If nothing else, the case of Winchester, Va., attorney Paul Hampton Thomson should dispel any notion that the practice of law in a small town is placid and without many surprises.
Try to follow: Thomson, a former commonwealth’s attorney for Winchester (population about 27,000), is accused of buying cocaine from clients and then illegally trying to cover his actions. Now, his lawyer is accusing the chief judge for the Western District of Virginia, James P. Jones, of being in cahoots with prosecutors.
Thomson’s lawyer, John P. Flannery II, who is representing the 56-year-old Thomson in U.S. District Court, sent a letter to Jones on Tuesday asking for information from what Flannery alleges were secret meetings between the judge and prosecutors, according to a report by Sally Voth on Northern Virginia Daily.Com.
Flannery’s letter says the secret meetings were “apparently to advance an ongoing post-indictment grand jury investigation,” according to Voth’s account.
Thomson’s client, Oscar Alberto Salvatierra-Jovel, of Winchester, is accused of selling cocaine on numerous occasions to Thomson through his legal assistant, Nannette Susan Boden, also of Winchester, Voth reported. Boden pleaded guilty last month to distribution of cocaine and conspiracy to tamper with evidence and is cooperating with the prosecutors, who have denied Flannery’s accusations of impropriety.
