APPEALS COURT THROWS OUT ONE CONVICTION IN WARREN COUNTY CASE

CINCINNATI (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Wednesday threw out one of
the convictions in a southwest Ohio drug smuggling ring that brought in
cocaine and marijuana.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling, however, does not change the
five-year prison term of Sheila Neuhausser because she was given a
concurrent five-year sentence for another conviction in the case.

Three appellate judges upheld Neuhausser's October 1998 conviction on a
drug smuggling conspiracy charge. But the judges said the government's
evidence failed to support her other conviction on a charge of interstate
travel to promote cocaine distribution.

U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel sentenced Neuhausser after she was
convicted by a federal jury.

Police said the ring led by Neuhausser's former husband, Randall
Neuhausser, brought more than 1,600 pounds of cocaine and 3 tons of
marijuana to southwest Ohio between 1993 and 1998. The appeals court on
Wednesday upheld Randall Neuhausser's drug conspiracy conviction and his
30-year prison sentence.

Investigators said the Lebanon-based ring got the drugs from Florida and
California.

The Neuhaussers and four others were arrested in the spring of 1998 after a
yearlong investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Randall Neuhausser got the harshest sentence because he was the ringleader
and because he failed to accept responsibility for his actions after he was
charged, Spiegel said.

Sheila Neuhausser's lawyer, Clayton Napier, said he may file other appeals
in her behalf.

"I felt like it was a conviction by association, more than anything else,"
Napier said.

William Hunt, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, declined
comment.