Nov 28, 2008  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR  | COMMENTS     

Two of the three gay men indicted last week on an obstruction of justice charge for the August 2006 murder of attorney Robert Wone were cleared for supervised release after pleading not guilty at a D.C. Superior Court arraignment.

At the request of prosecutors, Judge Frederic Weisberg agreed Nov. 21 to drop the government’s earlier request that Joseph Price be held on $100,000 bail. Price, his domestic partner, Victor Zaborsky, and a former housemate, Dylan Ward, were indicted Nov. 19 on the obstruction of justice charge in connection with Wone’s murder.

In a combined bail hearing and arraignment Nov. 21 for Price and Zaborsky, Weisberg agreed to the government’s new request that the two men be released without having to post bail. Under the release arrangement, the two men must wear an electronic ankle bracelet that monitors their whereabouts and must be confined to their homes during a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

The terms of their release also prohibit them from having any contact with Kathy Wone, Robert Wone’s widow, or any member of the Wone family, and requires that the two undergo regular drug tests.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner, the prosecutor in the case, declined comment after the hearing when a reporter asked why the government decided to drop its earlier request that Price post $100,000 bail.

Wone, a prominent Washington attorney, was found stabbed to death in the guest bedroom of the Dupont Circle townhouse where Price, Zaborsky and Ward lived in August 2006.

Ward, who recently moved to a suburb of Miami, was arrested on the obstruction of justice charge four weeks ago by authorities in Florida at the request of D.C. police.

In a separate arraignment held Tuesday, Weisberg agreed to release Ward into the same pre-trial, supervised release program he approved for Price and Zaborsky.

Weisberg also scheduled a Dec. 9 status hearing for all three defendants. Prosecutors were expected to make a request at the hearing that the three men stand trial together.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office said Zaborsky was arrested Nov. 21 after he surrendered to police under a prior arrangement with prosecutors. Price was taken into custody 24 hours earlier after surrendering to police.

During an earlier arraignment for Price on Nov. 20, courtroom observers were startled when Zaborsky entered the courtroom as a spectator to watch the arraignment along with friends of Price and Ward. Zaborsky sat on the opposite side of the spectators seating area from where Kathy Wone was sitting.

Sources familiar with the case said prosecutors most likely made arrangements for Zaborsky to surrender to authorities the following day, allowing him to observe his partner’s court proceeding as a spectator.

The three men have said they believe an intruder killed Wone after entering the house through a rear door while they were asleep in their bedrooms. Investigators, however, have said that crime scene evidence made it unlikely that an intruder entered the house on the night of the murder.

Speaking through their attorneys last year, the men said they have cooperated with the police investigation and voluntarily gave DNA and fingerprint samples to authorities.

In an e-mail sent last week to friends, Price solicited contributions for a legal defense fund to help the three men pay legal expenses. He called the obstruction of justice charge “meritless” and characterized as “inexplicable” the police “theory that we were somehow involved in Robert’s death.”

Wone was a friend of Price from their days as students at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He had been spending the night at Price’s house on the night of the murder after working late at his D.C. job as general counsel for Radio Free Asia. He lived with his wife in Oakton, Va.

After Price’s earlier arraignment, Kirschner declined to say why Zaborsky had not been arrested as of
Nov. 20.

At the request of prosecutor Kirschner, nearly the entire proceeding at the Nov. 20 arraignment was held at the judge’s bench in private. Price remained silent during the proceeding except to respond to a request by the courtroom clerk that he speak his name for the record.

“Joseph Price,” he replied.

Price, an attorney, has worked for the prestigious Washington law firm Arent Fox. The firm announced last month that he would take a leave of absence following the release by police of a detailed affidavit in support of the allegation that Price, Zaborsky and Ward obstructed justice in the Wone murder.

According to the 14-page affidavit, the three men allegedly hindered the police investigation by “orchestrating the crime scene, planting evidence, delaying the reporting ...