Kott Trial Day 14 - Jury Instructions

During lunch the clerk's office lobby is open, but the office is closed. So I could use the computers, but not print out anything. So I just snapped pictures of the computer screen. The quality could be better, but you can see all the jury instructions. Page 1 is the cover and by itself. The rest are listed below. pp.2-3 are together, pp. 3-4, etc. The instructions for the specific charges are on p. 17 (Extortion), p. 19 (Bribery), p. 20 (Wire Fraud). I've left the pictures fairly large so you can double click on the pictures to read them easier. Starting with pages 12=13 I started fixing the brightness and contrast so they are even easier, though I wouldn't want to read this every day.

Table of Contents
Jury Instruction No 1 Duty of Juries to Find Facts and Follow Law p. 2
Jury Instruction No 2 Charge Against Defendant Not Evidence - Presumption of Innocence - Burden of Proof ...p. 3
Jury Instruction No 3 Defendant's Decision to Testify ...p. 4
Jury Instruction No 4 Reasonable Doubt Defined ...p. 5
Jury Instruction No 5 What is Evidence...p. 6
Jury Instruction No 6 What is not Evidence...p. 7
Jury Instruction No 7 Direct and Circumstantial Evidence ...p. 8
Jury Instruction No 8 Credibility of Witness...p. 9
Jury Instruction No 9 Evidence and Other Acts of the Defendant or Acts and Statements of Others...p. 10
Jury Instruction No 10 Separate Consideration of Multiple Accounts - Single Defendant..p. 11
Jury Instruction No 11 Statements by Defendant ...p. 12
Jury Instruction No 12 Impeachment Evidence - Witness ...p. 13
Jury Instruction No 13 Impeachment Evidence - Witness...p. 14 [No 12 is for Allen, 13 for Smith]
Jury Instruction No 14 Conspiracy - Elements ...p. 15
Jury Instruction No 15 Hobbes Act - Extortion Under Color of Official Right.. p. 17
Jury Instruction N0 16 Bribery of a State Official Relating to a Program Receiving Federal Funds..p. 19
Jury Instruction No 17 Wire Fraud-Scheme to Defraud- Deprivation of Right to Honest Services...p .20
Jury Instruction No 18 Duty to Deliberate ...p. 21
Jury Instruction No 19 Consideration of Evidence ...p. 22
Jury Instruction No 20 Use of Notes ...p. 23
Jury Instruction No 21 Jury Consideration of Punishment p. 24
Jury Instruction No 22 Verdict Forms...p. 25
Jury Instruction No 23 Communication with Court...p. 26

Cover Page, p. 1

Jury Instruction No 1 Duty of Juries to Find Facts and Follow Law p. 2

Jury Instruction No 2 Charge Against Defendant Not Evidence - Presumption of Innocence - Burden of Proof ...p. 3

Jury Instruction No 3 Defendant's Decision to Testify ...p. 4
Jury Instruction No 4 Reasonable Doubt Defined ...p. 5

Jury Instruction No 5 What is Evidence...p. 6

Jury Instruction No 6 What is not Evidence...p. 7


Jury Instruction No 7 Direct and Circumstantial Evidence ...p. 8
Jury Instruction No 8 Credibility of Witness...p. 9


Jury Instruction No 9 Evidence and Other Acts of the Defendant or Acts and Statements of Others...p. 10
Jury Instruction No 10 Separate Consideration of Multiple Accounts - Single Defendant..p. 11


Jury Instruction No 11 Statements by Defendant ...p. 12
Jury Instruction No 12 Impeachment Evidence - Witness ...p. 13


Jury Instruction No 13 Impeachment Evidence - Witness...p. 14 [No 12 is for Allen, 13 for Smith]
Jury Instruction No 14 Conspiracy - Elements ...p. 15


Jury Instruction No 14 continued ...p. 16
Jury Instruction No 15 Hobbes Act - Extortion Under Color of Official Right.. p. 17


Jury Instruction 15 continued ...p. 18
Jury Instruction N0 16 Bribery of a State Official Relating to a Program Receiving Federal Funds..p. 19


Jury Instruction No 17 Wire Fraud-Scheme to Defraud- Deprivation of Right to Honest Services...p .20
Jury Instruction No 18 Duty to Deliberate ...p. 21


Jury Instruction No 19 Consideration of Evidence ...p. 22
Jury Instruction No 20 Use of Notes ...p. 23


Jury Instruction No 21 Jury Consideration of Punishment p. 24
Jury Instruction No 22 Verdict Forms...p. 25


Jury Instruction No 23 Communication with Court...p. 26

Kott Trial Day 14 - Prosecution Closing II

Nicholas Marsh took over for the final part of the prosecution's closing argument.

[Added Sept 25 - audio links to Mr. Marsh's rebuttal, from the ADN website
Prosecutor rebuttal, Nicholas Marsh: - Part: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ]

11:43am Nick Marsh:

Court is going to instruct, this is your case to decide. We aren’t supposed to ram things down your throat. I’d like to talk about evidence.

Wendt said pk never took anything from these men. Respectfully, we know he got $1000 in cash $7K in check, a poll. We know he got them from ba. Did you believe that pk never got anything from these gentleman? Does that make any sense with what you heard?

First talk about credibility. Govt. views this as a case about public trust. Mr. K. repeatedly violated the public trust by doing his job and getting paid by ba and rs and knowing he’d get a job at the end. Also about garden variety of trust. We request you do that especially with Kott.

pk - you’ve heard 11 months of recordings, but all those are lies, not true, or rantings of alcoholic. What he wants you to believe instead, what he told you on the stand.

Voting record - pk wants you to believe, because he told you. He decided that 22% was the right rate. When it first came up, he voted no because it was an important bill and he wanted an absent colleague, mr Moses to be there. After he voted yes because he thought 22% was the right thing. But neither was true.

In between those votes, exhibit. 135 to reopen the bill and vote on 22.5, if he really wanted Moses to vote on that, pk would have voted yes. On Aug 10, 9:11 pm he voted no, not giving Moses another bite at the apple. He said because of his deep seated commitment. He voted no, red button. Nay. After voting closed and it passed 23-17. Vote didn’t matter. He’s running for reelection. Then he said I’m going to change my vote, change from nay to yeah> When he said that, do you believe him?

Same thing in May special session. Lot of votes pk didn’t provide. By the way G. says, absolutely the voting record backs up our case. Other votes in June that wendt didn’t mention.

Didn’t tell you about early votes kott cast to keep votes low. When he did BW rescinding vote, pk made that motion to keep that rate from going up from 20/20.

[talking quietly and gently. but starting to get louder. Looking the jury in the eye]

Tape: We’re gonna get weyhracuh. Gotta do 21 to keep them from getting 22.5? Yeh. That’s what I figured. It’s still 20/20.

