kansascity.com: Vick will head back to Leavenworth prison
Vick will head back to Leavenworth prison
Win McNamee
Michael Vick, who probably had hoped to see Leavenworth only in his rear-view mirror, will be coming back to the Kansas prison.
A Virginia judge has decided not to throw Michael Vick a bone.
Vick will head back to prison in Leavenworth after the judge rejected an effort Tuesday to keep the suspended NFL star Vick in Virginia to work on a new bankruptcy plan.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank Santoro denied a motion to require Vick to attend an April 28 status hearing on his case in Newport News.
Vick’s lawyers had hoped such an order would prompt U.S. marshals to leave him at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail in southeastern Virginia until then.
Santoro had ordered Vick to testify in person at a hearing last week, but Santoro ruled Tuesday that he did not need Vick at the next hearing because no evidence will be presented. Vick and his lawyers are developing a new plan for Vick to pay back his creditors after Santoro rejected Vick’s Chapter 11 reorganization plan on Friday.
“It just means he’s going to end up back in Leavenworth, and we’ll have to deal with the case long distance,” said Paul Campsen, one of Vick’s bankruptcy attorneys.
Vick remained in the Suffolk jail late Tuesday afternoon, and it was unclear when he will be returning to the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, where he is serving a 23-month sentence for bankrolling a dogfighting ring.
He is scheduled for transfer to home confinement in Hampton, Va., on May 21 and for release from federal custody July 20.
Vick’s lawyers have frequently lamented that the distance between their East Cost offices and Leavenworth has made his case exceedingly difficult to manage. Campsen said someone from Vick’s legal team will be traveling to Kansas to work with him before the status hearing.
Santoro said Friday that Vick’s plan to repay his creditors was not feasible, largely because there is no assurance that Vick will be able to resume his once-lucrative NFL career. NFL commissioner Roger Goodellhas said only that he will review Vick’s status after he is released from prison.
