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Campos given work release for felony perjury; Prosecutors still hope to pursue neglect case

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Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

By Joe Gerrety

jgerrety@journalandcourier.com

FOWLER - The uncle of an Oxford boy who went missing and later was found dead was sentenced this week to six months on house arrest and 12 months on probation for perjury.

Miguel Campos, 21, was sentenced Monday by Judge Rex Kepner of Benton Circuit Court after pleading guilty last month to felony perjury.

The perjury case is unrelated to the August 2002 disappearance of Campos' nephew, Nicolas Zavala, 11. Nicolas' remains were found in an Illinois farm field in April 2003.

At the time of his disappearance, Nicolas was living with Campos and Campos' mother, Margaret Williams, in Williams' Oxford home.

Meanwhile, Benton County prosecutors are awaiting word from the Indiana Court of Appeals on whether Campos should face charges of neglect of a dependent for allegedly helping Williams abuse Nicolas in the months leading up to the boy's death.

No one has been charged in connection with Nicolas' death.

Williams is serving a 7 1/2-year prison sentence after February 2004 convictions for neglect of a dependent and battery for meting out cruel forms of punishment to Nicolas in the months leading up to his disappearance.

Campos, who was a juvenile at the time, also was accused of participating in the punishment.

But Campos' attorney in that case, Patrick Harrington, argued successfully to Special Judge Susan Orr Henderson that the neglect charges should be

dismissed because Campos was a juvenile at the time and therefore could not have had a dependent.

The Indiana Court of Appeals has rejected prosecutors' appeal of Henderson's April 25 decision as an interlocutory appeal, that is a determination by an appellate court on whether the judge's ruling was correct.

But the appeals court has not addressed a second element of the appeal, according to deputy prosecutor Craig Jones.

The perjury charge for which Campos was sentenced Monday grew from testimony Campos presented at a July 2003 probation revocation hearing.

At that hearing, Campos testified that he had tested positive for Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication, because he had a valid prescription for the medicine, issued in October 2002, that had been refilled three or four times.

Based on his testimony, Judge Rex Kepner of Benton Circuit Court found prosecutors had failed to prove the alleged probation violation.

But after the hearing, Jones said, investigators checked the original prescription and found that it was non-refillable.

Campos pleaded guilty Aug. 19 to a Class D felony as his perjury trial was scheduled to begin. Campos could petition the court later to have the conviction reduced to a misdemeanor.

2005 Sep 22