That’s what pk was telling rs. When he told him he put it to 21. Not because he believed the 21%, he was trying to kill the amendment. Kelly withdrew the amendment. It had the effect. At the end of may, they couldn’t have house get 22.5, because they would have concurrence with senate.

Mr. K told you he really believed in 21%, but amendment was withdrawn and it went back to 20/20. If he really believed in that, wouldn’t he have introduced 21.5?. But he didn't’

In june Kott came back and said he was for 20/20 and what he did that day, allowed them all to come back in a later session and get 20/20. And what he did, that mr. k mentioned on the stand, but wendt glossed over. Mr. Kott, moved to adjourn the house at the end of session on June 8. He didn’t want EB to reconsider. They could kill it at a higher rate. If you consider the notion that he didn’t have power. Think about whether you don’t have to have power to shut down the house.

Rep LeDoux said he was 20/20 that’s what he works for. But here today, he was really in favor of the vote that didn’t go the way he wanted. Choices he didn’t know they were being recorded.

Also on credibility. Explanation of $5000. Loan for a truck. No interest rate. No time to pay it back. Whenever he paid the truck. During all the time til Aug 31, pk hadn’t paid back a dime. You know he had $30K in cash in his closet. Does this make sense it was a loan. If you can’t believe on how he voted in office, or about the loan, or about...., what can you believe kott on.

$7,993 pay. Does it make sense he needed it? You’ve seen invoices. X amount added in. Heard phone calls to make a foolproof plan. In trial, pk and family gave you a different story. to do the floor. I admit things that don’t make any sense, invoices, inconsistency. Doesn’t make sense relation to state of the floors.

But timing. Stovern prepared it July 29 that I got the call, $7,993 for the work, If that were the case, this whole deal for the money would have been on July 29. Why are they talking about this on July 30. The conversation about how to pay son was after they got the money. ?? .....
That invoice never made it to veco? Wouldn’t pk have found a way to get that extra invoice to rs? Ms. Stovern told you the way she got paid was through a company name she put on letter head, because she didn’t think it would look good. The way she sought the payment was through something that was patently false.

If it were about flooring, then wouldn’t you think he’d tell that to the FBI on Aug. 30. But that is not what happened. Left with Aug. 30 phone call, that shows money never for real work.

Back to thing about never getting anything from these gentlemen. For him to go to Uncle bill with his hand out, that was a gift. He had $30,000 in cash. Poll, Mackie talked to Mr. Kott about the poll. Mr. Kott said great. talked to pollster about it. pk acknowledged to rs he got a poll. Mackie and I are thinking about getting a secon poll after the media run to see if it was successful. Why would someone who doesn’t believe in polls talk about getting a second one?

$1000 in cash. Wendt suggested not payback. Of course it was. Mr. Allen never told Mr. Kott he never told pk he would pay him back. When pk wrote the check, he never knew would get paid. Getting it when henever knew he would be paid, that’s a gift.

Plan. people come to get together with common plan to get something. Wendt talked about them having a common plan. They can work together. It’s a crime when the lobbyists offer a benefit and the politician accepts the benefits knowing they are related to official acts. I respectfully submit to you to consider the words pk used with allen. Allegiance, I’ll get her done, and this is illuminating, pk described it as a team effort. You know who the roster of the team is? Count one of the indictment pk, ba, rs.

Employment. That’s what’s hanging over all of this. W tried to .. PK says I need a job. RS says you’ve got a job, get the pipeline. Wouldn’t you expect if he thought it wasn’t fair, he should have said no. He spoke about chris knauss. Don’t you think pk knew what they were talking about. And then the implicit stuff. How many times did you hear Barbados. BA told you what that meant.

And just in case you wondered whether pk linked jobs and votes: We gonna get bw. I hear he applied for a job with you. May 5 Not rs making the connection, it’s pk. Do you think he doesn’t know a job is waiting for whoever wanted it if they get the pipeline.

Btween april 18 and May 7 , never heard any tape about ppt. Well you did. BW was in the finance committee. pk was knee deep the whole time. You have to know the whole story.

Things you heard pk did. From LeDoux and EB they never heard threatened or pressured. Those aren’t words you;ll see in the jury instructions. What it means, is he does what he does in his office because they were his job, but because the people who were paying him or wre going to pay him, wanted him to do it.
What you see pk do something in these tapes, every time he supports 20/20, everytime he does something he goes back to them, he wants credit for doing it, because he knows these people will take care of him at the end.
12:12pm

Instructs you on corrupt means, those are the instructions, not what I tell you or what Wendt tells you. You’re left with recordings, real time recordings. Testimony of witnesses, one pk. said countless times, BA never lied. Does it corroborate what you heard on the tapes. What they said on the stand, did they tell you a different story.

End with overwhelming evidence pk used and abused his official role for ba and rs, that he knowingly received things of value, got paid by rs to do things in the legislature.

Thank you. [12:14]

Kott Trial Day 14 - Defense Closing

I've put a long introduction on the first of today's posts - the Prosecution Closing I. Read that for all the caveats and disclaimers. These are rough, typed in court notes. They give you a sense of what was said, but they ARE NOT RELIABLE. Parts are missing. The attorneys spoke faster than my fingers can type.

Again, go here if you want to find the actual audio and video tapes that match those mentioned here.

[Added Sept. 25 - Links to the audio of Mr. Wendt's Closing. From the ADN website.
Defense attorney, Jim Wendt:
- Part: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 ]




10:11 Wendt [lead defense attorney] - I had my closing prepared, but making a detour based on what Goeke said. He talked about PK’s greed. Not a shred of evidence that says he was a greedy man. He works hard for his money, never asked anything from anyone, offered to put in Allen floors for free. This isn’t so. PK isn’t a greedy man. I’m sure you’ll find that.

It is true what you heard in the opening from the worthy attorney from DC this is about trust. They want you to think that pk violated the government’s trust. He hasn’t violated any trust. Always held to his principles. He was a hard worker. Whether putting himself to school, in the service , grad school, on his knees putting in flooring, in the legislature, he was a hard worker.

This principle of hard work is the bedrock of what pk is about. Everything towards a goal and he wants to get that goal. He’s never asked anyone for anything. He’s worked for what he has. Corrupt? We all have our own definition. PK is not a corrupt individual. Not about trust, but about work.

Remember what EB said about legislation. it’s like sausage, you don’t want to see it being made. It may not be pretty but that’s how it’s made . Not pretty.

I want to go over the case:

Wit. 1 - called by govt. very interesting, knowledgeable guy. Pleasure to hear him speak about ppt and explain. When he was working on ppt he was part of admin. He supported 20/20.

Some witnesses I don’t understand why called.

