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| Doctor's early prison release shocks victim, authorities |
| By rgj.com - Steve Timko |
| Published: 09/12/2011 |
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Nine years ago, Carson City emergency room doctor Richard Conte kidnapped his ex-wife, Lark Gathright-Elliott, in Utah, drugged her and drove her to his Douglas County home, where he chained her to a bed. Conte, 61, got a 15-year prison sentence in 2003 for second-degree kidnapping and illegally administering a drug and was sent to prison. Gathright-Elliott was stunned to learn on Aug. 22 that Conte wasn't going to be released from prison in late September as originally expected. Thanks to last-minute credits for participating in a prison program, he was getting out the following Sunday, Aug. 28. "I felt very angry," Gathright-Elliott said in an interview. "I felt very frustrated by a system that was supposed to protect me. I needed the time to file a restraining order and prepare myself for the fact that my kidnapper was going to walk free." The release was also a surprise to authorities in Conway, Ark. Cody Hiland had been elected prosecuting attorney for the area last year, and his platform against his opponent included criticism for not prosecuting Conte on a pair of murder charges in Conway. Carter Elliott, a man to whom Gathright-Elliott was married before her three-month marriage to Conte, was murdered a month before Conte kidnapped her. So was Timothy Robertson, Carter Elliott's employee. The Conway Police Department checked in July and was told Conte's release was going to be the end of September, Hiland said. After hearing of Conte's impending release on Aug. 28, Hiland's office filed criminal charges in Conway on the Friday before his release and got an Arkansas judge to issue a warrant for Conte's arrest. Hiland is seeking the death penalty on murder charges. Conte is fighting extradition to Arkansas. "We had enough time to file," Hiland said. "That's the important thing here, that we were able to make a decision prior to Mr. Conte being released." When Conte was scheduled to be released, he would have served every possible day available in his sentence in Nevada's prison system. He was not being paroled, and he would not have been under supervision once he was free. In prison parlance, he had flattened out his time. So what could this have meant to Arkansas authorities if Conte went free before they filed charges? "I hate to speculate on hypothetical situations because that's not the way it went down," Hiland responded. The Nevada Department of Corrections said there was little it could do about Conte's last-minute efforts that got his release date changed. It came out during his parole hearing that Conte has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Conte took part in a senior structured-living program designed to help inmates cope with infirmities, said Steve Suwe, a Nevada Department of Corrections classification and planning specialist. Read More. |
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