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Drug smuggler says pressure from F. Lee Bailey led to plea
©Associated Press
August 22, 2002
GAINESVILLE -- A convicted drug smuggler should be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea because his attorney, F. Lee Bailey, misled him and was more interested in his fortune than in representing him, defense attorneys said Wednesday.
Bailey told Claude Duboc he had a "secret agreement" with the judge and prosecutors for Duboc to receive a three-to-five-year sentence in exchange for the 1994 plea. Duboc was sentenced instead to life in prison, said Duboc's attorney, William Moffit, in closing arguments of a two-day hearing.
Duboc's attorneys are trying to obtain a trial for him on the decade-old drug-smuggling charges. Duboc, who also forfeited property worth more than $100-million, claims he was pressured by Bailey to enter the guilty plea.
Bailey wanted to represent Duboc so he could borrow against $5-million in stock owned by Duboc for his own use, Moffit said.
Bailey was supposed to hold Duboc's pharmaceutical company stock in trust for the government, former Internal Revenue Service Agent Guerry Hersey said. Instead, Bailey placed it in a Swiss bank account, secured a line of credit and transferred money into his personal accounts in the United States, Hersey said.
Bailey was disbarred earlier this year for misusing the stock.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Davies asked U.S. District Judge Maurice Paul to deny Duboc's motion, as he has done twice before.
Davies said Bailey and Duboc's other attorney, Ed Shohat, wisely advised him to plead guilty and cooperate with the government. "The case against the defendant was overwhelming," Davies said.
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