Sudan Lowell - said pk was speaker of the house

STeve Dunphy: fbi agent - here for one purpose to sit on stand while all govt tapes they wanted you to see, about 58 tapes entered into evidence. in cross exam, agent dunphy said there about 1500 calls intercepted on ba’s phone. About 6500 on ba’s cell and about 9000 on rs cell phone. About 17,500 phone calls and you had 58 tapes, maybe 40 phone calls. You can bet the 40 most damaging one s have been presented. In addition there were video taping from janu to mid june. 12-16 hours some days, others no video at all. Maybe an average of four a day = >600 hours of video. You got , what, less than ten hours. That is what AGent dunphy was here to do

Carla here just to enter travel docs to show pk was outside of ak when he made the phone call

BA and RS - talk later

Brooke Miles - about packet sent to all legislators
Linda Croft = BA’s secretary had written two checks
Jennifer Ferguson about checks going thru the Key bank
Dave Ditmann
Bruce Milne -FBI agent, pk said he did nothing wrong. $7,993 so my son could work on my campaign.

And that was the govt.’s case.

Before I go to our case, want to show what govt. didn’t show you. They could have brought in legislators, but they didn’t. Mentioned three legs Gab. LeDoux, EB, and Fred Dyson. Claimed PK held up Dyson’s abortion bill. Where is that? It doesn’t exist. Didn’t happen. Talked about it, but it didn’t happen. He voted to get it out of committee before ppt became an issue. pk never told Sen dyson anything. They could have brought dyson in to testify about it. pk did nothing to harm that bill, but instead voted it out of committee and voted for it on the floor.

pk did one thing only, voted to get the ppt bill the way he wanted. We presented legis for you to see exactly what he did. Rep LeDoux said that is what we do, we talk to people about legislation. EB said he had no control over Croft or Crawford. Prosecution suggested pk used trickery. Why didn’t govt bring in these legislators? Because they don’t support the govt’s case. The legis who were allegedly manipulated by pk weren’t. It was not good for a legislator to come in to testify for the defense, but we brought them in and they came.

Govt. didn’t bring in actual legislators, rested their case on ba and tapes.

They didn’t tell you about pk’s voting record. Because his record doesn’t support their theory. We brought it in and went over it line item by line item on PPT. Showed his voting record on other bills. You saw he never did anting contrary to his principles. Pro-labor and pro development. He’s never changed.

Govt. didn’t present his voting record because it doesn’t support their case. They didn’t bring it in. We did.

We brought in

Dr. Clive Thomas - talked about legislature - stage for what Pete Kott could and couldn’t do.

Peter Kott - he was determined to finish the flooring jobs
Brooke Miles - showed the pk made $1000 contribution to Mrk campaign the day he allegedly got $1000 from ba

PK answered all the questions even when they were shouted at him

LeDoux
Ohmer - nice woman, worked for pk for many years. RS upset one day and pk not changing. and that pk had a drink. What you see on these tapes is pk drinking, not on the floor of the house sober working for his constituents.

I told you what pk did not do. Now I’m going to tell you what he did do.
You’ve heard a lot of tapes and phone conversations. Exposed not only to picked out tapes, even portions cherry picked out of context. What I have now is an illustrative dramatization that shows when things are taken out of context. Dim the lights please.

10:29 Technical difficulties - power point, trying to get it started.

10:30 didn’t work

Power point - Walk thru highlights

Sept 05- Aug 2006

Making time line
9/26/05 - initial call pk, says, i wanna job - He’s asked, what do ya need. You gotta job, get us a pipeline. I wanna be a consultant like Knauss.
That is it. This is indicative of pk asking for a job from VEco. There are 1000s of phone calls and this is all they’ve got. He’s not a legislator now, it’s out of session, he’s putting in flooring at the gym in Kake. Out of communication. Not in Junau, ER, Anchorage, he’s in Kake.

Happy New Years call - to get instructions. There are none to give. There’s no ppt bill, he’s been out of the loop in Kake, and calling the man he relies on for the man he trusts for oil and gas information. What does that mean - what are my instructions? - does that mean tell me what to do an I will do it? It means, “I wanna hear from you, your an older and wiser man, what do you think? I wanna hear from you.” I’m doing this with Ms. Simonian who you probably figured out is a lot more aware political than I. I don’t know about that Would you think it unusual if I leaned over and asked Ms. Simonian and asked, “What do I do now?” He just wants to talk to ba, hear what he has to say about upcoming legs.

June 11, - call about getting the gasline. PK always for gas pipeline. You’ve seen his campaign literature from 2002 and 2004 he’s always been for a pipeline. And that’s the discussion here on June 11. At this time talking about common goal. Gov. not helping much

June 14 another call. Here, rs says to pk 25% might kill us. pk says 25 is done. He’s saying at 25% we’re not gonna have a pipeline. If you listen what he actually says is, then we’re dead so is the state.

Jan 20 conversation @ horsepower. Conversation about Chris knauss and jim clark. JC with administration. ba and rs wanted jim clark to think highly of them. Talking about how chris knaus made them look back in front of jim clark. You don’t think people talk like this all the time “who do we have?” the sierra club talks like that everyone does. Nothing criminal about it.
Feb 21, 2006 Gov. introduces ppt bill. PK has nothing to do with it cause he’s not on any of those committees.
3/10 phone call - yes, call to get a phone number. No question about that. When pk calledspeciclly asked, got thurwacker’s number. Then T comes in. the T talks to rs. What happens then? Call is minimized. Because fbi doesn’t think it interesting to listen to. Nothing unusual about it. Had there been, then the call wouldn’t have been minimized. then T gets off and off hand conversation about what they’re going to do about Marathon, idle chatter, we gotta get an exemption, rs I’ don’t really like them. Mentions $73million, min revenue before ppt kicks in - they already have some sort of exemption. When you listen to whole tape - you’re my best buddy, I’ve got a lot of best buddies. Govt. wants you to think that’s wire fraud. Where’s the plan or scheme in the phone conversation There is none.
3/15 [all these being added to dark blue background power point slide with yellow boxes.] pk stating to rs and ba what and why he believes. You don’t here him saying, “this is great I’m going to get a good job.” No, this is what we need, if we don’t get it, long term Alaskans will suffer. That’s what he says.

April -May slide
4/ Barbados call. This is the call where the govt says PK tied everything together. You guys are going to get the pipeline and I’ll get my nice job in barbados. That’s what the gov. says. But let’s listen to phone call - apparently we have a problem here, this is not working. It’s working on the computer. Perhaps I can talk about something else and you put the other computer on.

To the jury. Apparently we’ve switched computers. I’ll continue with my closing and then we’ll get back to this. Lights?

actually this is a good time to take a break and come back. Room 604, the Animal House. Well known. 100’s of hours of video and you know, it wasn’t just pk who went there. RS and ba inviting anyone to come up who wanted. Lobbyists, legislators, staff members. What was it? A place for boasting and banter, fueled by alcohol. Boasting and banter. And that’s the core of the govt’s case. Govt. resting its case on the animal house as though what goes on there is somehow reliable. Granted it was among men who should have known better . ba and rs blameless? No. Both had over $400K in

pk has $11,000. Not only were they risking their freedom and their children’s freedom and Veco if it were indicted as a corporation. A full account of that is not presented here, but it has to wait till another day. You know about the house renovation, pig roast and other things hinted at. They weren’t worried about this case. They weren’t worried about that.

