David Fisher, a Rogers attorney accused of conspiring with convicted northwest Arkansas developer Brandon Barber, was acquitted Wednesday in federal court.
After deliberating for about an hour and 25 minutes, the jury acquitted Fisher of one count of conspiring to commit bank fraud, court records show. Fisher, who was defended by Little Rock attorney Tim Dudley, testified in his own defense during the trial, which began Monday.
The acquittal comes after another Barber co-defendant, Brandon Rains, pleaded guilty to a federal crime on Thursday.
Rains, who had been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of money laundering, made a deal Thursday in which prosecutors dropped the original charges and instead elicited a guilty plea to a single count of making a fraudulent representation to the FBI.
Rains' plea was accepted by U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III, but no sentencing date has been scheduled.
Barber pleaded guilty to his role in the cases at the end of July. A third co-defendant, James Van Doren, pleaded guilty in August to a single count of money laundering for helping Barber hide money from his creditors. A fourth defendant in that case, Fayetteville attorney K. Vaughn Knight, is set for trial on 11 counts including bankruptcy fraud and money laundering beginning Nov. 4.
Another northwest Arkansas developer didn’t live long enough to be indicted. Gary Combs, who died last year in California at age 59, was the individual described in the Barber, Whorton and Rains indictment as “a person known to the grand jury,” documents suggest and sources have confirmed to Arkansas Business.
