The FBI is on Trial Just as Much as John Wiley Price, says Ashley Stanley

John Wiley Price’s trial is held in Chief U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Lynn’s courtroom inside the Earle Cabell Federal Building.

By Ashley Stanley
Special Contributor

FBI Special Agent Allen Wilson was on the witness stand as I arrived in court Tuesday morning, and it immediately became clear that the federal government is on trial in this case as much as Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price.

A defense attorney was reviewing a credit card statement that contained miscellaneous charges. “Was this piece of evidence reviewed and placed into one of the 283 Excel spreadsheets created by David Garcia?” he asked Wilson with irritation in his voice. Then he discussed an insurance claim for an Infinity Q45 and said, “Did the FBI ask for records like these from the insurance company?”

“Possibly,” Wilson replied to both questions.

The defense attorney exclaimed, “Not Possibly! One hundred percent!”

The defense attorney showed Wilson an exhibit representing the total of all invoices purchased at Lots of Furniture, Inc. for $305,910.28 and said, “It’s a total from pages 1 – 311, but it does not add up correctly. Nonetheless, you knew that number was false before this trial started, yet this is an exhibit offered to the jury as true. It’s a couple hundred thousand off. Is it fair to say possibly 195?” The attorney’s use of Wilson’s answer to previous questions to help him respond to this accusation was not lost on me or the jury. In fact, I think there might have been an objection on the grounds of speculation, which led the defense attorney to pull a seemingly random name out of his hat and ask, “Who is William Pearlman?” However, he quickly cut himself off and said, “We may come back to that.”

As I was scanning the insurance claim exhibit shown on the courtroom monitor, I noticed where the defense attorney highlighted notes about an accident involving Kathy Nealy. Nealy was taken to the hospital and Price was present. It was listed as a “type 2 loss.” According to my insurance agent, type 2 claims deal with vehicles that are titled and registered to the client, but there are different categories whether it is owned, leased, borrowed, commercial exposure, etc. The vehicle’s classification may have bearing as to the claim that was made.

My follow up question was a bit more specific. The notes said, “not owner retained.” This wasn’t brought up by the defense attorney and rightly so. Why would he draw the jury’s attention to these three words? The topic of discussion is methods of concealment, so no need to hand it over on a silver platter.

I can speculate, but what does “not owner retained” mean? My insurance agent said, “Sounds like the vehicle may not have belonged to the client.” Fair enough. So then who received the insurance payout, if there even was one? And is there anything illegal about that? This case is about bribery, but so far all I’ve seen is sloppy accounting, shady behavior disguised as friendship, and maybe even sketchy real estate transactions, but is any of it illegal?

“It’s a SHAM!” proclaimed the defense attorney. And on that note, I headed back to work after playing junior detective, leaving me to wonder exactly who is William Pearlman.  But I left pondering an even bigger question. If the prosecution continues to shoot itself in the foot, why would Price ever take the stand? Depriving onlookers of that spectacle could be the biggest blunder the feds commit.