Kott-Weyhrauch Pre-Trial 4 - Sparring over Technical Matters

The government's attorneys have said they now want to split the two cases so they can appeal the judge's ruling not to include the claim that Kott and Weyhrauch were required by state law to disclose that they were negotiating with VECO for jobs.

Weyhrauch had tried to sever the cases before and the government opposed it. Now the government wants them severed so they can appeal the ruling in Weyhrauch's case, but not Kott's. They have lots of other things on Kott.

Weyhrauch's attorney, Doug Pope, argued that a case in the 9th circuit allowed the judge to dismiss charges if he found the Government was using the appeal as a delaying tactic. So things are in recess as the judge reads the related cases.

On another note, I mentioned that John McKay is the attorney for KTUU and the Daily News who are 'interested parties' in the case. One thing he's gotten for them is that journalists can now bring the cell phones past the security.

More later.

Kott/Weyhrauch Pre-Trial 3 - The Charges

[Note: I'm not an attorney. If I get something wrong here and you are an attorney or otherwise know this stuff, please leave a comment to correct it. I'll try to qualify everything as I write. This is all "as I understand it" and as best as I can read my notes.]

From the Case Summary in the Court Computer System (available free in the Clerk's Office 2nd Floor of the Anchorage Federal Building and from the May 3, 2007 indictment)
Count 1: 18:371 Conspiring to commit extortion under color of official right, bribery, and honest services mail and wire fraud. (As I understand this from the Anderson trial, 'color of official right' relates to the defendants having been public officials and thus were doing things in that capacity.)

Count 2: 18:1951(a) and 2 Interference with commerce by extortion induced under color of official right.

[The Summary skips from Count 2 to Count 4. The May 5 Indictment has "(Kott)" written at the end of Count 2 and adds Count 3. Count 3 is the same as Count 2 except a) it has 'Attempted" at the beginning and "(Weyhrauch).

Count 4: 18:666(a)(1)(B) [Some might think Devil worshipers wrote this part of the code] Bribery concerning programs receiving Federal Funds. (I think this refers to grants and other government programs receiving a minimum amount of federal funding. I think in the Anderson trial it was $10,000 - and that was why they kept asking witnesses how much federal funding their agencies received.)

[In the May 5 indictment Count 4 ends with "(Kott)" and Count 5 is identical except "(Weyhrauch)" is at the end.]]

Count 6:18:1343, 1346 an 2. Honest Services Wire Fraud.
Again - Count 6 is for "(Kott)" and Count 7 is for "(Weyhrauch)" in the indictment.


The Indictment Basically covers:

Introductory/Summary Material (P.1-2)

• NAMES OF ALL THE ATTORNEYS
• LIST OF DEFENDANTS AND BRIEF SUMMARY OF CHARGES
  

INDICTMENT (P. 2)

COUNT ONE (P. 2-21)

• General Allegations (pp. 3-4 lists key players/entities in case)
• Peter Kott
• Kott's Hardwood Flooring
• Bruce Weyhrauch
• Company A [clearly VECO]
• Alaska State Legislature (of which Kott and Weyhrauch were members and which had business with Company A)
• Company [A] CEO [Bill Allen]
• Company [A] Vice President [Rick Smith]
• State Senator A [Confirmed this week by Judge Sedwick as Ben Stevens]
• Political Polling company with offices in Anchorage [Some blogs and Wikipedia I assume this is as Dittman Research but I couldn't find a more solid source for this.]
• Suite 604 of a Juneau Hotel [The Baranof] rented by Company A CEO and VP and others.

• Alaska's Intra-State Natural Gas Pipeline (pp. 4-5)

[Discusses the legislative battle over the pipeline and Company A's interest in this.]

• The Conspiracy (pp. 6-7)
• (A) Kott and Weyhrauch "unlawfully obtain[ed] ... money and other property... in agreement for the performance of official acts, in violation of Title 18..."
• (B) 'corruptly solicit ..anything of value ...for KOTT and WEYHRAUCH ... while an agent for the State...an entity that received more than $10,000 in federal funding [the minimum necessary amount under the charge] ...with the intent . . . would each be influence and rewarded ..."
• (C) "to devise...a scheme...to defraud...the State of its intangible right to honest services and for the purpose of executing the scheme . . . to ...transmit . . . writing and sounds . . .in communications in interstate commerce by means of wire...in the US mails in violation of Title 18..."
• Objects of the Conspiracy (pp. 7-8)
• To provide Kott with money and future employment when he left the legislature for legislative favors
• To provide Weyhrauch with money for legislative favors
• For both to use the US mails to carry this out
• Manner and Means of the Conspiracy (pp8-9)
  
