[I accidentally deleted this post that I made with a slightly different title at 10:34 am today. I reconstructed it, but it doesn't want to go back to 10:34]
U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska
Court Calendar for Friday, September 21, 2007
| 9:00 AM | 3:07-CR-00056-01-JWS | Judge Sedwick | Anchorage Courtroom 3 | |
| USA vs. PETER KOTT TRIAL BY JURY - DAY 13 | ||||
The first defense witness today, State Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux basically said Pete Kott never threatened or coerced her about legislation.
The second defense witness was Judy Ohmer, a PhD in Education from University of Oregon, and said she has extensive experience in alcohol counseling. She also was a chief of staff for Pete Kott when he was speaker and the term after that.
Kott's attorney, Wendt, seemed to be working an earlier theme that once he was no long speaker of the house Kott had littleen power. Ohmer confirmed this - "As Speaker he was King of the Hill and could pull people together at will. But not when a regular legislator."
He started to ask her if she thought Kott was alcoholic. The Prosecution objected she was not there as an expert witness.
Wendt then asked if she ever saw Kott drinking out of the office.
She replied: ( approximation of what she said)
Absolutely, I had two different bosses. When he was drinking he began
speaking hillbilly, swearing...Cussing more, more biting, more boasting,
exaggerated, 'me Tarzan.'
[Was she suggesting that hillbillies are drunk and cuss a lot?]
The Defense rested at 10am. Judge Sedwick asked if we could have closing arguments this afternoon. Wendt said he preferred Monday, Government said they could go either way.
So the jury will go home soon. The attorneys and the judge have to agree on the jury instructions. Closing arguments will be Monday.
are you a court journalist or something like that?
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteAre you going to be attending the Vic Kohring trial on the same level as Kott's? I was the first person to have an op-ed published critical of Vic - way back in the summer of 2006, and I've been tracking his career ever since, so I'm hoping to be at his trial.
ps - I enjoy what I assume are your steve comments at the next hurrah. I almost got Msrcy Wheeler and her husband up here to go fishing last summer, but she was too busy. Hoping for next summer. Would you be interested in helping me organize stuff for her to do here if she and her husband come up?
Phil Munger
Ropi, Only temporarily. But it's a good question and I'll try to give a fuller answer in a post on the journalist underlying stories.
ReplyDeletePhil, I'll make that decision after this is over. I did blog the Anderson trial which led to this one. It's the natural follow up, but it depends on timing.
Let's connect elsewhere to follow up on the Wheeler stuff.