John Wiley Price Ordered to Pay Lawyers for Successful Defense
In a sense, John Wiley Price is getting back all that cash the feds seized from his safe in 2011. It isn't being turned over to the government as part of civil forfeiture proceeding, so Price is entitled to it.
He's not really getting it back, though. Not after U.S. Magistrate Judge Renee H. Toliver ruled Monday that Price needs to pay about $450,000 to the court-appointed attorneys who defended him against a litany of federal corruption charges earlier this year.
Federal agents seized more than $150,000 in cash from a safe in Price's house near Lake Cliff during a 2011 search and more than $230,000 in 2011 and 2012 from his sale of property along Grady Niblo Road in southwest Dallas County. In 2014, when Price was arrested, agents confiscated $2,250 that was in the commissioner's pocket, as well. The seizures contributed to the fact that Price couldn't afford to pay for his defense, leading U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn to appoint Price's defense team.
In April, a federal jury acquitted Price on bribery charges and could not reach a verdict on accusations that he failed to pay taxes on about $1 million in income he allegedly received during a decadelong federal investigation. After his acquittal, Price's attorneys sought to have that money returned to the long-serving Dallas County commissioner.
Read more: http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-countys-price-is-going-to-have-to-pay-his-lawyers-9647072
Related Article: Lawyers for Price Cost a Fortune, but That Fortune Was Well Spent
http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/price-fain-federal-trial-a-lesson-in-money-and-justice-9658785