Nealley delays guilty plea

A last-minute motion today breathed new life into Jodie Nealley's legal proceedings, even as onlookers dotted a Woburn courtroom expecting to hear a guilty plea.

During closed-door proceedings at the Middlesex County Superior Court, Attorney Howard Lewis convinced a judge to order a pre-sentence investigation to determine whether Nealley, his client, can avoid incarceration.

As a result, Lewis decided to withhold entering a guilty plea for Nealley until the next court date, which was scheduled today for June 11. At that time, Nealley will also receive her sentence.

While Lewis and Attorney Steven Goldwyn, who represents Ray Rodriguez, conferenced today with Judge Sandra Hamlin, both Rodriguez and Nealley sat waiting in the courtroom.

Flanked by her son, her spouse and a handful of friends from Gamblers Anonymous, Nealley sat toward the front of the room, occasionally tearing up as she chatted with her supporters.

Rodriguez, meanwhile, sat alone in the back, arms crossed and eyes averted. Unlike Nealley, Rodriguez has not publicly indicated whether or not he will change the not-guilty plea he made in August; both he and Goldwyn declined to comment today.

Nealley, the former director of student activities, and Rodriguez, her former coworker, are charged with stealing a combined total of nearly $1 million from the university in separate schemes.

Until earlier this week, neither had offered any public explanation for their alleged involvement in the embezzlement scandal. But on Wednesday, Lewis told the Daily that Nealley took over $300,000 from the university to feed a gambling addiction.

As part of today's agreement, an officer from the court's Probation Department will interview Nealley and her family and submit a report to Hamlin.

The officer will look to determine whether Nealley is a suitable candidate to receive probation rather than time behind bars. Hamlin will take the report into consideration when she sentences Nealley.

"[This] gives Probation time to meet with Jodie and her son and her spouse and see where she lives and see if there's something they can do besides putting her in jail," Lewis told the Daily.

Currently, Middlesex County District Attorney Gerry Leone's office is requesting three years of incarceration for Nealley, but according to Lewis, "that's not going to happen."

While Lewis is seeking probation, at Tufts, the administration appears to favor a harsher sentence.

"I think that the university feels that this crime deserves a punishment that reflects the impact that it had on the university community, and jail time would be appropriate," Senior University Counsel Dickens Mathieu told the Daily today.

Mathieu, who was expecting a guilty plea, was at court today on behalf of Tufts and was prepared to read a victim impact statement. But as a result of the motion, he will delay presenting it until June 11.

Lewis countered that jail time would not be useful in this case. "Putting her in jail will cost the commonwealth a lot of money, and it's not going to do any good," he said.

After their court appearance, both Nealley and Rodriguez filled out forms that are the first step in setting up an interview with the Probation Department. As a condition of today's arrangement, the Probation Department will also conduct a pre-sentencing investigation for Rodriguez, even as it remains unclear if he is bracing himself for a trial.

As they handled the paperwork, Rodriguez was unaccompanied, while Nealley, who declined to comment, left the courthouse surrounded by her supporters.

"She's very emotional," Lewis said. "Above all else, she's embarrassed and she feels horrible about how she let down Tufts."