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Ex-Socom Officer Seeks New Conspiracy Trial

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 27, 2007

TAMPA - A former U.S. Special Operations Command official is seeking a new conspiracy trial, claiming the military prevented a defense witness from testifying at his last trial.

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.

"One day I'm an unsung hero," Spellissy said at his sentencing hearing, "and the next I'm a criminal. They've killed me."

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 on Sept. 18.

In addition to seeking a new trial, defense attorneys filed a motion asking that Spellissy's prison sentence be stayed because of "new evidence."

The defense motion alleges witness tampering by the government. "An unknown senior military officer knowingly persuaded or ordered Sgt. First Class [Jack] Landers, 75th Ranger Regiment, not to honor the [defense] subpoena," the defense motion says. Spellissy's trial attorney, Patrick Doherty, didn't learn of the situation until three days after the trial concluded, the motion states.

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.

Landers would have testified that Burke "was a low-level, non-decision-making support contractor," the defense motion states. Because Landers was unavailable to corroborate him, Spellissy chose not to testify, the motion states.

"The defendant's position is that Landers and Spellissy's testimonies would have corroborated Burke's testimony that no bribery or conspiracy existed," the motion states.

In addition to allegations about the new evidence, the defense attaches to its pleadings documents that state Spellissy passed a lie detector test. During that test, Spellissy answered no to the question, "Did you plan with Bill Burke to defraud the U.S. Government?"

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

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