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Friday, December 07, 2007

Kott Trial - Calculation of Amount Kott Received Correction

In the previous post I raised a question about the math for figuring out the total amount of money Kott received for the sentencing guidelines. I talked to Lisa Demer (ADN reporter) and she corrected my number for the poll. I'd written down $15,000 and figured that was not right. She said it was $2750 [I think I heard two@750 got $1500 and added a zero to boot.] which now I remember is what it was calculated during the trial. That gets the judge's total of $29, 743. But I also have in my notes: [WARNING: This was typing as fast as I could while he was talking. There are missing pieces and maybe even incorrect pieces.]

Judge: Both agree on $5000. I think the evidence that it was a bribe is insufficient. Allen and Kott were close friends and Allen admired Kott’s work ethic. To Allen, $5000 is not very much money, so he literally probably didn’t care if he didn’t get it back. To Kott, it was fairly significant. Probably he did think of it as a loan. This explanation is just as persuasive as the argument it’s a bribe. But I will keep the $5000 in the calculation of the value.



Lisa didn't hear that and thought the $5000 would be excluded. She has the audio from today and she'll check on that. She's younger and her ears are better, so I probably got that wrong.

If the $5000 were included, it would bump it up to a higher bracket. Right now it is in the $10,000 - $30,000 bracket. That would add points to the sentencing formula. But they already went a little above the formula so it probably wouldn't matter at this point.

[Lisa emailed that the judge said $5000 would NOT be included.]

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