Trial Begins for Arent Fox Ex-Partner Accused in Cover-Up in Lawyer's Murder at His Home
No one has ever been charged in the apparent sexual assault and murder of attorney Robert Wone, a former attorney for Covington & Burling who worked as general counsel for Radio Free Asia at the time of his death.
But a bench trial begins today in Washington, D.C., Superior Court for a former Arent Fox intellectual property partner, his domestic partner and a roommate. Joseph Price, 39, Victor Zaborsky, 44, and Dylan Ward, 39, are accused of conspiring to cover up what happened the on Aug. 2, 2006, when Wone, 32, was slain in a guest room in the defendants’ Washington, D.C., home.
Specifically, they are charged with obstruction of justice and evidence-tampering. Prosecutors contend at least one of the three defendants knows who committed the murder, reports WTOP. The station’s Mark Segraves is providing trial updates on Twitter.
A longtime friend of Price’s, Wone had planned to spend the night after coming into town on business rather than take a late-evening train back to Virginia, where he lived with his wife. Defense lawyers say an intruder broke into the D.C. home and stabbed Wone to death and contend that authorities focused suspicion on the three residents simply because they are gay, recounts the Washington Post.
The mystery of Wone’s murder and the high-profile lawyers concerned have been a magnet for public interest in the case. Among those who will be covering the trial is an intern hired by four gay friends who happened to live near the crime scene and started a blog to report on the case in 2008, when it wasn’t garnering as much interest. At this point, they say, their more than 300-post website has had a million page views, reports the WaPo in another article about trial coverage.
Covington & Burling represents Wone’s family in a civil suit against the three defendants. It seeks $20 million in damages for their alleged concealment of evidence and cover-up of the crime.
Additional coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Attorney Robert Wone’s Murder in Law Partner’s Upscale Home Is Still a Mystery”
Associated Press: “Mystery of lawyer’s killing rivets D.C.”
Washington Post: “In Robert Wone case, Lynn Leibovitz is judge and jury”
