Before handing down a 14-year sentence on high-flying New York lawyer Robert Simels for witness tampering in the Roger Khan case, Judge John Gleeson yesterday told him he had to be punished for his criminal act and said it would have been dereliction of duty had the government not investigated him.
The judge noted that Simels’ conviction “sent shivers” down the bar and referred to the more than a dozen letters he received in Simels’ favour. He pointed out however that the lawyer, who has been disbarred, committed a crime and he must be punished.
And while Simels has received a “severe” punishment for his crime his former associate, Arianne Irving who was convicted on three of the counts of the 12-count indictment, had her August conviction overturned by the same judge early yesterday morning, hours before she was scheduled to be sentenced.
Irving can count herself lucky – her lawyer had filed a motion to have the conviction overturned two months ago – as it is believed that it is about one in every 10,000 that a conviction is overturned.
Before he was sentenced Simels’ lawyer in a last ditch manoeuvre asked the judge to defer sentencing in light of his decision to overturn Irving’s conviction so that they could review the motion filed by Irving but the judge gave a terse “No” and told them to move on.
Simels will however get to spend the holidays with his family as the judge told him to surrender to federal authorities on January 8, 2010 but he remains under house arrest.
It was a more subdued Simels who left the court holding his wife’s hand last evening as prior to the beginning of his case he strutted around the court room as if he had no care in the world, shaking hands and planting kisses on the cheeks of many of the lawyers who turned up to witness his sentencing.
His sentencing, which was done in a packed court room, brought the curtains down on a case that has riveted the attention of the Guyanese public as it has seen evidence in court that has linked the government to drug trafficker Roger Khan.
A 12-member jury in a Brooklyn courtroom had returned a guilty verdict for Simels and Irving. The high-profile lawyer and his assistant were caught on tape plotting to silence witnesses against Khan. The verdict had followed two weeks of explosive testimony from witnesses including a professed member of Khan’s “Phantom Squad”, Selwyn Vaughn.
He tied the government to Khan’s activities, which included ordering the murder of activist Ronald Waddell and others. Testimony implicated Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy as being knowledgeable of these matters. He was also identified as the government official who met with Khan and facilitated the purchase of the spy equipment he used to carry out surveillance here. Ramsammy and the government have denied the allegations and the minister has dared his accusers to prove otherwise.
Judge Gleeson sentenced Simels to 168 months on nine of the charges and 60 months on a number charge but ordered that they run concurrently. On the two other charges, which had to do with the importation of Khan’s infamous spy equipment, the judge sentenced him to one month probation. He said he could not understand why the prosecution charged him with that offence as he was only “endeavoring to get his hands on the equipment to defend his client. For the life of me I can’t understand why you brought those charges.”
The judge also fined Simels US$2,500 on each of the nine charges even though his lawyer attempted to prove that he was not in a position to pay. But prosecutor Morris Foderman told the court that the convict had about US$4.5M in assets.
‘Broken man’
Prior to the sentencing, Simels’ lawyer Gerald Shargel told the judge that his client’s sentence should be significantly less than what Khan received and indicated that the judge had a lot of information that the former lawyer was “a good and decent man, a good father and husband… It is a tragic day for him and his family.”
“Mr Simels today is a broken man,” the lawyer said adding his client had been a criminal lawyer and a prosecutor who loved the law and loved being a lawyer as he requested the judge to be lenient.
When it was his turn to speak Simels apologized to his wife and her family telling the judge he stood before him a different man from what he was when he was charged with the offence, one who has lost whatever self esteem and self worth he had along with the reputation he built up.
“I know as I look in the mirror I am responsible for where I am… but it is not just me who would suffer,” he said as he went on to tell the judge how the case has affected the grades of his 15-year-old honour student daughter and how much it hurt him to hear his eight-year-old son talk about being taunted in school because of his [Simels’] actions. His wife, who he said has been the love of his life, has had her life turned upside down and she not only has to now support the family but also be a father and mother.