• Both (1) 'voting in favor of versions of the PPT [Petroleum Production Tax] bill supported by Company CEO...VP, Company A, and the oil producers
• Both (2) "lobbying other elected public officials to support versions of the PPT bill that [Company A and friends] favored; and"
• Both (3) "offering to assist and help [Company A and friends] by providing official support for the natural gas pipeline legislation and the PPT bill."
• For Kott, additionally, that he got some illegal payments through invoices for flooring work through Kott Hardwood Flooring.
• For Weyhrauch, that he got extra contractual legal work from Company A.
• Overt Acts (pp. 9-21)
• [Each paragraph in the indictment is numbered. As you can see there are 13 pages listing overt acts, starting with paragraph #23 - 75, for over 50. They sound like this:]
• "24. On or about September 26, 2005. . .in discussing the PPT tax issue and the natural gas pipeline legislation KOTT again told COMPANY VP, 'I just want to be the warden in Barbados' to which COMPANY VP replied that he wanted the 'gas pipeline.'"
• "27. On January 10, 2006, in a telephone call, KOTT assured COMPANY CEO that KOTT would deliver the gas pipeline legislation for COMPANY CEO as follows,
  

• KOTT: I'm going to get this fucking gas line done so I can get out of here.
• COMPANY CEO: Get the gas, get the gas.
• KOTT: That's my commitment to you, so...

• "32. On or about March 29, 2006, KOTT met with COMPANY VP and COMPANY CEO in Suite 604 and described how KOTT had attempted to gain everage over another member of the alaska State Legislature by placing a "hold" on a bill that was important to that state legislator, and how KOTT hoped to use that leverage to get support for COMPANY A's preferred version of the PPT tax bill.
  

• "72. On or about July 31, 2006, COMPANY CEO and KOTT discussed how to come up with a "foolproof" plan to get KOTT the additional money."

• COUNT TWO (pp. 21-22)
  

• Interference with Commerce by extortion.... [This pretty much just says each knowingly did this]
  

• COUNT FOUR (pp. 23)

The rest is pretty much the same. Listing the count and saying they did it. Counts 6 (p.26) and 7 (p. 27) list specific acts each did - Kott confirming his commitment to COMPANY A by phone AND Weyhrauch writing a letter asking for a job.

Again, this is pretty much an overview of the May 3, 2007 indictment) where you can find more details.

MirksomeBogle Blog Problems

I went to the MirksomeBogle blog the other day only to get this message.



Then I noticed this in Blogger Buzz.



So Mirk, if you drop in here, you'll know why I haven't dropped into your site for a few days. Don't know if the malware is your problem, but I can't get in.

Kott/Wehrauch Pre-Trial 2 The Other Attorneys

Finding information on the attorneys for the Government is more difficult. So I'll serve up what little I can. The Court Documents I looked at Friday listed the following attorneys for the government:

Joseph W. Bottini
James A. Goeke
Edward P. Sullivan

We learn a little more about each from this FBI press release May 4, 2007, when the grand jury indictments were released. Marsh worked with Bottini on the Anderson trial.

This case is being prosecuted by trial attorneys Nicholas A. Marsh and Edward P. Sullivan of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, headed by Chief William M. Welch, II, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph W. Bottini and James A. Goeke from the District of Alaska. The case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigative Division.

From the United States Attorney Office - District of Alaska webpage. we learn about some past US Attorneys in Alaska:

United States Attorney - Later Years

Other prominent United States Attorneys served this district. Joseph W. Kehoe (1934-1942) gained recognition as a watercolor artist of Alaskan scenes. Warren N. Cuddy (1929-1933) founded the First National Bank of Anchorage, one of Alaska's two largest banking enterprises. Ralph Julian Rivers (1933-1944) was Alaska's first elected Representative in Congress, serving from 1959 to 1966. Theodore Fulton (Ted) Stevens was appointed in Fairbanks from 1954 to 1956 and later elected Senator in 1968. Michael Spaan (1981-1989) served the longest term as a United States Attorney for this district. He also personally tried the longest criminal case in the history of the state which resulted in RICO, fraud, and extortion convictions of two well-known lobbyists and political brokers. Spaan also gained widespread reputation for this vigorous enforcement of laws designed to protect Alaska's rich fishing grounds.

