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FBI agent: Clay judge coached witness

Keep him in jail, prosecutor urges

By Bill Estep - bestep@herald-leader.com



LONDON ? A Clay County circuit judge charged with racketeering was also allegedly involved in coaching a witness to lie in his courtroom and in rigging the judgment in a lawsuit he presided over, a federal agent testified Monday.



FBI agent Timothy Briggs said that there are more than 100 witnesses in the case against R. Cletus Maricle, who has been charged in a vote-buying scheme, and that sources recorded conversations with Maricle during the investigation.



Although Maricle has not been charged with jury-tampering or other crimes Briggs mentioned in his testimony, they were presented as part of an argument that Maricle should be kept in jail. If he is released, there is a risk he would try to obstruct justice, perhaps by intimidating witnesses, according to the prosecutor.



"This is someone who has no regard for the rule of law," the prosecutor, Stephen C. Smith, said of Maricle.



In other testimony, Briggs said Maricle was so paranoid about being the subject of a vote-buying investigation that he thought a doorstop in his chambers was a listening device and frisked people to see whether they were wearing recorders, the agent testified.



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