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U.S. Department of Justice FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Jim Vines Samuel G. Williamson |
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FRANKLIN ATTORNEY SENTENCED TO THREE YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT FOLLOWING PLEA TO CHARGES OF ATTEMPTED EXTORTION
Nashville, TN - July 31, 2006- Jim Vines, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, My Harrison, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Memphis Division, and Chief Jackie Moore and Deputy Chief Al Segal of the Franklin Police Department announced that Chief United States District Judge Todd Campbell sentenced Walter Ray Culp, III, a Franklin attorney, to 36 months’ imprisonment as a result of his February 14, 2006 guilty plea to charges of attempted extortion. The Court also imposed a $7,500 fine and two years of supervised release, which will begin following the defendant’s release from custody.
The attempted extortion to which the defendant pled guilty involved his conduct in a lawsuit between AIM Healthcare Services and Arbor Healthcare, two companies headquartered in Williamson County, Tennessee. The defendant represented a witness in the lawsuit and attempted to sell the witness’s testimony to AIM executives. In early October 2004, the defendant approached Carl Haley, a senior executive of AIM, and requested that they meet. During a series of meetings, the defendant informed Mr. Haley that he had a client (Jason Quick) who had valuable information for AIM in its suit against Arbor. However, the defendant informed Mr. Haley that Mr. Quick would not provide this information nor testify truthfully, unless the founder of AIM, Preston Ingram, entered into a proposed cash and real property transaction that involved Mr. Ingram giving the defendant property in Williamson County and $5.385 million in cash in exchange for property the defendant owned in Perry County, Tennessee and Mr. Quick’s testimony.
When Mr. Haley inquired as to what would happen if AIM simply subpoenaed Jason Quick, the defendant stated that Quick’s memory “would go to zero.”
Mr. Ingram and other senior management at AIM agreed to cooperate with an investigation of the defendant’s conduct. As part of the cooperation, Mr. Ingram recorded two conversations that he had with the defendant. During these conversations, the defendant informed Mr. Ingram that if Mr. Ingram did not agree to the proposed cash and real property transaction, Mr. Quick would “get a real bad memory.” The defendant also indicated that Mr. Quick expected to be paid more than $3 million for his truthful testimony in the AIM-Arbor lawsuit. (In fact, Mr. Quick and the defendant had agreed that Mr. Quick would receive $200,000.) Finally, the defendant stated that the transaction must be structured as the land and cash swap, because “if my client tried to deal directly with you guys that y’all end up all goin' to jail 'cause you can't just go around buyin' testimony. I mean, that's, you just can't do it.”
As part of his factual findings, Chief Judge Campbell found that the defendant attempted to extort at least $200,000 from executives at AIM. In addition, Chief Judge Campbell enhanced the defendant’s sentence due to his abuse of a position of public trust, a finding that was based on the defendant’s use of his position as an attorney to perpetrate the attempted extortion.
Following the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Jim Vines characterized the defendant’s offense conduct as “undermining the basis of our justice system. When a lawyer uses their position to broker the sale of a witness’s testimony, it irrevocably erodes the public’s trust in our court system.” In addition, Mr. Vines thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Franklin Police Department for their work on the case, saying that “This is another great example of federal and local law enforcement officials working together to make Middle Tennessee a better and safer place.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel G. Williamson is leading the prosecution of this matter.