By Keith L. Alexander
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 22, 2008

Two District men charged with obstruction of justice in connection with the 2006 stabbing death of a prominent Washington lawyer pleaded not guilty yesterday in D.C. Superior Court. They were released from custody and ordered to wear ankle monitoring bracelets.

Appearing before Judge Frederick H. Weisberg, Joseph Price, 37, and Victor J. Zaborsky, 42, agreed to enter the monitoring program in exchange for being released from jail.

Price had been in the D.C. jail since turning himself in to authorities Thursday. Zaborsky turned himself in yesterday morning.

They and another roommate, Dylan M. Ward, 38, were charged this week with obstructing the investigation into the death of Robert Wone, 32, a lawyer with Radio Free Asia and president-elect of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association's Washington chapter.

Wone had worked late Aug. 2, 2006, and arranged to spend the night in a guestroom of the six-bedroom Dupont Circle townhouse where the three housemates lived.

Wone and Price were college friends, and Wone became acquainted with Ward and Zaborsky through Price. Sometime that evening, police say, Wone was drugged, sexually assaulted and fatally stabbed.

No one has been accused in Wone's slaying.

A hearing for Zaborsky and Price is scheduled for Dec. 19. Ward, who was arrested in Miami this month and is being flown to the District, is expected to be arraigned in Superior Court next week.

Yesterday's hearing for Price had been continued from Thursday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner, chief of the homicide division, initially asked the court to hold Price, a lawyer with the prominent firm Arent Fox, on a $100,000 bond. Kirschner said he was concerned that Price would flee to Miami.

Last year, Price and Zaborsky sold their Dupont Circle home for $1.47 million and bought a home in Miami, where Ward was living when he was arrested. Price and Zaborsky had been renting a home in the District since then. According to a court transcript, Zaborsky recently obtained a Florida driver's license.

"This is not only a horrific crime but an extremely concerted effort at a coverup by all three conspirators to get away with this crime," Kirschner said Thursday.

Price's attorney, Bernard Grimm, said his client was not charged with murder, could not pay the bond and posed no flight risk.

"He doesn't have it," Grimm said of the bond. Yesterday, Kirschner modified his position, saying electronic monitoring would be sufficient. Ward's attorney, David Schertler, was present even though his client is still en route. He said that even monitoring is excessive.

"No one has even attempted to flee or cause any danger," he said. "High supervision is not appropriate."

Price and Zaborsky agreed to turn in their passports, undergo random drug testing and abide by a curfew. They were ordered to have no contact with any of Wone's relatives, including his widow, Kathy.

If convicted, each man could face three to 30 years in prison.