By Pamela Manson
The Salt Lake Tribune
SALT LAKE CITY — Two years after he was sentenced to a federal prison term, the former part-owner of a Salt Lake City restaurant has been granted the right to withdraw a guilty plea to a drug charge and go to trial.
Michael John Nikols had been serving a 70-month sentence. If convicted for his alleged role in a cocaine-trafficking ring, the 42-year-old could be ordered to spend about 27 years behind bars.
U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell based his ruling on the plea withdrawal, which was handed down Monday, on an appeals court decision released Aug. 10 in an unrelated case.
In that matter, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver outlined stricter guidelines on what is considered judicial participation in plea discussions, which is disallowed. Among the forbidden acts is discussing the “penal consequences of a guilty plea as compared to going to trial,” which could be taken as coercive, no matter how well-intentioned.
Cassell noted that he had mentioned the possible lengthy prison term that Nikols faced if found guilty by a jury.
Nikols, then an owner of Coachman’s Dinner & Pancake House at 1300 S. State St., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and was sentenced in October 2005. Authorities claimed that he had operated a ring that sold approximately 24 kilos of the drug each year for almost a decade.
Nikols’ case has been reassigned to Judge Dale Kimball.
Copyright 2007 The Salt Lake Tribune