North Texas

US Attorney Will Not Retry Tax Evasion Charges Against John Wiley Price

U.S. Attorney John Parker says his office will not retry the tax evasion charges against Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and will not pursue similar charges against his associate Kathy Nealy.

Parker made the announcement Friday afternoon saying, "it is my considered judgment that pursuing another trial against Mr. Price will not serve the interests of justice. I have concluded the same is true regarding the pending trial against Ms. Nealy."

Price, a longtime member of the Dallas County Commissioner's Court, was found not guilty April 28 of bribery and conspiracy charges.

A mistrial was declared on four charges related to income tax evasion where the jury was unable to render a verdict.

Nealy was to be tried later on the first eight counts, having to do with allegations of bribery, mail fraud and defrauding the IRS.

Judge Barbara Lynn gave prosecutors four weeks to decide if they were going to retry the tax charges; with a week remaining on the clock, Parker announced Friday they were not going to retry the case.

"My decision today is fundamentally different than the initial decision to seek this indictment and in no way reflects on the soundness of that earlier decision," Parker said in a statement. "I have information available to me now that was not available at the time of the indictment and could only be obtained through the trial process. This additional information compels the conclusion that the reasonable, good-faith beliefs we had at the time of indictment regarding our chances for success at trial have been substantially diminished."

After the trial, Price, who was twice re-elected to the Commissioner's Court while under indictment, said it felt good to get back to work.

"It feels good just to be back where the people placed me to begin with," Price said last month.

Contact Us