1Point's Stokes denied pre-trial freedom

Shackled ex-CEO's plea for release cuts no ice with judge, as court hears that not even Mama will help him get out of jail

Email | Print By Richard Lawson

Barry Stokes in better times, now clean-shaven and wearing a jail jumpsuit

Barry Stokes, the fallen founder of bankrupt 1Point Solutions, facing a long list of criminal charges that include embezzlement and fraud, won't be getting out of jail before he faces trial later this year.

After hours of testimony at Nashville's federal court yesterday by defense witnesses, including Stokes himself, U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifton Knowles delivered his decision in about a minute. "I do not find that Mr. Stokes is a credible witness," Knowles ruled, adding that Stokes had contradicted himself in his statements. Absent a preponderance of evidence to suggest that enough mechanisms are in place to ensure Stokes will appear in court, the judge said, there is no reason to release him.

Before the hearing, those in the courtroom could hear Stokes making his way down the hall, his handcuffs and ankle chains clanking rhythmically as he took the short steps that the chains binding his feet allowed. Wearing a burnt-orange jail jumpsuit, the clean-shaven Stokes entered the room with something of a smile for a detention hearing he had succeeded in convincing the judge to reopen.

But it was a bad day for Stokes. It was revealed in court that his own mother wouldn't loan him money for an attorney, and his uncle would provide only limited help should he be released. It also came out that Stokes was gambling at a casino in New Orleans as his company crumbled around him.

Stokes, who has been in jail for seven months because he was deemed a flight risk, pleaded from the witness stand that he would do whatever the judge asked to get out so he could assist in his defense against the seemingly unlimited resources the prosecution has to try him. At one point, he said the prosecution "makes him out to be the worst criminal since Billy the Kid."

The hearing became particularly tough for Stokes when Assistant U.S. Attorney Courtney Trombly played a recording of Stokes' jailhouse phone call with his mother, in which she refused to loan him $10,000 for an attorney. She said until he admitted he had done what he's accused of doing, she wasn't going to help. "You don't seem to realize what they have against you," she said.

Stokes clearly got agitated with his mother, sternly saying to her: "You'll never see me again. You obviously don't want me out." If he were to be sentenced to upwards of 30 years, he said, that's basically a life sentence. He kept assuring her he was innocent. She responded: "I think you are living in a dream world." He hung up on her and hasn't talked to her in months, playing into the prosecution's assertion that his argument that he had strong family ties that would bind him to the area was empty.

His federal public defender, R. David Baker, succeeded in having the recording stricken from the record but it was out there for all to hear nonetheless. Knowles didn't really need that call to aid in his decision. The next recording helped in that, as did the times Trombly tripped up Stokes on cross examination.

Trombly played a recording of Stokes talking to his uncle, Jack Stokes, touting the level of doctoring he had received while in jail. He said the doctor who had treated him was pretty good. "I'd go to him on the street," Stokes said. Overall, he had given his uncle a good impression of his health.

Trombly didn't need to ask any questions. The phone call simply refuted Stokes' argument that his health was deteriorating and that his condition made him less of a flight risk.

For Stokes, Baker called several witnesses before putting Stokes on the stand. There was Jennifer Roberts, a Dickson attorney who represented Stokes in an adoption case in the late 1990s; Brian Carter, an investigator for the public defender's office; Kevin Sharp, a Nashville attorney, who represented Stokes in an adoption matter and initially represented 1Point Solutions when the first civil lawsuits were file; and Stokes' uncle.

On the stand, Jack Stokes said he would provide his nephew a place to stay but only until he could find a place of his own. Barry Stokes has a little more than $10,000 in a bank account that the bankruptcy trustee released to him.

The elder Stokes told the court that he wouldn't put up a bond for Stokes' release, adding that he wouldn't put up money or his property for anyone other than his children. He said Stokes' mother should be the one who puts up the bond.

But it was Stokes on the witness stand that was the highlight. Trombly grilled Stokes on cross examination, poking holes in his claim that his downloaded copy of "How to Change Your Identity" was to help him address security issues for a pending contract between 1Point and American Express.

She challenged him on cashing about $60,000 in checks; using his credit cards to pay a psychic, pay for hotel rooms and buy a camera; and moving Japanese prints to Texas, even though a temporary restraining order was in place forbidding him from doing any of that. Stokes claimed he hadn't seen the restraining order until several days after it was issued. The person who served the order said in an affidavit that he had served Stokes that day of the ruling. Knowles questioned Stokes on why the person serving the order would lie. Stokes said he didn't want to call the man a liar, yet said, "maybe he cut corners."

With respect to the approximately $60,000, Stokes claimed it was to pay back a loan from his wife. But Trombly called him on cashing them separately, questioning whether he intentionally kept the checks under $10,000 to avoid having the bank report the transactions under federal anti-money laundering laws. Stokes said a bank representative recommended that he do it that way.

With the prints, he said he moved them to protect the asset since the power and the security system were going to be turned off where they were stored in Dickson, again interpreting the order.

On the credit cards, Trombly questioned Stokes on his relationship with psychic Gale Carrier. He described her as a friend. "She would do readings for me and tell me what was in the cards for me," he said. Stokes said sometimes he paid her for it. Trombly pointed out the credit card authorizations from jail. He said he interpreted the order as indicating that he could use the credit cards. That prompted Trombly to ask, "Is it hard for you to understand English?" She had to restate the question.

She was establishing that if he interpreted one judge's order what would keep him from interpreting another's order. Stokes attempted to assure the court that he would not interpret the order himself and direct questions to a court representative and follow whatever that person said.

During her cross examination, Trombly went through his credit card charges for casino hotel rooms in New Orleans and Indiana. "Your company is crumbling all around you and you went gambling?" Trombly asked Stokes. The question caught him off guard, and after a long pause, he squeaked out "yes." On redirect by Baker, Stokes said he was in New Orleans interviewing for a job at a healthcare spending account services company like 1Point Solutions — and had broken even playing a little poker.

The only levity during the hearing came when Trombly introduced Stokes' visitation log into evidence to show that only his uncle and attorneys had visited him in jail. Knowles chuckled when he saw the list and Stokes said there was a person on it who clearly had not visited him – Estes Kefauver. That drew laughter in the court.

Kefauver, of course, died in 1963 but the federal building where the court hearing was held is named for the former U.S. Senator. "Even Gale would say I hadn't been visited by Estes," Stokes said. He said with sarcasm that someone from the courthouse with a building badge came by and probably the "highly literate guards read it as Estes."