Authors: Sheila Johnson
Blood Ambush (13 page)
38
While Robert John Schiess III and his defense team had been filing for dismissal of his indictment on December 8, attorney Rodney Stallings had also been busy on Barbara’s behalf, filing a motion to compel that indicated there might be some storm clouds beginning to form in the relationship between Barbara and Schiess. Having earlier filed a motion for the return of her $125,000 bail funds, Barbara filed once again; this time, because earlier that same day, Schiess had filed a motion to intervene regarding return of bond money. Evidently, Schiess was contending that he had furnished Barbara’s bail and wanted it to be returned to him, instead of being released to her.
His motion to intervene asked the court to enter an order requiring the clerk of circuit court to return the funds currently being held as a result of the previous bond entered by the district court in the amount of $125,000. Schiess stated he was the party responsible for the payment of those funds to the clerk’s office, and they were withdrawn from his assets and should be returned to him. The motion requested the court to issue an order directing the clerk of the circuit court to make those funds payable to Schiess’s attorney, William Hawkins Jr.
In the motion filed for Barbara, Stallings said that the funds had been placed in the Office of the Circuit Clerk of Cherokee County and receipted to Barbara. She had duly filed her demand to release bond funds, and Schiess had filed a motion to intervene regarding return of bond money.
Stallings said that the defendant Barbara Ann Roberts argued that the money should be returned to her, pursuant to Alabama code and law, which he claimed stated that when money had been deposited instead of bail, if at any time before the bail was forfeited, the defendant surrendered themselves back into custody, the court must order a return of the deposit to the defendant upon producing proof of the surrender.
Stallings said that Barbara therefore filed her motion to compel the court to enter an order directing the clerk to immediately return the deposit of $125,000 to her, as she was incarcerated due to the court’s denial of her bond upon indictment, on November 30, 2006.
With that considered, Stallings claimed, the defense petitioned the court, after due consideration, to enter an order granting her motion to compel and release of the funds in question, to release none of the money to Schiess without first holding an evidentiary hearing, and to grant any such other further and different relief to which she might be entitled.
The battle over the bond money continued on January 16, when a letter was presented to Dwayne Amos, the circuit clerk of Cherokee County, regarding the funds.
The letter sent from attorney William M. Hawkins Jr., on behalf of Schiess, asked Amos to please allow the letter to serve as a formal demand by and on behalf of Robert John Schiess III that the money currently being held in his office be returned to and made payable to said Robert John Schiess III.
As authority for the release of said funds, please find enclosed a copy of a promissory note executed on or about April 27, 2006, by Defendant Barbara Ann Roberts and witnessed by her attorney, Rodney Stallings,
the letter said.
the letter said.
The promissory note stated that in the event that the money is not paid in full within six months of the signing of the note, Schiess would be entitled to any money due to Barbara from the circuit court in the present case and any subsequent court case.
Stallings immediately prepared a motion for the codefendant to be present, asking for a court order requiring Schiess to be present at the hearing on the bond funds dispute set for January 22, 2007, at 11:00
A.M.
A.M.
The motion said that Schiess was presently incarcerated in the Cherokee County Detention Center, and that Barbara had a hearing scheduled on that day and time for determination of the return of bond money.
Schiess’s attorney, the motion said, had written a letter to the court clerk demanding return of the bond money and referring to the promissory note from the defendant to the codefendant. The motion requested that a court order would be issued requiring the sheriff’s office to transport Schiess to the courthouse for the hearing.
On January 31, the sum of $125,000 was returned to Schiess by order of the court.
39
On January 4, 2007, ABI agent Brent Thomas received a report from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) in reference to a visit on December 12, 2006, that had been paid to the home of Robert John Schiess Jr., the father of Robert John Schiess III. Two special agents had spoken with the elder Schiess at his home and questioned him as to whether he had received a shotgun from his son.
Schiess Jr. told the agents that his son had never shipped any guns to his residence. His other son, he said, kept his gun safe there, but he did not have the combination to the gun safe, and it had not been accessed for around three years. His sons were not close, Schiess Jr. said, and they did not have contact with each other.
The last time he spoke with Schiess, his father said, was around eighteen months earlier, at which time they had a disagreement of a personal nature. He had learned about his son’s legal problems from his daughter, who lived in Florida.
Barbara had claimed that someone had taken Schiess’s guns from his medical office when it was closed, but according to his father, the guns in the safe in North Carolina were not the same ones.
Barbara’s arraignment was set for January 25, 2007, and she would spend a very bleak holiday season in the jail. Her therapist had attempted to visit her and was refused the visit by the DeKalb County Jail officials, so attorneys Lanier and Stallings prepared a motion to the court and delivered it on January 12, asking for a continuance and for psychological testing prior to the arraignment.
