LEBANON — A former real estate developer who was the purported kingpin of Warren County's largest drug ring is reaching back in time in hope of trimming 10 years from his federal sentence.

Neuhausser

        Randall Neuhausser is serving 30 years in a federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania for his role in a network authorities said funneled more than 720 kilos of cocaine and 3 tons of marijuana to the area since 1993. He has asked a Warren County judge to toss out a 1983 guilty plea to drug trafficking. That could possibly compel a federal judge to recalculate Mr. Neuhausser's sentence, since the previous conviction automatically added 10 years. his Alabama lawyer said Friday.

        Mr. Neuhausser's claim: He was high on vodka and Valium when he pleaded guilty to the earlier charge. He also claims he was misled by the attorney, James Perry, who represented him in that case.

        “There is no way in the world I would have ever plead (sic) guilty to trafficking in drugs if I had been sober. I wanted to go to trial,” Mr. Neuhausser wrote in an affidavit filed in court. He said he was up the night before binging on drugs and liquor.

        On Friday, for the second time in a month, Common Pleas Judge P. Daniel Fedders denied the request for the same reasons he gave in an earlier ruling.

        That decision said Mr. Neuhausser hadn't filed the request within the legal time limits, he was competently represented by counsel at the time of the plea, and he had entered the plea “knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently.”

        Assistant County Prosecutor Leslie Meyer called Mr. Neuhausser's latest maneuver a “desperation move.”

        He spent 11 months in an Ohio prison on the aggravated trafficking charge, and was denied a request in the 1980s to have the case expunged because he had a prior DUI conviction, she said.

        “The simple facts are, it wasn't relevant then,” said defense attorney Robert Ratliff. “Once he got out of prison, it had no relevance to his life. Now it makes a significant difference. It was pretty clear from the record that Randy was intoxicated at the time.”

        Affidavits filed in the case indicate that an attorney who represented Mr. Neuhausser's then-wife in the same case picked Mr. Neuhausser up at his home, took him to his law office just before the 1983 plea hearing before Judge William Young and attempted to sober Mr. Neuhausser up by feeding him coffee.

        However, a written statement from Mr. Perry said Mr. Neuhausser was not under the influence of any substances at the plea hearing.

        Mr. Neuhausser was sent to federal prison in 1999 after he was convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana. His ex-wife, Sheila Neuhausser, and five other associates also were charged following an extensive investigation by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.

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