Legal News

Judge in Stevens Trial: ?The Government Knew the Documents Were Lies?

By Dan Slater

As predicted, the prosecutorial blunders in the now-concluded trial of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens did not lead to a mistrial. Yet, yesterday’s decision by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to exclude two major categories of evidence could deal a fatal blow to the DOJ’s hopes of achieving a conviction.

Stevens is facing charges that he accepted and failed to report more than $250,000 in gifts — including home renovations — from Veco, an oil-services company.

Judge Sullivan said he would tell the jury today that he was excluding some of the prosecution’s evidence because “the government presented evidence the government knew was not true.” In a special hearing outside the presence of the jury, he said, “The government knew the documents were lies.” (Here are stories from the NYT and the WSJ.)

Here’s what the judge was referring to: the government claims that Veco provided Stevens with about $188,000 in free labor costs to renovate his Alaska home. Prosecutors presented time sheets from Veco workers. One of the workers, David Anderson, listed 280 hours of work in October 2000. But grand jury transcripts that were only recently handed over to the defense show that Anderson was not even in Alaska from late September through early November.

Judge Sullivan, according to the NYT, said he would tell the jury to review the time sheets but with the time attributed to Anderson and another worker, Robert Williams, excluded. (Williams, who was supposed to be a government witness, was sent home to Alaska by prosecutors last week because they said he was ill.)

Judge Sullivan will also tell the jury to ignore the cost of a Land Rover that Stevens allegedly received in a sweetheart deal from Veco CEO Bill Allen. Sullivan said prosecutors should’ve informed defense lawyers of a check they had, from Allen to the dealership, that showed Allen paid $44,300 for it.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on October 09, 2008 (boomark / email).