Lanier and Stallings were just beginning to delve into some of the details of Barbara’s long history of checking herself into psychiatric-treatment facilities, and they wanted to be sure she was evaluated prior to her arraignment. In petitioning the court for a continuance, they listed several points to consider, including the fact that her therapist had been denied a visit.
Lanier and Stallings also claimed that Barbara had attempted suicide while in the DeKalb County Jail and was at that time on suicide watch. The two attorneys said they had been informed by the state that they had knowledge of Barbara’s having been admitted for psychological/psychiatric treatment on two occasions, and because there were several more such occasions than that, the attorneys would, by requesting a continuance, be better able to compile a thorough file on Barbara’s previous treatment.
A thorough mental evaluation was requested in order that Barbara could properly plead for her arraignment, and the attorneys said that she might lack sufficient present ability to assist them with a reasonable degree of rational understanding of the facts and the legal proceedings against her. Her arraignment, they stated, needed to be continued so that adequate evaluations could be made in order to provide an adequate and proper defense.
Lanier and Stallings moved that the arraignment be continued until evaluations were performed, an order be entered allowing the visitation of Barbara’s therapist and any subsequent visits he deemed necessary, and the medical and mental condition of their client to be determined by the appropriate evaluations.
On January 23, Circuit Judge Randall L. Cole issued a court order continuing Barbara’s arraignment and permitting her therapist to visit with her in order to conduct a psychological evaluation. Barbara’s Christmas season in the DeKalb County Jail had been depressing and lonely, but now she at least had hope that the new year would finally bring her a visit from one of the doctors she trusted and depended on ... sooner or later.
40
During the early months of 2007, in addition to being visited finally by her therapist in the DeKalb County Jail, Barbara was in a continual state of frustration by the lack of time she felt that Rodney Stallings spent coming to see her. She wrote him on practically a daily basis, demanding that he come to the jail, but she did not appreciate the enormity of the amount of paperwork that was flying back and forth between Stallings, the district attorney’s office, Schiess’s attorneys, the Cherokee County Courthouse, the United States District Court in Georgia, and Vernon Roberts’s attorneys. Motions, orders, summons, and more were being filed, issued, and answered on a continual basis by all the parties involved.
The latest entry into the field was a civil suit filed by Vernon’s attorneys against both Barbara and Schiess, a complaint for wrongful death in the matter of Darlene’s murder. Barbara was served a summons in that case on February 12, which required her to file an answer to the complaint within twenty days following service. News of the civil suit came as another blow to Barbara, but by this time she had no personal assets of any kind and was completely indigent. Schiess, on the other hand, was quite wealthy, so the suit was obviously not aimed primarily at Barbara.
There had been a surprising development a few days earlier, on February 6, that might have indicated that Schiess and his attorneys had somehow learned of the civil suit that was being prepared against him. Cherokee County investigator Mark Hicks had been contacted by the FBI and informed that Schiess was in the process of transferring funds to a Swiss bank. The total amount of the funds being transferred was close to $1.8 million.
Wachovia Bank had contacted the FBI, as is the standard operating procedure in a money transfer as large as this, and the FBI, being aware of the charges against Schiess, had informed Hicks. Hicks, in turn, passed the information along to Investigator Bo Jolly, the case agent in the capital murder case against Schiess.
Vernon Roberts, in his complaint for wrongful death, under Alabama law, stated that he was the surviving spouse of Darlene Roberts at the time of her death and that, as the personal representative of the deceased, was the proper party entitled to bring the action. He and Darlene, the complaint said, were both residents of Cherokee County, Alabama, at the time of her death. Barbara was listed in the complaint as a resident of Floyd County, Georgia, whose temporary address was the DeKalb County Detention Center. Schiess—said to be a resident of Rockdale County, Georgia—had a temporary address of the Cherokee County Jail. Both were subject, the complaint said, to the jurisdiction and venue of the Northern District Court of Georgia, Rome Division. The complaint stated the court had original jurisdiction in the case because
there exists complete diversity of citizenship between the Plaintiff and Defendants Roberts and Schiess, and the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000.00.
there exists complete diversity of citizenship between the Plaintiff and Defendants Roberts and Schiess, and the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000.00.
The complaint charged that on April 6, 2006, the defendants, while acting in concert, intentionally, or as a result of their wanton and reckless conduct, abducted, assaulted, battered, and shot the deceased with a firearm. The deceased died as a direct and proximate result of the aforementioned gunshot wound. The defendants then dumped the deceased’s body in a pond off Cherokee County Road 941 in Centre, Cherokee County, Alabama.
The conduct of the defendants as set forth resulted in the death of the deceased, so they are liable for the wrongful death of the deceased, and the plaintiff is entitled to recover against the defendants damages for said defendants’ unlawful conduct.
