Pete Kott Trial Day 9

U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska
Court Calendar for Monday, September 17, 2007

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9:00 AM	3:07-CR-00056-01-JWS	Judge Sedwick	Anchorage Courtroom 3
USA vs. PETER KOTT TRIAL BY JURY - DAY 9

Quick Summary:

A few interesting things came up, but nothing spectacular came up as the Prosecutors were trying to dot all the i's and cross all the t's in their case - showing each invoice and check
that would show Kott received something of value from Veco - and the defense trying to show that the government was stretching to try to make their flimsy case.

Witnesses:

Rick Smith - defense finished cross examination including questions about his Veco salary, severance and legal fee payments (more next post), prosecution did its redirect
Linda Croft - an administrative employee at Veco who also handles Bill Allen's personal checking account to confirm invoices (and lack of) on the flooring bills paid to Kott and who wrote and signed the checks.
David Dittman - Of Dittman Research to ask about poll conducted for Kott and who ordered and paid for it. (more next post)
Jennifer Ferguson - A manager at Key Bank to confirm the dates the flooring check was written and deposited and who cashed them (Kott Flooring.)
Bruce Milne - Fairbanks FBI agent who first notified Kott about the tapes and did the first interview with him in his home in Juneau.
Brooks Miles - Executive Director of the Alaska Public Offices Commission who confirmed that it was illegal (at the time being investigated -Jan 1, 2005 - Dec. 31, 2007) for corporations to contribute 'something of value' to political candidates and that polls were specifically mentioned as 'something of value.' (I don't often use pictures I didn't take myself, but when I saw this on the APOC site my reaction was, "Wow, she sure didn't look like that today." She had light yellow hair falling around and framing her face today.)

At the end of the testimony, about 4pm, the defense asked for a Rule 29 Judgment for acquittal on all accounts on the grounds that no reasonable jury could find Kott guilty based on the evidence. The prosecution argued briefly against this. The judge denied the Rule 29 judgment.

At the most crowded there were about 40 spectators in the courtroom. In the afternoon there was a contingent of judges from the Russian Far East in to observe a US courtroom.