High court refuses to remove Vollor from Rader drug case|[9/06/06]

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, September 6, 2006

A marijuana-possession case remains assigned to Judge Frank Vollor after the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled against a request for him to step aside.

In the wake of the ruling, a trial in Warren County Circuit Court for Patrick O. Rader, 33, 119 Singing Hills Cove, has been set for Nov. 8.

The high court ruled Thursday against the request, filed in April by Rader’s attorney, Jerry Campbell of Vicksburg.

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Campbell argued Vollor should recuse himself from hearing the case because of a policy he had instituted that Campbell argued limited to two the sentencing options Vollor would consider in such cases: drug-court probation or a sentence that includes a prison term of at least a year.

The memo addressed guilty pleas, however, not cases that went to trial.

Still, Campbell wanted any judge who would sentence Rader to hear testimony and consider at least one other sentencing option, that of house arrest.

In its ruling, the court unanimously rejected Campbell’s petition.

Proceedings in the Rader case had been suspended since May 22, when the Supreme Court agreed to review Campbell’s petition and requested a state attorney to represent Vollor. That response, filed by the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, and a separate answer to the petition from Vollor were filed a month later, with both pointing out that Vollor’s policy didn’t apply to the Rader case.

Rader intended to plead guilty to the possession charge without first reaching a bargain with prosecutors, Campbell said. He would then argue at an anticipated sentencing hearing for a sentence of house arrest.

Vollor announced his policy in December memos to the Warren County bar and others in the legal and law-enforcement fields.

&#8220The memoranda are directed at plea bargains where no evidence is presented to the court and the court must rely on the representations and judgment of the (district attorney) as to the sentence,” Vollor wrote in his June 22 filing.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Campbell said that statement from Vollor was enough.

&#8220That’s all we wanted from the start,” Campbell said.

The Rader case was initially assigned to the court’s other judge, Isadore Patrick, before whom Rader entered an &#8220open” guilty plea, meaning no plea bargain had been struck. On March 10 Patrick withdrew Rader’s plea and recused himself from the case, saying he had heard from trusted sources that Rader was telling people Patrick had accepted a bribe.

While free on bond on the marijuana-possession charge, Rader was arrested Aug. 15 and charged with shooting a man in the ankle on July 8. After a hearing Judge Johnny Price of Warren County Court granted a request by District Attorney Gil Martin that Rader be held without bond.

That hearing was not held in circuit court because the recusal request remained before the high court.