Perry March pleads innocent to charges

Perry March, who also pleaded innocent to charges of abusing a corpse and tampering with evidence, was deported by Mexican authorities earlier this month to face the charges.

One of March’s attorneys, William Massey, said he was meeting with prosecutors to learn what evidence the government would present to try to tie March to the 1996 disappearance of his wife, Janet Levine March.

“This is hard on Mr. March,” said Massey, who expects the trial to begin by January. “This is breaking his heart.”

Law enforcement authorities have not said anything about the evidence against March.

The body of Janet March, who was 33 at the time she went missing, has never been found. She was officially declared dead in 2004.

She was an active member of the arts community in Nashville and her father was a veteran lawyer, so the case and its mystery stirred speculation for almost a decade among the city’s upper crust and others.

March, 44, has been in the city’s jail since making his first courtroom appearance last week in Nashville, when he was served a grand jury indictment on the three charges.

According to the indictment, March is accused of killing his wife Aug. 15, the day she disappeared and then disposing of her body sometime later that month.

Then in September, March did “intentionally or knowingly alter, destroy or conceal any record, document, or thing with intent to impair its verity, legibility or availability as evidence in the investigation,” the indictment says.

Prosecutors list several dozen witnesses they plan to call in their case, including Janet March’s mother Carolyn Levine, former U.S. Attorney Hal Hardin, the Marches’ nanny Ella Goldsmidt, Metro Councilman Chris Whitson and Nashville television reporter Larry Brinton.

Before Wednesday afternoon’s arraignment, March appeared in Juvenile Court after his former in-laws, Lawrence and Carolyn Levine, obtained an emergency order that allows them temporary custody of March’s two children until a full hearing on the case is held.

After the arraignment, March was expected back at Juvenile Court to resume the hearing, which is closed to the public. The Levines have long tried to win custody of the children, who had been living with March and his new wife in Ajijic, Mexico.