What I hadn't expected to see was an attorney listed for the Anchorage Daily News and KTUU, who were listed as "interested parties." Their attorney is John McKay. An article from April 2007 about him receiving the First Amendment Award from the Alaska Press Club says:

McKay's many legal victories include a unanimous Alaska Supreme Court decision about the people's right to know the details of legal-settlement payments after a public institution such as a school district gets sued.
McKay's fingerprints are all over Alaska's open meetings and open records law and its interpretation, be that testifying at hearings, arguing in court, leading open-government workshops, publishing open-government handbooks, or offering legal advice to a reporter, an elected official or just an average citizen.
He's taught communication law at the University of Alaska Anchorage since 1984. He has helped train Russian journalists. He's defended educators punished for exercising their free speech rights. And on and on.

For more go here.

I was a bit curious about the media being an interested party, when who should walk in? John McKay himself. So I asked him what his role in all this was. He said it was to petition to keep the as much of the trial open to the public as possible and to get access to evidence - such as the audio and video materials the Federal Government uses in the trials - as soon as possible. He said it took a month to get the video from the Anderson trial, for example.

Costco Strawberries

Costco strawberries come in these large clear plastic boxes. You can see the fruit on top, on the sides, and on the bottom. But not in the middle. Here's what was usable and what was not. And a close up of the compost pile addition. And I can't take them back - though I'm sure they'd give me my money back. They're good about that.

Kott/Weyhrauch Pre Trial 1

I went to the US District Court Clerk's office today to see what their public computers might tell me about the upcoming trials of Pete Kott and Bruce Weyhrauch. For one thing it listed all the attorneys. In this post I'll give a little background I found through Google on the defendants' attorneys.



Bruce Weyhrauch’s attorneys


Ray R. Brown has been a shareholder in the firm since 1994. His legal interests are centered on complex civil litigation and trial practice. He is particularly interested in plaintiff's medical malpractice and litigation that involves the use of scientific or technical expertise. Ray graduated cum laude from Gonzaga University School of Law in 1981. He has an undergraduate degree in accounting from the University of Texas at Arlington. He has also attended and completed the Trial Practice Institute of the National Criminal Defense College at Mercer Law School.

Following law school and his admission to the bar, Ray served as a senior felony trial attorney and later as the training director for the Alaska Public Defender Agency. He also served as an Assistant District Attorney with the State of Alaska Department of Law, Criminal Division. Following a successful career in the criminal justice system, Ray decided to pursue a civil practice.

Ray's main areas of civil practice include plaintiff's medical malpractice, employee side labor law, class action litigation and serious injury or death cases.

He has tried to verdict more than 150 cases. He is "AV" rated by Martindale-Hubbell and is listed in the Best Lawyers in America since 2003. He served on the Alaska Bar Association Board of Governors (1995-98), and is a frequent presenter at Trial Advocacy programs both in Alaska and in the lower 48. He is a member of the Alaska Academy of Trial Lawyers, Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He loves traveling, his family and his two dogs. Source



Douglas Pope
Member

Practice Areas: Civil Practice; Personal Injury; Products Liability; Wrongful Discharge; Antitrust; Commercial Torts; Corporate Law; Constitutional Law; Appellate Practice.

Admitted: 1973, Alaska; 1974, U.S. District Court, District of Alaska; 1976, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit; 1978, U.S. Supreme Court

Law School: Willamette University, J.D., 1973

College: University of Alaska, B.S., 1970

Member: Alaska and American Bar Associations; The Association of Trial Lawyers of America; National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; Alaska Academy of Trial Lawyers.

Biography: (Also Member, Pope & Katcher)

Reported Cases: Hammond v. Hickel, 588 P.2d 256 (Alaska 1978); Brown v. United States, 665 F.2d 271 (9th Cir. 1982); Johns v. Commercial Fisheries Entry Comm., 699 P.2d 334 (Alaska 1985); Hickel v. Cowper, 874 P.2d 922 (Alaska 1994); Capital Info. Group v. Office of Governor, 923 A.2d 29 (Alaska 1996); Brooks v. Wright, 971 P.2d 1025 (Alaska 1999); Chijide v. Maniilaq Assoc. of Kotz., 972 P.2d 167 (Alaska, 1999); Cable v. Shefchik, 985 P.2d 474 (Alaska, 1999).

