Charge dropped against Yellow House owners

Federal prosecutors seek new evidence against couple

A federal jury Wednesday found Yellow House Store co-owner Carrie Neighbors guilty on 16 charges. Neighbors and her husband, Guy Neighbors, both face charges in the case.

Owners of the Yellow House Store in Lawrence no longer are facing a federal charge accusing them of possessing guns while being unlawful users of a controlled substance.

But authorities said new charges could follow.

A federal judge on Monday dismissed the charge against Guy and Carrie Neighbors, giving prosecutors time they say they need to follow up on “recently developed significant additional evidence” against the couple, who had been accused and arrested in December.

U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia dismissed the charge “without prejudice,” meaning that prosecutors can refile the charge at a later date.

In his motion seeking dismissal of the charge, U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren said he anticipates filing additional charges once the new evidence is investigated.

Jim Cross, a spokesman for Melgren, said Tuesday that he could not discuss the evidence, nor what charges would be filed or when.

“The government has moved for dismissal without prejudice in anticipation of filing additional charges,” Cross said. “There is significant new evidence in the case that requires investigation.”

Guy Neighbors said Tuesday that he had been notified that he should anticipate facing a “superseding” indictment – specifically, one alleging that he and his wife had been conducting a fencing operation while in possession of drugs and guns – sometime during the next 30 to 60 days.

But after 19 months of investigations, surveillance and other dealings with authorities, Carrie Neighbors said, it’s difficult to understand how any new evidence could be discovered.

“We know we’re innocent, and we’re willing to stand up for that,” she said. “It’s a lot of lies. A lot of lies in this case, a lot of deception.”

She said the dismissal of the charge should free up officials at City Hall to investigate the couple’s own complaints filed against the Lawrence Police Department – complaints, she said, about police conduct that have not been investigated because the couple have been under indictment.

“That’s big for us,” Carrie Neighbors said. “We’re not asking anybody to give us a free ride or tell us we’re not guilty or whatever. We just want our complaints investigated.”

Guy Neighbors said that sales at Yellow House Store, 1904 Mass., had suffered under the weight of police investigations and suspicions from customers, even those who had been frequenting the shop for many of its 26 years.

But business continues.

“We still have a lot of support from the community,” he said.