In response Foderman told the court that the circumstances of the case demand that Simels receive a severe sentence adding that from the beginning of the case Simels has offered a number of excuses one of which was he used the wrong words when he was talking to star witness Vaughn. The prosecutor said Simels’ only aim was to selfishly win at all cause and be paid.
He also noted the number of letters written to the court by lawyers in Simels’ defence which also offered excuses for his actions. Foderman said if there is any confusion on the part of some defence lawyers about Simels’ criminal act then a severe sentence would send a strong message.
“This was not an accident or reckless behaviour or a momentary lapse of judgment on his part. He knew better, has been a lawyer for thirty-five-years on both sides and should have known better,” Foderman said.
And Judge Gleeson, having the final say, said he had to keep reminding himself that Simels was a criminal lawyer who must not benefit or be punished for that fact. He noted he received letters in Simels’ defence from people he knew and it pained his heart. He said it was good that Simels wrote him a letter but stated that it was more than a failure of judgment when he dealt with Vaughn as he was comfortably instructing the witness to lie in the witness box and for him to bribe another potential witness
He said if the lawyers who supported Simels took the time to study the evidence in the case they would learn that the severe punishment was not to send a message to the bar but rather it was a just punishment that expressed the way the US treats crime.
During the trial Vaughn, who said he became a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) informant after Khan was arrested and taken to the US in 2006, said that Khan had ordered the executions of political activist Waddell and Agricola boxing coach Donald Allison. He told the court that he had been the lookout man in both cases.
When he was asked specifically whether he ever met with Ramsammy, Vaughn had said that he met the minister both at Roger Khan’s Carpet Cleaning office in Bel Air and that he went to the Minister’s office on behalf of Khan who introduced them.
Vaughn’s testimony also mentioned the involvement of Khan in trying to capture the five February 23 prison escapees. He also named several Guyanese individuals who are involved in the narcotics trade between Guyana and North America and Europe.
In 2006, just prior to him fleeing to Suriname, which saw him being arrested and later taken to the US, Khan had said in newspaper advertisements that he fought alongside law enforcement to defeat criminals in Guyana. However, prosecutors have countered that Khan’s phantom group was actually involved in criminal activities, such as killing rivals, to further his drug enterprise.
Simels later took the stand himself and testified that Khan had received government assistance “to have the intercept equipment and guns to fight the Buxton gang known as the Taliban.” Simels had alleged government ties to Khan and he publicly stated it during testimony.
He also alleged that Ramsammy authorized the purchase of the intercept equipment used by Khan. While government denied any involvement in the purchase of the spy equipment the Co-director of UK firm Smith Myers testified in the New York court that the cellular intercept equipment used by Khan had been sold to the Government of Guyana (GoG). Peter Myers, who co-founded the firm, testified under oath that the intercept equipment, including an intercept receiver and two laptops, was sold by the company’s Florida sales office through the Fort Lauderdale-based Spy Shop to the GoG. Meyers also identified the equipment in court and said it was only sold to governments.
Simels also said that he met Minister Ramsammy and Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, among other officials, during visits here while working on the Khan case. Minister Ramsammy rejected this claim while Rohee declined to comment.
Stabroek News has seen a transcript of secretly recorded conversations that Vaughn had with Simels and Irving before their arrests. They included details of how Vaughn met now-dead fugitive Rondell “Fineman” Rawlins, believed to have been the head of a gang that terrorised the country and committed two massacres at Lusignan and Bartica. Police have also claimed he slaughtered killed eight miners at Lindo Creek last year.
Vaughn then related how he ended up working for Khan which was after his cousin, who once worked for Khan, ended up in jail in the US. It was in January 2005, Vaughn said, that he met the “director.” At that time, Vaughn lived in Agricola next door to Allison. Simels and Vaughn spoke about the fact that Allison was deported from the US then Simels asked Vaughn what he actually did in connection with Khan. Vaughn: “Basically we wanted to… penetrate this Buxton group, and due to the fact that Fineman and I… you know we were classmates, we were school mates, it was easy for me to do that, understanding he would accept me as one.” He said Khan used him to go into Buxton because he was “neutral and unblemished….”
