Conflict of interest revealed in federal homicide case

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The case of a man accused of a fatal robbery of the Xerox Federal Credit Union has been sidetracked because of a conflict of interest in the Federal Public Defender’s Office.

Defendant Richard Leon Wilbern is accused of fatally shooting Raymond Batzel and wounding another man during the 2003 robbery of the Xerox Federal Credit Union in Webster.

Prosecutors say Wilbern, who allegedly got about $10,000 in the heist, left an umbrella behind at the credit union and DNA on it links him to the crime.

Wilbern is represented by the Federal Public Defender’s Office, which has also represented Thomas Lofton, who “was investigated and identified as a suspect as early as 2003,” according to a June 21 letter from Assistant Federal Public Defender Sonya A. Zoghlin to U.S. District Court Judge Charles J. Siragusa.

Five ex-parte meetings including only Siragusa and lawyers for Wilbern have been held since early May to discuss the issue. Transcripts of all of those meetings have been sealed.

Details of why Lofton may have been a suspect in the Xerox robbery are not clear. Lawyers for both sides did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The only Thomas Lofton with a case on file in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York was convicted in June 2005 of drug trafficking and weapons charges. That conviction is now in the appellate stage.

Both Wilbern and Lofton have signed waivers giving the go-ahead for the Public Defender’s Office to seek permission to withdraw from Lofton’s case and continue to represent Wilbern.

Without waivers from both Wilbern and Lofton, the Federal Public Defender would have to withdraw from both cases.

Attorney Scott Green was appointed to advise Wilbern on the issue. Attorney David Rothenberg was appointed to advise Lofton.

Although the defense was discussing the conflict with Siragusa ex parte, the U.S. Attorney’s Office separately uncovered the issue and notified Siragusa on June 19.

In her June 21 letter to Siragusa, Zoghlin questioned how long Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Gregory has known about the conflict of interest issue.

In the letter, Zoghlin asked what steps Gregory took to alert the court of a possible conflict of interest and why he didn’t disclose the conflict before June 19.

“It seems that Mr. Gregory’s revelation may have been provoked only by his discovery that the Federal Public Defender’s Office had already alerted the court to the conflict,” Zoghlin wrote.