Conn expected to plead guilty

By COURTNEY HESSLER

HD Media

LEXINGTON, KY - A discredited former Eastern Kentucky Social Security disability attorney who admitted to his role in a Social Security fraud case is expected to plead guilty to escape charges Friday in Lexington, but charges from his original case could still be on his plate.

Eric Conn pleaded guilty in March 2017 to stealing from the federal government by falsifying evidence of clients' disabilities in hundreds of cases by way of paying a medical professional to rubber-stamp claims and bribing a judge in a Social Security fraud case amounting to more than $500 million.

The former attorney had been on home detention while awaiting sentencing, but he disappeared while in Lexington, Kentucky to meet with prosecutors.

He was arrested in December 2017 in Honduras and was returned to the United State to serve his sentence and face additional escape charges.

He was expected to go to trial on the escape charges in June 2018, but in a motion filed in federal court earlier this month by defense attorney Willis G. Coffey, Conn has asked to be re-arrainged to change his plea to four charges against him: escape, two conspiracy charges and failure to appear at his sentencing. He faces up to five years' imprisonment for each charge.

"At this point Conn has filed for rearraignment (to those charges) and is prepared to "take his medicine" to paraphrase the Magistrate Judge," Coffey wrote in a motion. "A step toward trying to fix the damage caused."

Coffey also noted in there is no written plea agreement between the defense and prosecution.

Lexington-based U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky set the re-arraignment for 1:30 p.m. Friday, May 25.

Curtis Lee Wyatt, Conn's co-defendant in the escape, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to escape earlier this year and faces up to five years' imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Wyatt was arrested after it was found he tested security at the U.S.-Mexico border at Conn's direction and that he allegedly purchased a pickup truck for use in Conn's escape.

The federal court case against Conn started when an April 2016 indictment charged him with 18 counts for his role in the crime. In exchange for his testimony to help convict others in the case, Conn pleaded guilty to two of those counts.

While he was on the run, Conn was sentenced to a 12-year prison term and a $5.7 million financial judgement. After his escape, prosecutors asked a judge to reverse the sentence so they would be able to re-prosecute Conn on his original charges due to his violation of a plea deal by escaping.

Coffey argued the case should remain untouched because he had already pleaded guilty and received the maximum sentence. Conn had done his part and all the other co-defendants were sentenced, he said.

"(I) understand the frustration of those involved. Conn did wrong. He gets it," he wrote. "Today Conn recognizes the very real possibility he may well spend the rest of his life in prison. He should never have fled, violated the trust of the U.S. and the Court, and caused the harm which resulted."

Prosecutors Rebecca A. Caruso and Dustin M. Davis disagreed and said Conn breached his deal by not testifying against a defendant by escaping just days before the man was set for trial.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert E. Wier found earlier this month that Conn's breaches were inarguable and recommended Reeves deny Conn's request for the remaining charges to be dropped.