Legal News

Nope to Dope! Feds Request Dismissal of Nicholas Drug Charges

By Ashby Jones

Missteps by federal prosecutors have become so common in recent months that it’s become tough to identify why a white-collar defendant gets off. Is it good lawyering or just another muff by the government?

Regardless, we figure Broadcom co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III owes his team at Williams & Connolly — led by heavyweight defense lawyer Brendan Sullivan — a steak dinner. Or a few big kisses. Or at least the courtesy of paying his bill on time.

The news: Federal prosecutors late Thursday asked Santa Ana, Calif., federal judge Cormac Carney to dismiss the government’s last remaining set of charges against Nicholas — drug-distribution charges. The decision that comes a month after the same judge threw out accounting-fraud charges against Nicholas and Broadcom’s former chief financial officer. Click here for the story from the Orange County Register; here for the two-page filing; here and here for LB posts from last month on Carney’s dismissal of the fraud charges.

Reads the government’s filing:

On December 15, 2009, the Court ordered, among other things, dismissal of the criminal fraud case against DR. HENRY T. NICHOLAS, III. At that time, the Court scheduled a hearing on February 2, 2010 for the government to show cause whether the above-captioned case charging DR. NICHOLAS with narcotics-related offenses should proceed in light of the Court's December 15, 2009 ruling. As the government has previously stated, it disagrees with the Court's findings and rulings in the fraud case. Nevertheless, in light of the Court's rulings, pursuant to Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the government hereby moves to dismiss the indictment against defendant HENRY T. NICHOLAS, III in the narcotics case.

Fair enough, though we’d have preferred a bit more explication from the part of the government, especially in light of the fact that it said in a separate filing that it intends to appeal Carney’s dismissals of the backdating case against Nicholas and the conviction of Broadcom’s other co-founder, Henry Samueli.

John Potter, Nicholas’ lawyer on the drug case, declined to comment to the OC Register. Gordon Greeberg, Samueli’s attorney, couldn’t be reached.

The backdating and drug indictments against Nicholas were made public in June 2008. The government accused Nicholas of hiring prostitutes and escorts for himself, employees and customers, and of slipping ecstasy into the drinks of business associates.

Nicholas, the government contended, built an underground lair and tunnel beneath his Laguna Hills house – one of several places he built to distribute and use drugs, according to the indictment. The government alleged Nicholas doled out drugs on a private flight from Orange County to Las Vegas in 2001, “causing marijuana smoke and fumes to enter the cockpit and requiring the pilot flying the plane to put on an oxygen mask,” the indictment said.

Nicholas always denied the allegations.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 08, 2010 (boomark / email).