Legal News

Family of Slain Lawyer Robert Wone Sues, Alleging Cover-up

By Jennifer Forsyth

The mysterious death of Robert Wone, general counsel for Radio Free Asia and a former associate at Covington & Burling, becomes more mysterious with time. Wone was found stabbed to death in a Washington, D.C., apartment where he was visiting three friends in 2006. The Dupont Circle townhouse was owned by Joseph Price, a partner at Washington D.C.’s Arent Fox who is on administrative leave.

On Tuesday, Wone’s widow filed a $20 million lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court, alleging that the three friends, Price, Dylan M. Ward and Victor J. Zaborsky, concealed evidence and lied to police in a cover-up. Here’s the WaPo story on the suit and previous LB posts on Wone’s death are here and here. Benjamin J. Razi, the attorney for the Wone family, told the WaPo that the suit was “another step in the effort to seek justice” in the slaying of a family member. (The Wone family also has been represented by Covington’s Eric Holder, Jr., President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee for Attorney General.)

According to the WaPo, Wone’s widow, Katherine, said in the wrongful death suit that within days of her husband’s killing, the three housemates visited the Wones’ home in Oakton, Va. She and other relatives pressed them for details about what happened the night Wone died, but the men replied that they did not know. They later told police, according to the affidavit, that an unknown “intruder” entered the house.

The civil suit was filed on the same day that Ward was arraigned on an obstruction of justice charge in connection with the investigation. Price and Zaborsky were arraigned last week on the same charge. (Click here to see the ABA Journal’s story on Price’s indictment.) Price’s attorney, Bernard Grimm, told the WaPo that the timing of the civil suit looked unseemly and that he believed that the prosecutors and the Wone family’s attorney were acting in concert.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on November 26, 2008 (boomark / email).