Judge Throws Out Key Evidence in Stevens TrialThe judge in the Ted Stevens trial today threw out two major pieces of evidence, after it was revealed that prosecutors failed to provide the defense with crucial information.
According to Politico:
Judge Sullivan is throwing out a portion of the business records from Veco Corp., whose former CEO, Bill Allen, allegedly spent $188,000 renovating Stevens’ home in Girdwood, Alaska. Two former Veco employees, Rocky Williams and Dave Anderson, are on the company’s records as having spent significant time working on Stevens’ home in late 2000 and early 2001.But prosecutors never presented testimony from Williams, who was suppose to be the foreman on the home project, and instead shepherded him out of Washington right before the trial started, all without informing Stevens’ attorneys.
And Anderson told the grand jury that he was in Portland, Ore., not Alaska, in late 2000, when Veco’s records have him as working on Stevens’ home. Prosecutors knew that Anderson had told the grand jury that and did not tell the defense team.
So Judge Sullivan excluded the portion of Veco’s records that reference Anderson and Williams’ work on Stevens’ home, and he will instruct the jury that the government knowingly used false evidence in its case.
And:
Judge Sullivan will also exclude all evidence from a 1999 car swap between Allen and Stevens in which Stevens got a new Land Rover from Allen in return for a beat-up 1964 Mustang and some cash.Prosecutors failed to turn over to Stevens’ defense team a copy of the check which Allen used to pay for the Land Rover. Defense counsel alleged that they their case had been hurt when they cross-examined Allen over the transaction, which they only did because — they asserted — they didn’t have Allen’s original check.
Tomorrow, Stevens’ lawyers are expected to offer a motion for a mistrial, based on prosecutorial misconduct.