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Citing Jurisdiction, Socom Official Appeals Conviction

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2007

TAMPA - A former U.S. Special Operations Command official is arguing that his conduct was not under the jurisdiction of civilian courts because the conspiracy he was convicted of happened while he was on active duty.

Tom Spellissy, a retired Army colonel who headed one of Socom's most important acquisition offices, was sentenced to 15 months in prison last year after he claimed he had broken no laws and that the government's case against him was based on a series of lies.

U.S. District Judge James Whittemore, who also fined Spellissy $125,000, had allowed him to remain free pending his appeal, which was rejected by a federal appeals court Sept. 18.

His attorneys, Sean P. Cox and John McGuire, have filed motions for a new trial and for a stay of his sentence on the grounds that the government tampered with a witness by preventing a defense witness from testifying on Spellissy's behalf. They also said Spellissy passed a lie detector test in which he denied defrauding the government.

Friday morning, they filed an addendum stating that Spellissy received a notice from the Army reducing his pension because of his 'misconduct on active duty.' This, they say, is newly discovered evidence supporting a new trial.

The motion states that if Spellissy was on active duty, he was 'directly responsible for over $3 billion of our Nation's classified research, development, test and evaluation, and procurement of equipment necessary to support our covert soldiers, airmen and SEAL units at war. ... Col. Spellissy was also trusted with practically all of the nation's classified acquisition programs, which included those of the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the National Laboratories and the Department of Homeland Defense.'

It doesn't make sense, the attorneys argue, that someone so high-ranking would conspire with 'a low-level non-decision-making contractor' to defraud the U.S. government.

Before his retirement from the military in January 2005, Spellissy started a defense consulting company. William E. Burke, a former contractor assigned to Socom, was paid $4,500 to give preferential treatment to Spellissy's clients looking to do business with the command, government prosecutors charged.

Burke pleaded guilty to bribery and received probation after agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors.

Spellissy was charged in an indictment with conspiracy, bribery and wire fraud. On the witness stand at Spellissy's trial, Burke changed his story, insisting he and Spellissy were innocent. The jury didn't agree and convicted Spellissy on all counts in May.

In a rare reversal of a jury verdict, however, Whittemore later overturned the bribery conviction and ordered a new trial on the wire fraud charges. The judge let the conspiracy conviction stand.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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