Born: Fairbanks, Alaska, June 1, 1945
Source





Pete Kott's Attorneys

Margaret R. Simonian ("Meg") joined Friedman, Rubin & White in 2003. Her prior experience includes a successful career as a criminal defense attorney at the Alaska Public Defender's Office and the Office of Public Advocacy. In this capacity she gained valuable trial skills. Before that, she served as a law clerk for Judge Eric Sanders on the Alaska Superior Court. She is a member of the Criminal Pattern Jury Instructions Committee, the Alaska Trust Board of the Alaska Trial Lawyers Association and the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Meg was born and raised in Alaska. She graduated with honors from the University of Alaska. While an undergraduate, she was a national debate champion and nationally honored as a Truman Scholar. She graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 1997. She is admitted to practice in Alaska.

Source


James A. Wendt

I couldn't find a bio on Wendt. I couldn't find a law firm website. Just the bare minimum. From martindale.com I got this:

James A. Wendt
Anchorage, Alaska
(Third Judicial District)

Featured BV Peer Review Rated Lawyer Source

He did run in the Humpy’s Half Marathon August 16, 2007 finishing at a pretty respectable pace for his age group. He came in 104th out of 200 finishers listed at 1:56:43, a 8:55 miles/per minute pace. Not bad for 58 years old.


Brown was supposed to teach a seminar for the Alaska Bar Association on September 14, but he's been replaced - presumably because he expects this trial not to be finished. We was going to teach "Look Good" Cross-Examination with Terry MacCarthy which covers:

• The 3 Types of Cross
• How to Tell Your Story Persuasively through Cross to the Jury
• How to Structure Your Cross with Transitions and Looping
• How to Control Your Witness Without Appearing Overbearing
• How to Elicit and Reinforce Helpful Information from Your Witness
• How to Use Short Statements Effectively
• How to Respond to Objections

Maybe we can watch for these in the courtroom.

Too Nice to Stay In

Towards the end of August we get some spectacular days, touched with enough chill at night to remind us that summer is nearing its end and we better take advantage of the warm days we have left. So we ordered take out at the Thai Kitchen and headed down the Seward Highway. We had made reservations for a table with a view at McHugh Creek.









Then an after dinner stroll. There were red berries everywhere. In this picture they are mostly wild mountain ash (small leaves), and a few devil's club (large leaves).

The Tlingit have turned to devil's club for a list of ailments you wouldn't wish on an enemy: from coughs and colds to stomach ulcers, tuberculosis and hypoglycemia. Tribe members steep it into teas, mash it into salves, chew, sip and steam it. It's also used to ward off evil. The plant, dubbed the "Tlingit aspirin" has not been approved for medicinal use by the Food and Drug Administration.

You can hear this piece on the Tlingit's use of Devil's Club on an NPR site with Quetzel Levine.








2BNTheWild.com says this about baneberries:

White Baneberry (Actaea pachypoda)
White Baneberry is also known as Doll's Eyes.

Plant Type: This is a herbaceous plant, it is a perennial which can reach 80cm in height (31inches).
Leaves: The leaves are alternate. Each leaf is divided.
Flowers: The flower parts are not discernable with the naked eye and are up to 1cm wide (0.4 inches). They are white. Blooms first appear in mid spring and continue into late spring. Numerous filaments obscure the petals and sepals.
Fruit: Conspicuous white berries, sometimes red, in a terminal spike on thick pedicels. The shinny white berries have dark spots hence the vernacular name or Doll's Eyes. The name Bainberry refers to the fact that the attractive berries are poisonous.
Habitat: Rich woods.

Looking south down Turnagain Arm.

Rose hips have been an important food for all Native American tribes where any kind of roses can be found. Most of them are very sweet. They are extremely high in vitamin C, much more so than oranges, for example. Dried, they keep well, and will always be available in winter. Rose hips have a tangy, yet sweet, flavor and can be used fresh, dried, or preserved. The simplest use is to steep them for tea. Rose hip syrup, puree, jam, jelly, and sauce can be used as is or as a flavoring in other recipes.

from Jolene Adams

Abundant on the trail, they make for a great snack. They're still a little hard now and full of seeds. They get softer and sweeter after the first frost. But I like being able to pick them as I walk and pop them in my mouth.













Looking up toward Anchorage along the tracks about 9:45pm.

Blogging Ted Stevens

While checking how people got to my blog, I found a link from Political Blogging - US Senators where you can look up any US Senator and see what people are blogging about him or her. The link above is to the Ted Stevens pages - 10 pages, each with ten trailers for blog postings that mention Stevens. Most are rehashed stories most aware Alaskans already know about. But the cumulative effect of scanning so many blogs is telling. Our senior senator is now an American symbol of corruption in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Drew Carey's comment in a YouTube segment at Government Bytes (National Taxpayers' Website) about hosting both the Price is Right and a new game show The Power of Ten is probably the most telling. His mention of Ted Stevens is so off the cuff, as though everyone should know what he's talking about.

