VERMONT – A man was indicted for claiming that he would influence the outcome of the trial of Billionaire John Goodman who was charged with drunken-driving manslaughter
James D. Perron, 48, of Tinmouth, for three counts of wire fraud and is facing up to 20 years behind bars along with a fine of up to $250,000 for each count, federal officials said.
Goodman, a polo magnate, was convicted for drunken driving manslaughter and failure to render aid in October. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Friday.
According to the indictment, Perron claimed in text messages sent from Vermont to Florida that through a relative on the jury he could influence the outcome of Goodman’s high profile trial.
Perron claimed that for an initial down payment of $500,000 he would obtain a hung jury for Goodman and expect to receive another $500,000 upon completion. Perron also wrote that if he got an acquittal for Goodman he would expect a final payoff of $1 million from Goodman, according to authorities.
Perron lied. He didn’t have the ability to fulfill his claim.
Goodman was re-tried in Palm Beach County by a jury drawn from the Tampa area of Florida after a new trial was ordered based upon juror misconduct, officials said.
The retrial began on October 6 and concluded when the jury returned guilty verdicts on October 28, officials said.
Goodman was arrested on October 26, 2014, before the verdict was returned.
During the retrial, the Sun Sentinel newspaper reported that the prosecutors said Goodman was speeding in his Bentley Continental GTC convertible at 63 mph, blew a stop sign and slammed into 23-year-old Scott Patrick Wilson’s Hyundai Sonata on Feb. 12, 2010.
Wilson, a University of Central Florida engineering graduate, drowned after his car was flipped upside down into a canal.
The Sun Sentinel reported that Goodman spent several hours before the 1 a.m. crash drinking at three Wellington bars that serve the polo community, the prosecutors said. Goodman had a .177 blood-alcohol content, more than twice the .08 legal limit to drive, as well as trace amounts of hydrocodone, according to a blood sample taken three hours after the crash.
But the defense argued Goodman was not intoxicated when he was driving, the newspaper reported.