LAWFUEL – The Cincinnati Post & AP report that three lawyers jailed while awaiting trial on charges of bilking clients of millions of dollars in a diet drug settlement will get a chance to argue for their freedom while awaiting trial.
A federal judge has set a hearing for Aug. 21 for William Gallion, Shirley Cunningham Jr., and Melbourne Mills.
In a two-page order issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman also required the federal probation office to calculate the maximum and minimum sentences the men could face and prepare a comprehensive financial statement of all three lawyers.
Bertelsman did not say what prompted the hearing, only that there is now information not known when he sent them to jail. All three men appealed their jailing.
Lawyers for the attorneys did not immediately return a call for comment.
Angela Ford, a Lexington lawyer who represents more than 400 former clients in a civil case against the three men, said the financial statement would be the first time Gallion, Cunningham and Mills would account for what happened to the funds they received from the settlement.
Special Judge William Wehr is expected to order the three attorneys on Thursday to turn over financial records in the civil case, Ford said.
“Up until this time, Judge Wehr thought it was premature,” Ford said.
