© 2014 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate – (July 25) – Lawyers involved in Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price’s case will certainly be off the ground running after today’s arrest.
Price’s lawyer is Billy Ravkind, who made his name in the 1980s representing drug defendants before taking on white-collar criminal cases. One of his well-known white-collar matters is when he defended Spencer Blaine in the infamous I-30 scandal in the 80s and 90s, the largest Savings & Loan fraud case in Texas, which resulted in the conviction of Danny Faulkner. In the same timeframe, Ravkind also represented Don Dixon, who was behind the Vernon Savings & Loan crisis. Ravkind is a graduate of SMU’s Dedman School of Law.
Shirley Boccus-Lobel is co-defending Price with Ravkind. Before entering private practice, Lobel served with the U.S. Department of Justice in a supervisory capacity, worked as Criminal Chief in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas and before that was First Assistant U.S. Attorney.
Political consultant Kathy Nealy’s lawyer is Cheryl Wattley, who is a newly-appointed criminal law professor at UNT Dallas College of Law. A graduate of Boston University School of Law, Wattley formerly was a federal prosecutor in Connecticut. She was also nominated to be a federal judge in 1995.
The lawyer for Price’s assistant, Dapheny Fain, is believed to be high profile criminal defense lawyer Tom Mills, who has represented Fain in the past. A University of Texas School of Law graduate, Mills has been in private practice since 1972.
Terence Hart, who led the prosecution in the I-30 condo case, represents the fourth defendant, Christian Lloyd Campbell. Hart, currently a partner in Bracewell & Giuliani’s Dallas office, is a former FBI agent, Assistant District for Dallas and Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.
The prosecutors in the case are Assistant U.S. Attorney Walt Junker and Criminal Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. At the beginning of the year, Meacham completed the prosecution of Conroe man Jesse Brister, aka “Bozo,” who was sentenced to 55 months in prison for mailing threatening communications to law enforcement. Brister identified himself as a proud member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT). Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Miller is also listed on the docket.
Dallas Jones Day partner Matt Orwig, who spent 20 years in the Department of Justice as an Assistant U.S Attorney and U.S. Attorney and six years as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, said the defense attorneys in the case will have a lot to offer.
He said Ravkind is colorful and apparently very committed to going to trial, and that Mills is very bright and creative.
“He will always keep [the government] guessing,” Orwig said.
He added that having these attorneys in one courtroom will likely be “the most concentrated talent” he has ever seen.
“This is going to be the reunion of the Beatles,” he said.
As far as immediate priorities, Orwig said the defense lawyers will nned to start asking for evidence, trying to digest the charges and catch up with the government’s lead in the case.
The prosecutors “are going to want to maintain control of the story,” Orwig said.
“I think it’s going to be a fascinating case to watch,” he added.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn of the Northern District in Dallas.
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