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Convicted aviation broker goes free Feds won�t retry Roy Reagan, whose conviction was overturned on appeal By Chris Bristol Federal prosecutors will not retry a former aviation broker from Medford who served almost two years in prison before a court tossed out his conviction for scamming military aircraft from the government. Roy D. Reagan served 20 months on a 2�-year sentence before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in February, ordered his release from prison pending the outcome of his appeal. In July the court overturned Reagan�s 1997 conspiracy conviction, ruling that parts of the government�s case exceeded the statute of limitations. The ruling also cleared co-defendant Fred Fuchs, a once high-ranking Forest Service official who also served almost two years for his alleged role in the scandal. Reagan�s attorney, Marcia Shein of Atlanta, confirmed Tuesday that prosecutors in Tucson, Ariz., where the case originated, have decided against a new trial. The deadline was Friday. Shein praised the decision but renewed her criticism of Reagan�s sentence, arguing it was almost unprecedented at the federal level to send someone to prison for a non-violent crime before the case could be heard on appeal. "He never should have done time in the first place," she said. "That�s the sad part of it. You can�t give somebody time back, you know?" The tangled case dates to 1989, when the Forest Service got involved in an obscure federal program that permitted the government to swap surplus military aircraft for planes of historic or "museum-quality" value. Prosecutors alleged Reagan and Fuchs conspired to take advantage of the program and trade valuable surplus aircraft � 22 Air Force C130A transports and six Navy P-3s � for almost worthless tankers owned by five or six private aviation contractors. The planes were supposed to be used to fight forest fires. The exchange program came under scrutiny when two of the planes turned up in Kuwait at the end of the Gulf War. Government auditors concluded most of the newer planes were not being used to fight forest fires and that the aging C119 transports the government got in exchange were junk. Many of the planes were scavenged for parts or lost in complicated title transfers, prosecutors said. Some of the planes were linked to CIA activity, and one was even leased to a Central American airline that was later identified as a front for Colombian drug traffickers. Prosecutors claimed Reagan, 61, made more than $1 million on the trades. A former Air Force tanker pilot, Reagan once worked for two of the contractors. He since has moved from Medford to Arizona. Defense attorneys argued their clients were scapegoats over a bureaucratic misunderstanding. None of the contractors or their business partners were ever prosecuted. In its decision to overturn the convictions, the appeals court ruled the trial judge in Tucson improperly instructed the jury that parts of the government�s case exceeded the statute of limitations. As a result, the court said, it was almost impossible to analyze the propriety of the jury�s verdict because it was impossible to know which parts of the government�s case the jury found most compelling. In August, prosecutors asked the court to reconsider its ruling. They were especially worried about the court�s decision to publish the ruling, which has the effect of setting precedent. The court refused, leaving the government no choice but to seek a new trial or give up. Shein said that in her experience, federal prosecutors usually seek retrial. A spokesman for the appellate division of the Justice Department in Washington did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment. "Once you get a conviction overturned, they don�t like to give up," Shein said. "Usually they don�t want to let you go." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.