PK is the one man who never took anything. BenStevens had contract for $100K. Tom Anderson had a contract. Sen. STevens had his whole house redone. While PK was on his hands and knees doing flooring. These other guys didn’t have to do any work. He didn’t ask for a dime, he didn’t ask for a job then. The govt. is taking from 100’s of hours of tape they are taking out a few innocent conversations out of context and comparing that to these other men who got so much from ba and rs. PK never got anything. That’s what happened, in essence in the animal house. You don’t thing there are tapes you havnt heard of these other men getting their share? Just pk drinking too much. Things that don’t comport with the voting records

Look at screen. Is it gonna work. If you take something out of context.

starting up. black screen. back to power point. Bak to black screen. power point. black.. arrow going around the screen.
Apparently it doesn’t work. Does the audio work?

And I get... on the screen. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, I’ll just have to read it to them.

This is what I’d like you to do, if you will

can we turn off screen off?

W: talking about Barbados and the pipeline. hold on a second here.

Simonion to Wendt - one more

Tape working- Barbados tape.

W: Why did I play that? The govt says this is tying everything in. Govt. get gasline and I’m going to get barbados. They laughed. He sounds despondent. and he says, and I’m going to get my job in barbados. Then he says shit. Excuse my language. He knows he isn’t going to get anything. I’m going to get my job in barbados is equivalent to I’m gonna gt nothing.” And then they laugh.

10:58 April 26, 2006 -

5/7/2006 first time bill hits the floor, Between 4/18 and May 7 you have no tapes. Nothing there. First time pk can vote ont he bill. passed out of finance. 5/6/ I apologize. Passes out of House Finance. They reduced it to 20%. PK had nothing to do with that. now it’s back in front of the house.

May 7 floor debate [power point up May7-9, 2006]

This is not part of power point, but part of the exhibit. You haven’t seen this, but its been talked about. We went line item by line item, you saw that. attached is the actual house journal, you’ll have the whole thing in the jury room This is the house journal that ties into those items. Amendment, raising the 20% to 21%. The infamous BW votes wrong. You can see the yeas and nays. PK voted no. 21.5% passed. Interesting. LeDoux changed to yeah. Original 20-20. For whatever reason, we don’t know why, GL switched from nay to a yeah. After ward. She didn’t switch for the jury. Nothing on the tape about getting Gabrielle to do this for us. this Ms. LeDoux does this and it passes. You don’t hear any of that.

Back to power point now?

Call to rs. I’m going to do rescinding motion Pete calls rs and says 21.5 passed, i’m going to do a rescinding motion. Doesn’t ask rs what to do? He tells rs what he’s going to do. What occurs is rs says to do it tomorrow and he says, “I’m going to do it today.”

[Plays tape. It works!!!] [I think BA said ‘yeah Gabrielle...’ if so, that contradicts what Wendt just said, check the tape. Discussion of who is going to make the motion, better to do it right away.

OK, then there was motion. to rescind passes 22-18. [Looking at Journal on screen]
Can we get back to powerpoint

Back to 20% amendment failed.

[back to journal[ let’s go to next one

[powerpoint] relates to phone call march that govt says is wire fraud. pk votes yes, remember that was what rs originally didn’t want to go thru.

Power point...

Now adjourned may 10. room 604. This is where pk tells rs and ba what he did. I’m gonna tell you how this really came down. you can’t tell a soul, I told EB we can mess this up real good expletives deleted. He’s tell them he got this done, but we know that isn’t true because they were always against it.

I sold my soul to the devil. If you were going to listen to this as though he’s done something illegal. rs what did you do. “I did something with eb that wasn’t totally above board. That wasn’t true. To get ppt. passed.

5/8/ We’re still brand new here. pk says, we’re going to have to go higher. We don’t have this one? that’s ok. to RS

We’re going to have to go to 21. So he’s not sticking with 20%. He’s telling them what is going to have to happen. Working towards a compromise. Hopefully to get a bill that will get a gas pipeline.

May 8 in 604. talk about staying at 20%. Kott says I don’t want to jeopardize pipeline, I’ll stay at 20 and so will others, but I’m not going to jeopardize pipeline.

11:15am Am2 to Am1 offered by kott. He’s given up on 20%, it’s only been there a day and he gives up. And it passes at 21. What is this? OK

Then kelly withdraws and it goes back to 20. But pk voted for 21.

May 8-9 slide

Rates now 21.5 [The power point stuff just isn’t working right, lots of side talk to Smonian (other defense attorney)]

Pete kott votes yes! 21.5 he’s voting yes. He’s not sticking with Vic Kohring and the nays. Next screen.
And then it passes the house. 21.5 PK votes yes. May 9 is the last day of the session

[back to journal on the screen]

28 yes 11 nays you can see pk voted yes. He’s voting for 21.5. Kohring stays at 20. Next screen. Keep in mind, we’re the ones who showed you the voting record. If we hadn’t shown you, all you’d have is the bragging in the tapes.

May 10-June 9

Ohh. this is giving him a thousand dollars in the hotel. And what occurs here. BA specifically says here, you can listen to the tape. Thanks for doing me with your check. He’s paying him back. pk wrote a check to Murkowski for $1000 and BA is paying him back. The govt. didn’t tell you that.

Sen. Bill passes the house at 23.5. PK thinks it to high. 21.5 ok. House rejects conference report.

bragging to bowles. Allen bragging I don’t know who bowles is - senior person with oil.[Jim Bowles is president of Conoco Phillips Alaska,]

June 9- August 10

Offers to do flooring free. BA insists on paying

secret meeting in the bar. Had to go to bar where things not recorded, out in public.

hb 3001 passes the house, pk votes yes. This is important. This is the sliding scale, ba didn’t want it, but pk goes with sliding scale. passes senate at 22.5%

PK says ok 22.5 we have a workable bill. aug 10 special session ends. No conversations about ppt with pk at this time because they don’t help the govts. case.

PK did what he always does. He worked to get legislation passed. He wasn’t working for BA. PK didn’t hold tight to 20/20 when he saw it wouldn’t work. That’s what passed and that’s what we have today.

He may have gone to the animal house, drinking and boasting, but none of that matches what actually happened. We showed you the voting records, they didn’t. They used rs and ba, don’t you think those men desperately want to avoid jail time? If I were a betting man, I think that neither will see a day in jail. Basically, I think ba is an honest man. He wans’t giving pk $1000 as a bribe. Maybe he thinks it will help him get out of jail.
BA says sometimes he’d get up at 6 am and didn’t come back til 7pm because he was out paying his bills. Anyone who works like pk I have a lot of respect. Did you remember a conversation about a lobbyist at your home that wasn’t recorded? When pk got the floors done and I said, what do I owe you and he said “nothing.” PK didn’t want to take his money, but for pk he was uncle bill, He had millions of dollars and people came to him for his money, but pk didn’t have a business association with his friends.

