February 29, 1996
Web posted at: 10:20 p.m. EST
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- An appeals court panel has granted lawyer F. Lee Bailey a temporary stay of his six-month contempt of court sentence, according to a court clerk.
A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted Bailey's stay at 8 p.m. EST Thursday, deputy clerk Matt Davidson told CNN.
The stay will remain in effect at least until Tuesday afternoon, when the court will hear Bailey's arguments. The hearing is set for 3 p.m. EST Tuesday in Atlanta.
"Bailey comes to this court with a mouthful of promises but nothing in his hands. We need to keep his feet to the fire."
-- David McGee, Prosecutor
Earlier Thursday, U.S. District Judge Maurice Paul ordered Bailey to begin serving a six-month jail sentence for contempt of court on Friday unless he repays $3 million the U.S. government is seeking.
Paul rejected Bailey's request for a stay and ordered him to surrender to U.S. marshals in Tallahassee at 10 a.m. EST Friday.
Bailey pleaded with the judge to give him another 21 days to come up with the money, telling the court he has only $400,000 and needed time to liquidate all of his assets, which include an airplane company, a boat company, a home in West Palm Beach, Florida, and a condo in an undisclosed location.
The appeal filed by Bailey argues that incarceration would be "illogical, crude and unfair." "It constitutes, in truth, a decision to remand Mr. Bailey to debtor's prison to punish him for perceived misconduct, not to coerce payment of money," the brief states.
Bailey's motion cites "copious evidence of unstinting compliance efforts" and "Bailey's offer of his entire net worth in pledge to the court" as reasons for the appeals panel to overturn the contempt of court sentence.
Bailey, who got the money from a convicted drug smuggler he represented before being fired, was ordered by Paul to produce the $3 million by Thursday, along with a full accounting of how he spent it and the balance of $24 million in stock Bailey has been holding in trust for his former client. (254K AIFF sound or 254K WAV sound)
Roger Zuckerman, Bailey's attorney, told Paul that Bailey had acted in good faith and had done "everything humanly possible" to produce the money and all the documents. He said Bailey would use the additional time to get the maximum value for his assets.
Zuckerman said they had gathered some of the paperwork but had not been able to compile all of it. Further, he said that some of the securities were held in a Swiss bank account and Bailey had been unable to have the securities transferred to the United States.
But prosecutor David McGee said Bailey had not acted in good faith.
"Bailey comes to this court with a mouthful of promises but nothing in his hands," McGee said, "We need to keep his feet to the fire."
He accused Bailey of stealing from taxpayers by taking the stocks that belonged to the drug dealer.
Bailey got into hot water after prosecutors filed a motion accusing him of improperly keeping money and stock that had been seized by federal agents from Claude DuBoc.
Bailey was an attorney for DuBoc until he was fired in January. The stock is part of $100 million worth of securities, real estate, and other assets the government confiscated from DuBoc in 1994.
The court had asked Bailey to administer some of the assets, using the confiscated stock, to pay bills, such as upkeep of DuBoc's homes. The homes included $35 million and a $12 million dollar homes in France and $6 million in shares of a Canadian pharmaceutical company, Biochem Pharma Inc.
During the time Bailey held the stock, its value rose from $6 million to more than $24 million. The government says Bailey claims the entire value in stock belongs to him as compensation for representing DuBoc.
Bailey testified February 3 that he did not remember how he spent the proceeds from selling the $3 million in stock. He said he also did not report it as income because he was advised by his attorney and accountants that he didn't have to.
Bailey had arranged a plea bargain for DuBoc in exchange for a guilty plea, a possible reduced sentence, and a promise to turn state's evidence against others involved in the case. In January, without explanation, DuBoc fired Bailey.
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