The complaint went on to state that Vernon Roberts, as Darlene’s personal representative, demanded that the defendants be served with summonses and processed as required by law, that Vernon would have a trial by jury, and that he would have judgment against the defendants for damages in an amount sufficient to punish the defendants for their wrongful conduct, and to deter similar actions, in excess of the court’s jurisdictional amount to be determined by the enlightened conscience of the jury, plus an award of costs and expenses as allowed by law, and for such other and further relief as the court might deem equitable, just, and proper.
On March 1, Barbara filed her answer and motion for change of venue in the case, stating that she denied each and every allegation contained in the complaint for wrongful death and demanded strict legal proof.
Barbara also stated that she was currently incarcerated in DeKalb County Jail in Fort Payne, Alabama, and that the alleged activity occurred in Cherokee County, Alabama. Vernon, she said, was also a resident of Cherokee County. Therefore, she stated, the venue should be changed to the United States District Court, Northern District of Alabama, or the Circuit Court of Cherokee County, Alabama.
Despite Barbara’s motion for change of venue, the case remained with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Rome Division.
A videotape of Barbara’s deposition was arranged to be conducted at the Cherokee County Jail on August 15, 2007, when she would be questioned by attorneys for Vernon and Schiess. Until that time, as she was penniless and had no assets of any kind that were subject to be lost, there would be far more pressing legal matters that would demand her time and attention.
41
On February 20, 2007, Barbara revoked the durable power of attorney she had given to attorney Stephen F. Lanier on April 21, 2006, in Floyd County, Georgia. The revocation was signed and notarized in DeKalb County.
Then, on March 12, Barbara filed a copy of a letter to Lanier, a request for retainer amount and a notice of termination, with the circuit clerk of Cherokee County.
Barbara wrote in the letter that she had employed the Stephen F. Lanier law firm to represent her in the case number DC-2006-438F in Cherokee County, Alabama. The contract was for a $50,000 retainer:
I wish to terminate your employment and ask you to return the retainer as I understand you are demanding an additional $125,000.00 to represent me in the now CC-2006-461 Capital Murder case. I do not have the money to pay you and need the $50,000.00 retainer and the additional $15,000.00 you withdrew from my accounts to afford a defense.
Please send the refund to Barbara Roberts c/o DeKalb County Jail and send all legal documentation to Attorney Rodney Stallings in Centre, Alabama. You may deduct any mailing costs from the refund.
On the same day, Lanier filed a motion to withdraw as Barbara’s attorney of record in the case.
Lanier maintained that Barbara was arrested on April 21, 2006, for a murder that occurred in Cherokee County, Alabama. He was retained and a legal representation contract signed by Barbara on that day for
representation of a noncapital
offense of murder. He was a licensed attorney and member of the State Bar of Georgia, and was admitted by the State Bar of Alabama to represent Barbara in the noncapital murder case prior to indictment.
representation of a noncapital
offense of murder. He was a licensed attorney and member of the State Bar of Georgia, and was admitted by the State Bar of Alabama to represent Barbara in the noncapital murder case prior to indictment.
On or about October 31, 2006, Lanier stated, he was notified by the state of its intention to present to the grand jury of Cherokee County a capital felony indictment against Barbara. She was given an opportunity by the state to enter a plea of guilty to a noncapital murder offense with the possibility of parole. Barbara declined the offer.
Barbara was indicted subsequently by the Cherokee grand jury for a capital murder offense on November 3, 2006. The state of Alabama was seeking the death penalty in the case. Barbara was rearrested and her bond revoked due to this capital felony indictment, and she had remained in custody since her rearrest. Her cash bond of $125,000 had been returned to Schiess by order of the court on January 31. As a result of that court order, Barbara was therefore indigent and unable to retain Lanier’s services in a capital felony case.
Lanier stated that his representation of Barbara was therefore concluded as a result of her indigence and by the terms of the contract, and Lanier respectfully requested the court to enter an order allowing him to withdraw as Barbara’s attorney.
On March 29, Circuit Judge Randall L. Cole granted Lanier’s motion to withdraw.
Judge Cole noted in his order that Lanier had stated he was retained and a legal representation contract was signed for representation of a
noncapital
offense of murder, that Barbara was later indicted for capital murder, that her cash bond of $125,000 was returned to her codefendant, Schiess, and that Barbara was therefore unable to retain Lanier for his services in a capital case.
noncapital
offense of murder, that Barbara was later indicted for capital murder, that her cash bond of $125,000 was returned to her codefendant, Schiess, and that Barbara was therefore unable to retain Lanier for his services in a capital case.
Barbara had filed a notice with the court stating that she wished to terminate Lanier’s services and requesting the return of a retainer paid to him.
The order stated that Barbara continue to be represented by attorney Rodney Stallings, whom she had also retained.
Judge Cole then advised Barbara that she was entitled to have counsel appointed by the court if, at any time during the course of the proceedings, she was indigent and unable to employ counsel.
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