July 15 2020
County Clay
has had some colorful lawyers over the years. For his
courtroom antics and stage presence, Bill Lester has to go at
the top of the heap.
During one defense gig and with his client nowhere to be found, the Judge asked Lester, where's your client? In response and with a strong deliberate voice, Lester: His adventures have led him elsewhere!!
During a murder trial, the community of Ovapa figured prominently in the matter. Instead of the actual Ovapa name, with his arm high in the air, Lester loudly called the place OooVaaaapaaa. He added a kind of Shakespearean sound to it. Each time he pronounced Ovapa that way and with his arm extended into the air, the peanut gallery giggled and grinned.
Outside the Courtroom, before public hearings, Lester was quite the card telling murmurous stories.
That was years ago and now just part of the Courtroom history of Clayberry.
William Bill Lester got himself in deep stuff five years ago after getting caught stealing time and $$$ from the public defender fund. He's now been caught, jailed, and ready for court time but on the other side of the aisle.
From TV-8 News:
The trial for a Charleston lawyer who was wanted for years on fraud charges and was eventually apprehended in Nicaragua has been delayed, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
William "Bill" Lester, 69, is accused of overcharging the state thousands of dollars for work that was never done. U.S. marshals arrested him in Nicaragua in January.
Lester's trial was originally set for July 27, but Lester's attorney, John Carr, requested to delay the trial noting that discovery in the case was "extremely voluminous" and there were significant issues preparing for the trial due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Carr also noted that Lester was in poor health.
"I believe it would be fair to say he has had a number of invasive surgeries while he has been at South Central," Carr told Judge Duke Bloom during the hearing that was held via Skype on Wednesday.
Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor Meshell Jarrett did not object to the continuance.
In 2016, Bloom ordered Lester's arrest on charges of fraudulent schemes and computer fraud that took place in 2014, or earlier. A flawed accounting system appears to have allowed charges, including multiple days where more than 24 hours of work were claimed.
The charges accuse Lester of overcharging for public defender services and Creed Captial LLC for time he spent working as a court-appointed criminal lawyer.
Creed paid court-appointed lawyers up front for a fee rather than making them wait months for the state to pay them.
“He had billed, in a two-year period, over $600,000 to the state for indignant defense, which at $45 an hour is an awful lot of hours and the resulting investigation found he had at least 17 days he billed an excess of 24 hours,” said Dana Eddy of Public Defender Services in a previous interview.
Officials said an old, flawed accounting system allowed Lester to pull off much of his alleged misdeeds, including multiple days when more than 24 hours of work were claimed.
Lester will now stand trial on Dec. 14.
During one defense gig and with his client nowhere to be found, the Judge asked Lester, where's your client? In response and with a strong deliberate voice, Lester: His adventures have led him elsewhere!!
During a murder trial, the community of Ovapa figured prominently in the matter. Instead of the actual Ovapa name, with his arm high in the air, Lester loudly called the place OooVaaaapaaa. He added a kind of Shakespearean sound to it. Each time he pronounced Ovapa that way and with his arm extended into the air, the peanut gallery giggled and grinned.
Outside the Courtroom, before public hearings, Lester was quite the card telling murmurous stories.
That was years ago and now just part of the Courtroom history of Clayberry.
William Bill Lester got himself in deep stuff five years ago after getting caught stealing time and $$$ from the public defender fund. He's now been caught, jailed, and ready for court time but on the other side of the aisle.
From TV-8 News:
The trial for a Charleston lawyer who was wanted for years on fraud charges and was eventually apprehended in Nicaragua has been delayed, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
William "Bill" Lester, 69, is accused of overcharging the state thousands of dollars for work that was never done. U.S. marshals arrested him in Nicaragua in January.
Lester's trial was originally set for July 27, but Lester's attorney, John Carr, requested to delay the trial noting that discovery in the case was "extremely voluminous" and there were significant issues preparing for the trial due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Carr also noted that Lester was in poor health.
"I believe it would be fair to say he has had a number of invasive surgeries while he has been at South Central," Carr told Judge Duke Bloom during the hearing that was held via Skype on Wednesday.
Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor Meshell Jarrett did not object to the continuance.
In 2016, Bloom ordered Lester's arrest on charges of fraudulent schemes and computer fraud that took place in 2014, or earlier. A flawed accounting system appears to have allowed charges, including multiple days where more than 24 hours of work were claimed.
The charges accuse Lester of overcharging for public defender services and Creed Captial LLC for time he spent working as a court-appointed criminal lawyer.
Creed paid court-appointed lawyers up front for a fee rather than making them wait months for the state to pay them.
“He had billed, in a two-year period, over $600,000 to the state for indignant defense, which at $45 an hour is an awful lot of hours and the resulting investigation found he had at least 17 days he billed an excess of 24 hours,” said Dana Eddy of Public Defender Services in a previous interview.
Officials said an old, flawed accounting system allowed Lester to pull off much of his alleged misdeeds, including multiple days when more than 24 hours of work were claimed.
Lester will now stand trial on Dec. 14.