I thought about it. You're giving away prizes all day and making everybody happy. I really can't complain. Honestly, my whole take on it has turned around now. Now I think you couldn't do better. Here's a car, here's some money. And it's not even your money. You're giving away money and getting credit for it. I feel like a congressman. I'm like the junior Ted Stevens.

While this Seattle Times article on a BooMan post on Taylormarsh.com writes about what a consummate politician Stevens is, the general tone is that a dark cloud now hangs over him.

Stevens is known for his blustery, sometimes combative demeanor in public.

But behind the scenes, he's acted as a dealmaker in an increasingly fractious Senate, orchestrating compromises and pushing legislation through committee.

Stevens' work on the Appropriations Committee, pushing earmarks to fund his projects and backing those of other senators, may help explain why Democrats aren't celebrating his potential fall.

As I said above, not too much that informed Alaskans don't already know and a fair amount of silliness at Stevens' expense. But it's a reminder to those of us who know how profoundly Stevens has positively impacted this state, that many people Outside only associate Uncle Ted with the 'bridge to nowhere' and tubes.

Ben Stevens Confirmed as Senator A

Lisa Demer reports today in the Anchorage Daily News:

Ben Stevens ID'd as Senator A

COURT FILINGS: Ex-legislator had only been named in news reports.

By LISA DEMER
ldemer@adn.com

Published: August 30, 2007
Last Modified: August 30, 2007 at 02:24 AM

In a court ruling this week, a federal judge identified former state Senate President Ben Stevens as an alleged co-conspirator in a bribery scheme involving legislators and oil field services contractor Veco Corp.

Though news reports named him months ago, it was the first time Stevens has been so named in a court document.

The development was just one of the intriguing pieces of information popping up in court filings as the public corruption trial of former Reps. Pete Kott and Bruce Weyhrauch approaches. It's set to begin Sept. 5.

"The evidence which the United States will present at trial will show that state Senator A is, in fact, Ben Stevens," U.S. District Judge John Sedwick wrote.

The indictment against Kott and Weyhrauch says Senator A conspired with them and two Veco executives to benefit the company.

In particular, the document describes a June 5, 2006, telephone conversation between the senator and former Veco chief executive Bill Allen. In the phone call, the two agreed that Weyhrauch came to support oil tax legislation favored by Veco because Allen had promised him legal work for the company. Weyhrauch is a lawyer.

Go to ADN for the rest of the story.

Blogging is Like Fishing - Part 2

I didn't plan a Part 2, but Blogging is Like Fishing turned out to be mostly about the psychology and strategy of getting hits on your blog. But there are other observations too.

1. I write more and think more than I would otherwise. Things I would just think about in passing get caught in my blogger net and then I have to figure out what to do with them. I need to look at them in more depth, I start googling to learn more, trying to think about other not obvious connections there are to other topics. One of the points made at the writing workshop in the Village of Wales was to just write as if none of the rules matter. While I'm still observant of the standards of style in general, the blog seems to impose deadlines that force me to stop tinkering and let it float on its own.

2. I'm learning new technologies faster than I would so I can use them on the blog - my camera is a tool to illustrate my blog posts. So I've taken a lot more pictures than I would have, learned different ways to download, edit, and post them. I've had to learn how to post video, which led me to YouTube, and Viddler. If I'd waited to start blogging til now, I would have skipped those because blogger has its own direct from your computer files video upload now. But having a YouTube account gave me a better understanding of how that phenomenon is working. It never occurred to me that people would be looking at my videos. They were just a place to store them so I could upload them. But more people have looked at my 21 YouTube videos than have looked at my blog. The Sierra Leone All Stars being the big draw with over 1800 hits. I've had to learn iMovie - 05, 06, and now 08. I've also found Viddler for better quality videos, and Jamglue for audio. And I've had to learn some html, but as blogger advances, that becomes less and less necesarry, but what little I've learned does help me get the page a little closer to what I'd like, rather than just what blogger allows. But I'm still a long way off there.

3. I'm ready to start writing some of the articles and chapters I've had on my agenda for a while. I'm even thinking of setting up a new blog related to that as a way of creating some artificial deadlines. I don't want to take away from this blog, but eventually my other writing will demand more of my time and this seems like a way to transition.