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Your Host: Relmond Van Daniker has worked in the government financial management field for 30 years, including 26 years with associations. He is currently the executive director of AGA - the Association of Government Accountants - since October 2003. Prior to this, he spent 18 years as the Executive Director of the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers (NASACT). He is currently Professor Emeritus at University of Kentucky.
Judge Says Lentz Could Be Free in 48 Hours
March 31, 2005 - 6:14am
WTOP's Hank Silverberg at the courthouse in Alexandria
By DERRILL HOLLY
Associated Press Writer
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A federal judge who overturned Jay Lentz's capital kidnapping conviction ruled Tuesday the former naval intelligence officer could be released without bond in 48 hours.
U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee gave prosecutors that much time to appeal his decision to toss Lentz's conviction on kidnapping resulting in the death of his ex-wife.
Lee also said it would take that long to make arrangements for releasing Lentz, 44, who has been jailed since his arrest 27 months ago.
Lee said it could take as long as six additional months for the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond to rule on the case.
Doris Lentz, 31, vanished in April 1996. Her body has never been found, though her bloodstained car turned up in Washington, D.C. Prosecutors contend Jay Lentz lured her from her Arlington home to his Fort Washington, Md., home under the pretext of picking up their daughter, Julia. The girl, who was 4 at the time, was actually with relatives in Indiana.
Lee ruled that Lentz should be free to return to Bloomington, Ind., where he will live with his mother and daughter, who is now 12. Lentz will be subject to home monitoring and prohibited from owning guns or contacting anyone involved with the case.
Lentz was convicted after an unusual break in deliberations. Jurors worked four days before telling Lee they were deadlocked. He urged them to continue, and they returned the following day, June 24, but were still unable to decide. Lee was scheduled to begin vacation June 25, and agreed to let the panel resume deliberations July 7.
When they did, jurors convicted Lentz in under an hour. They later recommended a sentence of life without parole, rather than the death penalty.
In overturning the conviction, Lee wrote in a 55-page opinion that there was "no evidence Jay Lentz held or detained Ms. Lentz as part of a kidnaping," meaning Lentz "was improperly convicted."
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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