PK was a worker. He may have been a drinker and when he drank he shoots his mouth off, but he was a worker. A man who always wanted a pipeline. If ba disagreed with him on pers/trs and workers comp, that was too bad. pk voted his conscience.

BA was knowledgeable about gas and oil. pk loved him got oil and gas info from him. Been through a hard life. got enormous wealth. Ba is a nice fellow. Don’t know about rs. That’s what pk thought about ba. He loved the man. You don’t think there was any time he couldn’t ask ba for money or a job and wouldn’t have gotten it? he could have at any time and sat in a comfortable chair.

I want to go over with you the jury instructions:

One thing, very interesting instruction, direct and circumstantial evidence. When direct evidence contradicts circumstantial evidence and it isn’t rebutted. then the direct trumps circum. And the voting record is the direct.

Witness manner when you testify. You remember rs, I’d ask a question and he’d look over at these gentleman or his attorney. The witnesses interest in his jail sentence. He was hoping if he did ok, he wouldn’t see a day in jail. they say, there was no agreement. When pk’s house was raided? found an invoice for 5500. It was already prepared. They didn’t know they were going to be raided. There is evidence that contradicts there testimony. Pk’s son truthfully testified and it contradictis. [talking really fast now] I would argue that rs’s testimony is not reasonable. He changed many times.

Statements by the defendant. and how to evaluate those. one thing judge will tell you is to consider all the evidence and the circumstanes. You need to eval circ. under which he made the statements. He was intoxicated and trying to impress uncle bill. In reality he’s compromising and getting ac compromised bill. Fact that ba and rs is not evidence against pk and you can weight that only to evaluate their credibility

Extortion, conspiracy.
Conspiracy, not enough to just meet, you must find beyond a reasonable doubt that there was a plan to commit a crime. there was no plan to commit a crime. The plan was to pass the legislation. How can we get it passed. That was the plan. getting the ppt legislation passed

Extortion - do you really think pk really extorted money from ba? We are torturing the English language to say that. What official action did he take? If you think the poll was given to pk and he got it, then you have to prove he did it in exchange for something specific. You have to tie it in to an act. They can’t do that. It may be an illegal gratuity, but he isn’t charged with that.

Bribery. They have to prove that pk was corrupt. Def. acted voluntarily and intentionally......That’s what corrupt is. They have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. That he did it in connection in his head in connection with doing a legislative act.

And then the wire fraud. And if that telephone call is wire fraud, I don’t know shaking head... You think that was an important part of scheme or plan. firs there was no plan, they were just trying to get legislation passed.

He may be a drinker, he was shooting his mouth off. The govt. wants you to believe where there is smoke there is fire. They’ve only showed you the smoke. Sometimes where there is smoke, all there is is puffing. Puffing. Acting like a horse’s moth. He’s never done ex, etc. Never did anything for ba except to work with them for what they wanted to accomplish. Pete Kott believed we aren’t going to get a pipeline unless we get a ppt. A republican gov.introduced a bill supported by a republican representative. Shooting his mouth off. Now he has pictures of himself on the internet for his grandkids to watch. He spent years in the legislature and in flooring and the Air Force. And it’s not funny, sir.
I’m asking, go back, come back with not guilty verdicts. This man has suffered enough. Maybe he drinks too much and swears too much but that’s the only bad thing this man has done in his life.

Kott Trial Day 14 - Prosecution :Closing 1

U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska
Court Calendar for Monday, September 24, 2007
Current as of 09/21/2007 at 5:30 PM

---

8:30 AM	3:07-CR-00056-01-JWS	Judge Sedwick	Anchorage Courtroom 3
USA vs. PETER KOTT TRIAL BY JURY - DAY 14

Warning: This is a long post. These are my notes for today. Actually, I've shortened it by only posting here the Prosecution's Closing, Part I. I'll post the Defense's closing in the next post, and then the Prosecution's part II. Then I'll try to get some briefer overview stuff for people who can't wade through all this.

Very brief overview of today
[Sept. 25 here is a link to the audio of Goeke's closing. Prosecutor, James Goeke:
- Part: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 from the ADN site.]
Goeke began the closing argument for the prosecution. He was very convincing. Then Wendt put on the defense closing. He spoke with passion. Though I thought he was twisting the facts around a lot (I'll try to explain that in a later post) if you didn't listen too closely, you had to believe this guy. His client was a hardworking man and other than drinking to much and saying some stupid things did nothing wrong. [Yes he said all that, I didn't add any editorial comment there.] Wendt had some technical difficulties with his powerpoint, but handled it well. Then Marsh, calm, respectful to all, contradicted what Wendt had just said. His eyes were directed at the jury. A minimum of technical wizzadry. This was not the wonk who did the closing in the Anderson trial, but a sincere and convincing human being.

I've been stalling a while trying to figure out how to post all this stuff. I went by the bike shop to get a new seat post for my winter bike. I got flowers for Joan for putting up with all this blogging. She did come to court today again to see the closing. I ate lunch at home and iced my wrist which has been protesting these marathon typing sessions. In any case, below are my very unofficial transcripts of the case. I've gone through with the spell checker and tried to make it at least legible. But I've left in some typos and abbreviations to remind you that this is a rough, typed as they talked, didn't get it all, but a lot of it, version of what went on in court this morning. pk=Pete Kott rs=Rick Smith ba= Bill Allen eb=Ethan Berkowitz The rest you should be able to figure out. If not, it's probably not that important. Or ask in the comment box.

8:30 - The 8:30 meeting was to settle outstanding questions about the Jury instructions. It was done in a few minutes and court was recessed until 9am.

convene 9:00
Judge to jury; Govt. has burden of proof thus gets to open and close the argument

THE PROSECUTION:
Goeke: Mr. Marsh told you it was about public trust. People chosen to rep neighbors on legislature.
four crimes - putting interest of public aside for his own - greed
conspiracy
extortion
bribery
wire fraud
[I'll post the jury instructions with all this spelled out a little later]
evidence, largely his own words and actions as recorded on video tape and phone
05-06

[You can go to the ADN website to hear the actual tapes. I've tried as best as I could to put down the dates and times (there are a lot of tapes on May 7 and 8) so you can actually hear what was played in court. If I try to match them in this post, I won't get it up for a week. But they are dated and described at the link.]

Witnesses
Physical exhibits
Pete Kott conspired with ba and rs to conspire in the interests of Veco instead of he people
Evidence overwhelming
PK guilty

numerous official actions in his capacity Nov 05 - Aug 06

$7,993 check for flooring
$1000 cash [payment for contribution to Murkowski]
political polls
lucrative job

Unique evidence - hours of electronic surveillance you the members have been able to sit in a ringside seat as they committed the crimes in the indictment

No one on the tapes, phone, 604 had any idea they were being taped.

