| Monday, February 18, 2002 | |
| Speedway Owner Denies Charges of Money Laundering | By Rick Anges
(KNS) Volusia Speedway Park owner Richard 'Dicky' Murphy was arrested last week on charges of unlawful drug financial transactions and attempted drug conspiracy.
Murphy tells a different story from the one painted of him in the indictment handed down from Anderson County, South Carolina.
The case against Murphy starts in 1974 when Murphy and an unnamed business partner sold William 'Ronnie' Burkhart a piece of property for $10,000 of which Murphy received $5,000.
Murphy had been a lifelong friend of Burkhart.
Burkhart who died two years ago, was accused of drug smuggling for over 30 years.
The Sheriffs Departments of Anderson and Oconee Counties in northwestern South Carolina have kept the case active.
Among papers Murphy disclosed to KARNAC.com were two letters from the 10th Judicial Circuit in South Carolina offering Murphy complete immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimony against Burkhart.
The first immunity grant was dated January 4th, 2002 and the second came on the 24th of the same month.
Murphy refused the immunity offers stating the State of South Carolina
wanted him to "tell an outright lie" against his lifelong friend.
He also believes this is where the charges of unlawful drug financial
transactions stem from.
Murphy also stated that this case has already been thrown out of Federal, State and County [Anderson County, SC] courts and Sheriff Gene Taylor of Anderson County was instructed not to file the charges again.
Unable to further pursue the case in Anderson County, Sheriff Taylor went to the Sheriff of adjoining Oconee County.
The warrants Murphy was arrested on by the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency on Thursday originated in Oconee County.
Against a no bail request in South Carolina warrants, Murphy was granted $300,000 bail and released.
"We believe Burkhart smuggled large quantities of cocaine and marijuana for about 30 years and went untouched" said Taylor in statements related to the warrant.
Although there have been no convictions in the case, approximately 6 million dollars in property to date has been seized.
"They took everything out of this man's [Burkhart] house and sold it at auctions," said Murphy. "The Sheriff [Taylor] even drove Ronnie's Jeep."
"This is the worse case of abuse and misuse by a law enforcement authority I've seen in the more than 20 years I have been practicing law," said Harlan Paul, Murphy's attorney.
"They're more interested in getting their hands on people's property than they are in truth and couldn't care less about trampling on the rights of innocent people to do so."
Murphy intends to take this as far as the law will let him and said in the end he will be exonerated and the real truth will be known.
"It was embarrassing for my son, but I feel real good about the case, and I'm going to sue them," Murphy said.
On a lighter note, when asked how his Winter Nationals went, Murphy replied, "Other than two rainouts and spending the night in jail they went fine."
-Rick Anges
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