More than 80 potential witnesses in Chief Admin. Joe Russell, Sheriff Robert Arnold, John Vandeveer FBI Case

Sep 06, 2016 at 08:18 am by bryan


From the Murfreesboro Post:

Attorney fees could cost more than $100,000 for indicted Rutherford County Sheriff's Chief Administrative Deputy Joe Russell, according to a federal court filing requesting he be allowed to keep a court-appointed attorney.

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Russell, who faces 14 counts with Sheriff Robert Arnold and Arnold's uncle, John Vandeveer, for allegedly profiting from an authorized scheme to sell e-cigarettes to county jail inmates, contends he barely makes enough money to support his family, according to a motion filed by his attorney Jodie Bell of Nashville.

When Russell was arrested May 27, he filed an affidavit seeking a court-appointed attorney.

Attorney Bell pointed out between June 22 and Aug. 23, the government disclosed seven pieces of discovery, or information that could be used as evidence in a trial set for Feb. 7, 2017. One index spreadsheet has 372,970 entries for documents, recordings, videos and photographs, and another index references 810,000 items.

The filing notes this is a "significant amount of discovery" to be reviewed for trial preparation, and so far it references more than 80 people as potential witnesses.

Arnold is represented by Neal and Harwell law firm in Nashville, and Vanderveer has an appointed attorney from the Federal Public Defender's office.

Because of the number of Russell's dependents, a wife who is unemployed and three children, in addition to

"Mr. Russell is not guilty and intends to proceed to trial where he intends to prove his innocence," Bell's most recent filing states.

Read the entire story by Sam Stockard in the Murfreesboro Post HERE.

Short on Cash (Murfreesboro Post):

Russell's financial affidavit shows he holds a $50,000 Roth IRA and received a check for nearly $28,000, likely from the sale of his home, and a $30,000 check listed as a loan from his father-in-law, according to the U.S. attorneys' filing.

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