A combat veteran from Chautauqua County charged in an alleged kidnapping and murder plot nine years ago — and paralyzed in a shooting in 2019 — must remain in custody ahead of his trial, said a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo on Thursday overturned a decision from another judge, who in April agreed to release Anthony Neubauer to an inpatient center for mental-health and alcohol-abuse treatment.
Neubauer, who was indicted in March on a charge of kidnapping resulting in death, has remained in custody at a medium-security prison in Youngstown, Ohio, as prosecutors appealed Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy’s release order. Prosecutors say Neubauer kidnapped a person identified as “J.A.” on May 27, 2014, and took the victim from New York to Pennsylvania.
“Once there, the defendant shot and killed J.A.,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Adler said at a March 31 hearing, calling Neubauer a flight risk. “Simply put, this is murder just with a different name. Kidnapping resulting in death is the name of the charge, but the factual underlying basis of this case is a murder.”
In a June 16 court filing, Adler called Neubauer too dangerous for release “because he is a murderer, he is skilled with firearms, he deals with drug addiction, and he knows that people to whom he confessed have testified in the grand jury against him.”
Adler called Neubauer “a highly-ranked marksman in the military,” and his access to firearms means there are no conditions for pretrial release that can guarantee the safety of others, especially probation officers who would have to check in on him.
Defense attorney Eric Soehnlein told Vilardo at a June 29 hearing that Neubauer “really doesn’t have anywhere to flee to.”
Neubauer, 36, enlisted in the Marines as a 17-year-old, fighting on the front lines during his four tours of duty in Iraq. After five years with the Marines, he enlisted in the Army, where he went overseas again and fought in combat, according to Soehnlein.
“He’s received more awards and honors for his military service than we could list,” Soehnlein told McCarthy at the March hearing. “He received an award for being the most decorated soldier in the Southern Tier.
“It should come as no surprise that when Mr. Neubauer returned home after having seen what he had seen, he struggled to re-acclimate into society,” Soehnlein said. “He has very real, very serious issues with PTSD that led to some very real and some very serious issues with substance abuse. He wants to seek help for those issues.”
Since he’s been in custody, the Veterans Administration and other organizations have indicated they would be willing to help him, if he is released, Soehnlein said.
Soehnlein also noted medical concerns about Neubauer’s infections, saying he has suffered from cellulitis, a urinary tract infection and a colostomy infection. He was admitted to Erie County Medical Center several times to address infections when he was initially locked up locally.
Neubauer has been investigated in this case since 2015, meeting with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies numerous times, his defense lawyer said.
“He never fled. He never went anywhere. He met with them without attorneys, even though he was aware of the allegations that were being made against him,” Soehnlein said at the hearing. “He’s not a flight risk.”
Until his arrest, Neubauer thought he had outsmarted the FBI, so he had no reason to flee, Adler replied.
Neubauer “made statements to multiple witnesses, both explicitly and implicitly, that he had beat the FBI,” Adler said in a court filing.
Now that he knows at least three witnesses have testified in the grand jury, Adler said, “he realizes he did not, in fact, outsmart law enforcement.”
Neubauer’s lawyer said he lacks the financial means to go anywhere.
He also has physical limitations. Neubauer was shot outside of a bar in 2019 in Jamestown and remains paralyzed.
“His military history is impressive,” Soehnlein told McCarthy at a March 31 hearing. “He struggles with mental health and substance abuse issues that, I think, stem from his military service. And I think he should be allowed to get help on those issues while he’s awaiting trial in this matter.”
Vilardo noted in his ruling Thursday that “the government paints a very different picture of Neubauer,” citing his unemployment since 2015 and his alleged role as an enforcer for a Jamestown drug trafficking organization.
The government described the circumstances of the 2019 shooting, which resulted in Neubauer’s paralysis, as his attempted assault on behalf of a drug trafficker that went “horribly wrong,” Vilardo said.
Vilardo also expressed concern over Neubauer’s drug overdose on April 5 in the Chautauqua County jail.
Neubauer has insisted that he did not “do this to himself,” suggesting that perhaps someone slipped him something while at lunch, his attorney said.
Adler said video footage disproved Neubauer’s assertion that an unusual number of inmates had approached him at lunch that day. The video showed that Neubauer had only one interaction with any other inmate during lunch, Adler said.
“The fact that Neubauer was able to obtain drugs while in prison makes the court quite concerned about his ability to get drugs while released,” Vilardo said in his decision. “And his overdose while in prison — perhaps survived only because of the quick medical attention he received — only heightens that concern.
“Neubauer’s explanation to Judge McCarthy — that he may have been slipped a mickey because an unusual number of prisoners visited him at lunch that day — does not pass muster,” Vilardo said. “The video belies that explanation. And Neubauer’s willingness to create a story out of whole cloth to gain his release makes the court far less confident about his willingness to flee, or perhaps harm himself, given the life imprisonment he might face if convicted.”
Vilardo said he “cannot in good conscience … conclude anything other than that remand is required.”
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