By Jen McCaffery

Archives Reprint

   jen.mccaffery@roanoke.com

   981-3336

    The former office manager for Roanoke pain specialist Cecil Byron Knox can no longer pay her legal fees, and has asked a federal judge to appoint her lawyer to continue representing her.

    Beverly Gale Boone has not been able to pay her lawyer, William Cleaveland of Roanoke, since the latter part of 2002, according to court documents filed in federal court Wednesday. Her family has been living solely on her husband's salary since she and Knox and other office personnel were arrested in February 2002 and Knox's practice, Southwest Virginia Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, was shut down, according to the motion.

    Boone's husband, Jim Boone, has also shouldered the legal fees in the case, which were not specified, and Beverly Boone was not able to get a new job because of the charges she faced, according to the motion.

    Boone was acquitted in October 2003 of all the federal drug charges she faced in connection with what federal prosecutors Rusty Fitzgerald and Patrick Hogeboom argued was the prescription of painkillers such as OxyContin and methadone outside the scope of legitimate medical practice. The jury could not reach a verdict on the racketeering, conspiracy and fraud charges Boone faced. The jury also found Knox not guilty on most of the drug charges he faced.

    Last month, a federal grand jury in Charlottesville returned a new indictment in the case and Knox, Boone, and licensed professional counselor Willard Newbill "Bill" James face a second trial on those charges April 13 in Roanoke. Knox still faces a life sentence in connection with what federal prosecutors have argued were prescriptions that led to death or serious injury in the case of three people.

    Knox and Boone, 44, also face charges of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, criminal conspiracy, mail fraud and health care fraud, as well as charges that they were part of an illegal kickback scheme.

    Cleaveland has agreed to continue to represent Boone if the federal judge will agree to appoint him to the case, according to the motion. That likely means he will get paid less for his work on the case, though it would likely assure that he would get paid.

    And lawyers for the government would not object to Cleaveland's appointment on the case, based on an informal conversation Cleaveland had with federal prosecutors, according to the motion. Federal prosecutor Tom Bondurant has replaced Fitzgerald on the case, because Fitzgerald is going to work in Iraq for the Department of Justice.

    Cleaveland could not be reached for comment in the case, and Boone declined to comment.

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