Testimony of witnesses in the trial
consider that testimony, whether it makes sense against the audio and video



physical exhibits - how they fit in with the tapes and witnesses

1st phone call Nov. 05 I need a job, you’ve got a job, I’m gonna be a consultant
good insight into relationship between pk and Veco thru smith
Both ba and rs said on stand the gas-pipeline was the most important thing for their company and this was tied up with the gas pipeline - worth billions to Veco and state of AK

PKI just want to be the warden in barbados
RSI just want a gasline

Nov 2005 - whether gabrielle ledoux
PK - I’ll get her in line
GL confirmed that he did try to get her support

voice mail, PK - BA cell Jan 2006 Uncle B. PK here happy new year. Just want to get what our instructions are.

Representative of 12 years calls CEO of VECO for his legislative instructions

Jan 06 tape: I’m gonna get this fkkk gasline done so I can get her out her, Im gonna get her done
BA made it clear he’d take care of Kott if PK takes care of pipeline


Conspiracy concept - agreement that can be explicit or implicitly. Doesn’t require written orders of contract. Can be inferred by actions and deeds.

pk and ba 1/24/06 -
2/20/06 - BA and RS upset chris knauss, lobbyist is taking credit with Murk admin with horsepower Allen gained over pk. We got more money in PK than he can even think about.

Has kott talked to Ledoux - did you hear hi say, “I can’t do that, that would be wrong”? NO

3/4/06 - ba and rs make it clear about their objections
have to get dirty and have to get


3/10/06 - phone call pk from DC. Not just for phone call. You know my allegiance is to.
PK makes clear to rs that pk going to do something for Marathon something VEco doesn’t like and RS makes it clear to pk not to do that. you know where my allegiance is. Evaluate in context it occurred. RS so potential problem. If pk voted for this down the road, not relevant to the context at that time

3/ strategizing

3/24/ pk called smith he gained an advantage over dyson: I’ve got dyson over the barrel, YOu talked to dyson, no i got him over the barrel. Got his abortion bill tied up. He’s hot too. laughing. There’s always a way. When ba tells me he’s ready to vote it out, i’ll vote it out.
You hear an agreement, pk doesn’t say: you can’t do that.

3/29 meeting in 604 - he won’t release hold on abortion bill til ba says he can

?? successful in getting other legislators exhibit 20 explicitly linked his support, you’ll get your gasline, govt gets his bill, i’ll get my job in Barbados

5/7/06 near end of legislation. ONce leg session ended, leg dead
called that bw voted the wrong way.
21/5 passed, bw voted wrong, gonna do rescinding motion. had a couple of dems on our side craw and croft. worst that can happen is it passes again. Ben can’t get the numbers over there. can’t get 20/20.

Crowded courtroom

Smith says, I think we wanna go back and get that
An hour later congratulates pk for getting it rescinded and back to 20/20

later 5/7/06 - met in 604 21-27 Exhibits. pk describes how he got it done
11:43 pm - I had to get it done, I had to come back and face this man here, I had to beg, cheat, steal and lie

pk’s continuing efforts to support - offers insight, no idea anyone is watching
7/06/ I’d vote for 30% tax if it weren’t for this guy here.

5/8/06 v. Now I own your ass
I got it done, see

Later still may 8 v.; you know how to do it. I’ll get her done. I don’t care. I’ll sell my soul to the devil

5/8 during day. BW talk about how to maneuver bill thru
later day - Good job
later afternoon - v. 20/20 appears to be slipping away again. Where do you wanna take this bill. Don’t want to jeopardize gasline, I’ll stay on 20/20 .... [listing who will be on 20]

Seeking directions from constituents? No, from Bill Allen.

Later same day PK calls rs - smith notes kott voted for 21.5 and that he had to do it to keep it from 22.5. He’s happy.

Deadlock caused bill to die. Veco doesn’t want anything above 20/20, wanted it to die to get what they want in special session. Gov. calls special session.

june 1, 06 Allen and pk met in 604, handed PK $1000 in cash. Counts it out. And what did ba say about it. He said it was wrong an pk wasn’t expecting it. PK had already made a contribution to Murko. ba and pk have frank discussion about future
ba what do you wanna do
pk wanna be a warden in barbados
pk i wanna be lobbyist
ba you will be
pk once it’s in your blood

Mr. Allen told us in the stand right here, that being lobbyist for veco is lucrative, and it’ll get you other jobs too
RS said, getting the job was contingent on work in leg

6/3/06 pk and rs continue to discuss strategy exhibit .40 discuss Gene Therriault messing up getting the bill they want

6/ should be bill killed, cause not at 20/20

6/5-6 more meetings about killing ppt bill. pk notes he doesn’t understand the problem for the legislators. he can 45-56 exh. one he wants higher rate, another a lower rate

ba tells Bowles he can have stevens and kott kill the bill

appears deal ready to be signed
BA says, you didn’t get it done, you’re going to siberia, not barbados
6/8 pk gets adjournment before vote can be taken
Joins rs and ba in 604 to celebrate the victory - v later in meeting, pk relates what occurred and discuss strategy
going to tell all these guys ‘fuck you’ and then we’ll get a bill. june 8 11:45pm

7/12/06 rs and jerrie mackie talk about the pool they paid for. Mackie told pk about help with the poll, pk said ‘great’ Mackie didn’t say, “PK asked why, didn’t want poll”
Dittman confirms. PK and RS have phone call about whether they discussed poll.
ba: Mackie told you about the dittman poll, right? PK; Yeah.
BA:I’m working my end
pk: I work mine.
Kott didn’t say, I don’t use polls.

audio tape:
We did a poll for you, you know that don’t you? yeah? Bill didn’t know that?
Mackie wanted to do in two weeks a follow up poll to see if anything changed, to see if we wanna do anything different.
No conversation there about not wanting poll. No, we can do another one.

July 31
gonna meet in Juneau
phone call, plan to get pk more money. figured out a way I can help pk .jr.
pk. ?
ba. figured a way to help with a your son, you know? Yeah
Yeah, he’s been pestering me all damn day, already working *****************
We gotta figure out something that’s fool proof
Yeah, it’s fool proof

If the FBI hadn’t recorded this conversation then would it be fool Proof?


Aug. I’ve got your hardwood floor check. Smith didn’t say “i’ve got my check. hadn’t nothing to do with floors.
Linda Croft says she paid that invoice. 6/27/2006 only invoice she ever saw. She didn’t see any $5500 for rick. Paid with ba’s check.
You know what happened to that check. He cashed it and gave it to his son. Kott benefited.

Aug. this is the only conversation where someone knows he’s being recorded****
BA:
PK then rs gave me a check and that was it
ba: on what
pk you remember what we talked about several weeks ago. add it to your bill or something
ba; i gave you $17K on the floor right?
pk aaaa, I have to check. Maybe between both it woulda been close to that.
Nothing here about when can I do that work? because everyone knew what happened, the money tacked onto the flooring invoice, it was just the vehicle.

