Stevens trial gets odd with 'hand signals,' taped phone calls, workouts
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, leaves the U.S. District Court in Washington after his trial Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008. By JESSE J. HOLLAND Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) - In the latest sideshow at Sen. Ted Stevens's corruption trial, the federal judge overseeing the case accused the lawyer for the government's star witness of making secret signals to his client during a crucial cross-examination.
"He's fortunate he went out that door and not the back door with the marshals," an angry U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said about lawyer Robert Bundy, who was sitting in the public gallery facing his client, VECO founder and key witness against Stevens, Bill Allen.
Stevens, 84, is charged with lying on financial disclosure forms to conceal more than $250,000 in cabin renovations and other gifts from Allen and his oil pipeline firm, VECO Corp. The patriarch of Alaska politics hopes to clear his name with an acquittal before voters go to the polls next month to vote on whether to return him to a seat he's held for 40 years.
Allen, who pleaded guilty to bribing state lawmakers and agreed to testify against Stevens in exchange for immunity for his family and a possible break at sentencing, resumed testifying Tuesday.
But before allowing Allen to start, Sullivan and Stevens's defense team both say they saw Bundy making signals to Allen while defense lawyer Brendan Sullivan was questioning the witness on Monday. The judge questioned Bundy briefly on Monday, and said he was thinking about questioning him again Tuesday morning, calling it "borderline obstruction of justice."
Bundy did not come to the courtroom on Tuesday thinking he would not be welcome, law partner Creighton Magid said. "He is torn up about this," said Magid, who also said Bundy "vehemently denies" making any signals to Allen. Magid said he would represent Allen if needed during the resumption of his testimony Tuesday. Sullivan brought up the alleged signals from Bundy during his cross-examination of Allen. "Did you see him nod his head when you gave certain answers?" Sullivan said. "No," Allen answered. "He did not do that." Sullivan on Monday also ordered the government to file a formal response to repeated defense claims that prosecutors intentionally withheld evidence favorable to their client. In a late Monday night filing, prosecutors said they had done nothing wrong and called the defense claims "the latest salvo in their effort to derail the trial." Defense lawyers, in their own late night filings, said federal prosecutors are showing an "utter lack of contrition" for not getting them the evidence and noted that they got even more material on Monday that they'd never seen before. While this was going on outside the view of the jury, Allen testified in open court that he had never targeted Stevens for any under-the-table money.
"You never sought to bribe Sen. Stevens, did you, sir?" defense lawyer Brendan Sullivan said.
"No," Allen replied. Prosecutors also played taped conversations between the two fishing and drinking buddies, where Stevens proclaimed his innocence while pleading with the VECO founder to take better care of his health.
"I don't think we've done anything wrong, Bill," Stevens said. "I tell you right now, I've told my lawyer I can't think of a thing we've done that's wrong."
Stevens also showed flashes of being a sometimes salty, always defiant health nut. "I hope you do yourself a favor and get yourself a trainer and come over to the house there and get yourself some workout every day. Keep yourself going now, my friend," Stevens said in one of the taped conversations.
"I will," Allen replied halfheartedly. "I've never been up against a bunch like this before, and I hope you'll really take care of yourself," Stevens pressed him before describing investigators with a couple of profanities.
A former district attorney himself, Stevens warned Allen repeatedly in one conversation not to stand in the way of investigators and end up facing an obstruction of justice charge.
"As far as I'm concerned, they can look. I don't have any problem," Stevens said. "It may be what we've done leaves the impression we've done something wrong, but you have to make up your mind you're doing something wrong, you have to have an intention to do something wrong to really be guilty of a crime. So it's a long way before we're going to be in front of a jury. I hope to God neither one of us is, but we don't want to get ourselves there by trying to do something that leads to a different kind of charge."
On the Net: Justice Department documents: http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/us-v-stevens/
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) |
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