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NO MORE TRIALS OR MISTRIALS

Date: Friday, October 8, 2004
Section: VIRGINIA
Page: A1
Byline: Jen McCaffery and Jay Conley The Roanoke Times

Summary: U.S. Attorney John Brownlee announced in a statement that he will ask that all remaining charges against Richard Burrow be dismissed.

Former National D-Day Memorial Foundation president Richard Burrow and his wife, Janet, were walking home on Maiden Lane from lunch on Grandin Road on Thursday afternoon when neighbors spilled out of their homes to tell them the good news.

One day after a jury in Charlottesville deadlocked on whether Burrow was guilty of fraud in connection with how he raised money for the $25 million Bedford memorial, U.S. Attorney John Brownlee responded to phone calls with a two-paragraph statement faxed to the media saying he planned to ask for the fraud and perjury charges Burrow still faces to be dismissed.

"We were just sort of the last to know," Janet Burrow said at a news conference held Thursday evening at the law office of Burrow's attorneys.

But Burrow may have had a premonition the charges were going to be dropped when he asked D-Day veteran Bob Slaughter to meet him at the memorial Thursday morning, Slaughter said.

Brownlee's announcement came after a three-year investigation and two hung juries. Burrow's first federal fraud trial resulted in a hung jury in December 2002.

"After two deadlocked juries and mistrials, it is clear that opinions as to Mr. Burrow's guilt are divided," Brownlee said in the statement. "The United States will continue to protect the important principles of honesty and integrity and prosecute individuals who defraud our financial and government institutions. The National D-Day Memorial and our community must now move forward."

Burrow, dressed in a suit and red tie at the news conference and flanked by his lawyers, John Lichtenstein, John Fishwick and Gregory Lyons, seemed relaxed and talked about how important the support of his friends, family, lawyers and people who didn't even know him has been.

"We've been hoping for this day for three years, and it's finally here," Janet Burrow said.

Asked about his plans, Burrow replied, "we've lived day by day, and we've not thought past this day." He did point out that he passed the test for a real estate license during the summer, however.

Burrow did not answer when a TV reporter asked if he felt he had been the victim of a "witch hunt."

But earlier in the news conference, Lichtenstein did talk about what the last three years have been like for Burrow.

"Richard Burrow had the courage to go through the fire, and then go through the fire again," Lichtenstein read from a prepared statement. "In each of the two trials, the majority of jurors voted 'not guilty.' No jury ever convicted Richard Burrow of anything."

Slaughter said in a telephone interview Thursday that it seemed to him Burrow had a premonition that the charges would be dropped, because Slaughter said Burrow called him Thursday morning and asked to meet under the arch at the memorial at 11 a.m.

Slaughter said he was going there anyway to talk to some Campbell County students.

The meeting with Burrow and his wife was an emotional one.

"We got under the arch and hugged each other," Slaughter said. Burrow gave him a piece of sandstone with the word "courage" inscribed on it, and read a passage from a speech made by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.

"Essentially, what it was is, we have to stand strong and things will work out," Slaughter said.

Slaughter learned that the charges had been dropped while listening to his car radio on the way back to Roanoke.

In Brownlee's statement, he also thanked D-Day foundation president William McIntosh and the members of the D-Day foundation for their support in the case.

McIntosh would not comment directly about Burrow.

"This has been a long and arduous process for everyone that's been affected," he said.

During Burrow's second trial, defense attorneys tried to portray foundation officials and board members as using Burrow as a scapegoat.

McIntosh said the foundation asked for an investigation into how the foundation became $5 million in debt.

"The foundation never asked for an investigation of Richard Burrow," he said.

Mike Shelton, former Bedford mayor and vice chairman of the D-Day Memorial board, said he thought Brownlee was "certainly making an appropriate legal and business decision on behalf of taxpayers."

Shelton said he saw the deadlocked juries as representative of the community at large.

"People are torn in terms of guilt or innocence in the case," Shelton said. He also said he thought the case had not been easy for anyone on either side of the issue.

Contractor Clif Coleman, whose company is still owed more than $1 million by the foundation, said the fact that prosecutors planned to ask for charges against Burrow to be dropped was "wonderful."

"Maybe now Richard and his family can get on with their lives," Coleman added. "And it will be good for the memorial as well."

Bob Archer, who presides over Burrow's legal defense fund, said, "everybody's really relieved. He's suffered enough. I think you could have tried him a hundred times and you never could have gotten 12 people to vote guilty on any of the charges."

Attorneys:

• John Fishwick
• Greg Lyons
• John Lichtenstein

Practice areas:

• Criminal Defense

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