PK has no idea this is being recorded. SEarch warrants not broadcast til Aug 31

You evaluate the evidence. Let’s talk about how to-evaluate it.

You’ve heard from ba rs the defendant, none knew they were under surveillance. BA said, you think i would have said this if i knew i was on tape?

think about testimony in lens of what you’ve seen. Consistent with what you saw on the video?
When you consider ba’s testimony. Consider it in context of what pk said about ba’s credibility.
Is it consistent with tapes and witnesses test

Count 1
conspiracy nov 05- 06
three crimes
extortion

wire fraud

counts 2, 4, 6

Agreement is just an agreement of 2 or more to commit any one of those crimes.
Did defendant become member of conspiracy?
one of the member performed an overt act. means they did something to advance it. Floor vote, talked to a legislator many things

Ex under color of official right
4
public official
obtained money not entitled
knew it was obtained for something else
commerce moving from one state to another

no question he was in legislature
got check, $1000 in cash, poll, job with veco
Know? he did. think. To be guilty of that, to have that knowledge, pk simply needs to have agreement or understanding implied or stated explicitly. If i do these things, I’m going to get this job, get this money, doesn’t matter if he did it or had the power to do it
ppt leg that certainly affects commerce for the state of alaska


Count 4
Bribery program fed funds
elected official
corruptly solicited or agreed to accept
business transaction value >$50000
AK agency must get >$10K in grants from Feds

same things $7,993, cash, poll, etc
thing at issue, the ppt legislation involved something of $5K - Dickenson made it clear that it was hundreds of millions
AK receives hundreds of millions

Count 6 Wirefraud
made up scheme or plan - acting on behalf of his own interest instead of people
under whose directions - veco
when defendant placed phone call in dc. they discussed legislation, veco’s view,
statements in phone call in furtherance of scheme or plan - conversation had to be about something important to the fraud. About setting pk straight about how he’s supposed to act with the cook inlet oil. pk said, I know where my allegiances are.
phone call occurred from state to state - from dc to Alaska

based on this overwhelming evidence , from all the witnesses, and mr. kott and physical evidence. i ask you to find peter kott guilty on all four counts of the indictment. Thank you.

9:58.

Pete Kott Trial - 8:30 am Start Monday for Closing Arguments

U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska
Court Calendar for Monday, September 24, 2007
Current as of 09/21/2007 at 5:30 PM

---

8:30 AM	3:07-CR-00056-01-JWS	Judge Sedwick	Anchorage Courtroom 3
USA vs. PETER KOTT TRIAL BY JURY - DAY 14

Checking the court calendar for tomorrow, I noticed that the trial starts a half hour earlier than normal. The closing arguments are scheduled. Friday the defense said it wanted however much time the government got and the government wanted 90 minutes. So one possibility is that the judge moved it up earlier so they could have a break between the arguments and still get out by noon.

I think the government has a lot on its side. The tapes are pretty damning and the defendant has said he would lie to his friends, and his chief of staff said he was a mean drunk.

If I were the defense attorney I'd try to make the point that yes, there were gifts, and yes Kott did things as a legislator to support their interests in the legislature. But Kott and Allen were good friends, who because of many common experiences and interests really hit it off. And all legislators are supported by people of like political interests and they push those interests in the legislature. There is no specific action that is tied to a specific gift. The wire-fraud charge, based on the phone call from DC regarding Marathan Oil is a mighty slim thread, and this would be the charge, if any, most likely to fail.

That's the only possible hole I can see Kott getting through if the defense can pull it off and the jury buys it. As I recall from the Anderson case, the agreement need not be as explicit as "I'll give you this $7,993 for Hardwood Flooring and you'll get me four votes for 20/20." I think there's enough on the tapes with Kott telling Allen he'll get it done, etc. that the government should be able to make the connection.

This jury is older than the Anderson jury and there are ten women on it. I can't imagine Kott's profanity, lascivious talk of the women in Florida and Barbados in those phone calls, or his living with his girlfriend while he's still married has gotten much sympathy for him from the jury. The defense got the explanation about the wife - that she's not cooperating in the divorce - from the girlfriend, not from the son. That surely isn't the most objective witness for that information. But you never know who gets on the jury. Well have to hear the closing arguments and then wait.

If the connection between the gifts and the legislation is still elusive, the government can quote Don Corleone: someday imported by AKRaven

Someday - and that day may never come - I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this justice as gift on my daughter's wedding day.

Pete Kott Trial - Underlying Stories - The Press

Ropinator asked in a comment a few posts ago, "are you a court journalist or something like that?" Ropi is a Hungarian high school student with a thoughtful blog that I read. His question gives me a chance to talk about some of the media stories underlying this case, including mine.

Well, am I a trial journalist? Something like that. At least for the last two weeks I've been. While I haven't hidden my identity from people, I haven't given much detail in my blog profile. I'd rather people evaluate the blog based on what I post than they jump to conclusions from labels in the profile. But the Anchorage Daily News has 'outed' me in their Alaska News Reader link this week.

Many of the outlets focused on the prosecution’s cross examination of former House speaker Pete Kott. Retired UAA professor Steve Aufrecht, in his What Do I Know? blog, says prosecutors scored base hits but no home runs, with their most significant gain questioning Kott’s honesty.

So this is a good time to talk about being a 'journalist' at the courtroom.

I went to the Tom Anderson trial because he was a former student of mine and I wanted to hear what happened first hand. Since I was there I started taking notes to help keep focused. Since I had the notes, I decided to start putting them on my blog. I started talking to Michael Carey (from the Anchorage Daily News) one day and we ended up going to lunch. He introduced me to others such as Lisa Demer. I knew Steve Heimel already from the old days when I did stuff with KSKA. Then one day my blog starting getting lots of hits. It turned out that the Anchorage Daily News (ADN) had linked to my site. The most daily hits my blog had gotten before that was about 22. Now I got 40, then 53, then 101, then 150. And after the trial they tapered off just as fast, though I'd picked up a few more regular viewers and was averaging 15-20 a day.

So when the Kott trial was coming up, it seemed like blogging was the right thing to do. Not just to get my hits up, but because I had taught public administration at the university and have published articles and book chapters on accountability and ethics and corruption. This was the second trial to come out of an FBI investigation that has several other Alaskan politicians implicated, including the US Senator, Ted Stevens, who is the senior Republican senator in the United States Senate.

First, I'd like to say that the other journalists - Lisa Demer and Michael Carey from the ADN - have been very supportive of my blogging. John McKay, the ADN and KTUU attorney who has opened media access to the courtroom, has also been very supportive as have Steve Heimel and David Shurtleff from APRN.

