied Hogeboom's motion for a continuance, citing the case's negative effect on the D-Day Memorial as another reason to move forward with the case.

    Instead, he ruled the case must start within the 10 days remaining under the Speedy Trial Act.

    Burrow "cannot live a normal life until the government makes a definitive determination concerning retrial," Turk wrote. "Until Mr. Burrow's guilt or innocence has been proven and the case concluded, the attendant uncertainty can only do harm to the foundation."

    Bob Slaughter, a D-Day veteran who spearheaded the idea of creating the $25 million memorial in Bedford and helped hire Burrow, was upset that Turk didn't dismiss the case.

    "I don't understand it. I really don't," said Slaughter. "Gosh, here we are getting ready to go to war and we've got all these other things to do. If Richard was a crook, it would be one thing. But he's not."

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