As that previous paragraph might suggest, the media people know each other and help each other out. When the ADN and KTUU got permission to bring their cell phones past the security (but they must be turned off in the courtroom) and to bring their laptops into the courtroom, that was extended to all media. My status as an independent blogger was untested, but they told me to make up a press pass, and by the time I was ready to bring my computer into the courtroom, the security guards knew me as a regular and I had no problems. The other media folks are the camera people - both video and still - who wait outside the courtroom security for attorneys, the defendant and his party, witnesses - to get pictures.
And there are also a couple of artists.
When I talk about media stories, I realize now that there are stories about the media and how they cover things and there are the different kinds of ways they cover stories. I think I have that all mixed together here.

1. The sound bites and surprises are irresistible, especially if they break open something important. Everyone's waiting for the good quotable lines or the juicy event such as when Bill Allen said he paid for the workmen who remodeled Senator Ted Stevens' Girdwood house. Some recent examples:

• The box of red CBC (Corrupt Bastard Club) baseball caps embroidered by Pete Kott's girlfriend.
  
• Kott's Chief of Staff: "I had two different bosses. When Pete was drunk he started talking hillbilly..." In fact,Steve Heimel opened his country music show on KNBA this afternoon, with "Today is National Talk Hillbilly Day" and that Kott trial jurors shouldn't listen to the show because he might slip in some trial comments. (I didn't hear any after that.)
  
• Kott: "If I have a choice between compromising my principles or lying to my friends, then lying to my friends will take a back seat."
  

2. The tension between getting the story in quickly and getting it accurate and meaningful. It's not that easy to objectively summarize 6 hours of testimony - covering all the key points and letting the reader know what it all means without skewing things. Lisa Demer, as I've written before, has done a great job. Going into enough depth without losing the overall sense of what happened is hard. The newspaper people have limited space and an editor to get past so that something is up early on the website and then in the morning paper. The radio and tv people have even less air time to get a sense of the day to their listeners. The sound bite is especially helpful for them. And they are dependent on the court clerk's office to get them the audio cd of the court each day in time to get their stories taped by air time. And sometimes they don't get the tape. I have the easiest task. I can blog as much or as little as I want. I can focus on a small point without worrying about getting the big picture across, leaving the ADN with the responsibility of giving the whole picture.

3. Competition among media. This is something I haven't particularly noticed. Everyone is sharing. If I get to the court late, another journalist will let me know what's happened. As soon as the ADN got all the audio and video tapes from the Prosecutors they emailed the media who are covering the trial, including me, to give us a link to download everything. And it was all very easy to download.
The only competition I've sensed was between local media and Outside media. Rich Mauer from the ADN was not happy that it was an NPR reporter who followed the governor out of court Thursday and broke the story that she felt Sen. Stevens needed to tell Alaskans what is happening with his investigation. And some of the other reporters were irked at Outside media asking them to get on the Stevens case for them, feeling they're too focused on that instead other important stories. And they make remarks about the Parachute Journalists who write stories from Alaska but don't understand the context because they are only here a short time. There's a skepticism about whether the FBI will actually get the quid pro quo smoking gun on Stevens. On the other hand, another reporter said he was sure Stevens won't run in 2008.


4. Adjusting to the new technological realities. The ADN website is evolving quickly and well. Sean slips out of the courtroom regularly and down to the cafeteria wi-fi to send in his reports. And the Alaska Report is an electronic news digest with links and comment area. In addition there are various blogs. It's much, much more than the print published on line. The stories in the print version have little boxes referring readers to the web.

5. I'm still figuring out my role in all this. Unlike the regular media, I'm shy about asking the attorneys questions or calling people up to get more information. I don't want to stick my camera in people's faces. Though I have less guilt doing that to journalists - figuring that if they can dish it out, they should be able to take it. Regulars in the court room go from nodding to saying hi to introducing themselves and talking. Thus I've been talking a little the last few days with Sen. Fred Dyson whose been there regularly and has been discussed in the trial in different ways - mainly as the person who drove Allen to meet the FBI investigators for the first time. The regular reporters have to talk to these people, but it also means their objectivity gets changed as those relationships get better. The extreme version seems to be the White House press who get used by the administration for strategic leaks. And if they don't treat the administration well, they lose their sources. Like with the lobbyists, I guess people have to realize that reporters like them for their stories, not for who they are. But obviously the professional and personal relationships get mixed up.

6. As I'm creating my journalistic identity, I think my role model is Tom Wolfe . Given his bigger than life image, I should clarify how. Certainly not sartorially and not in flamboyance. But in trying to bring meaning to the story by looking at the context beyond the story in the spotlight. I find myself looking at all the actors, not just those on the stage in the spotlight. I've done this with pictures that give a sense of the background of the trial - the clerk's office where I can use the computer to download documents; the cafeteria where the Kott party eats in one section and various journalists in other sections. Filling in the less obvious facts. And I also enjoy a freedom to speculate about possible interpretations of what we're seeing. Since the press is such a critical part of all this, they really should be subjects for the media as well.

Of course, if I were a better journalists, I'd have more information about my photos. In this post, at the top are camera folks waiting for photo subjects to walk out of court. Another one of the artists with her sketch book as she was walking into the Federal Building. Finally, three journalists during a break, with Rich Mauer in the center.

Pete Kott Trial - Underlying Stories 3

The first underlying stories post outlined some of the possible stories underlying what we see in court that might help me understand thngs. In that I did an overview of the lawyers' stories. The second focused on the cultural stories, particularly what I characterized as a clash between pre-modern, tribal values versus modern, rational values that were apparent.

In this one I'm going to explore a couple stories that could possible shed light on the defendant Pete Kott.

Story 1: The Player - But Poker, not Chess

On Day 11 of the trial (Thursday, September 20) Kott took the stand in the afternoon and his attorney Mr. Wendt asked him about his career. When he started talking about the legislature, his eyes lit up and he started talking with a passion he hadn't shown before. He'd finally found his calling. He took great pleasure, he said, working with his fellow legislators, with the administration. Ramona Barnes took him under her wing and eventually introduced him to Bill Allen.

When Wendt and Kott were going through the legislative history of the PPT bill, Kott seemed to get into his professor role and was explaining the ins and outs of how to get things done in the legislature to the jury. He was articulate and spoke easily of the various strategies one could use to block or move a bill along.

On Friday, still talking about the PPT bill. Wendt and Kott's sentences seemed to run together. Kott is trying to keep the tax at 20%. Rep. Kelly introduced an amendment to raise the tax to 22.5. Then Kott made an amendment to the amendment.

K: You take advantage of any opportunity to get what you want.
W: Sounds like a chess game.
K: Classic chess game.

Kott was smiling now, clearly feeling good about how he had pulled this amendment off.

And I got to thinking about this. It was clear that this was the part that Kott loved - the wheeling and dealing, the strategies, the moves and feints, the game of legislating. It was the chess game he enjoyed. Sure, there were some issues he was interested in - labor issues and natural resource development he told us. His father had worked in a GM factory in Michigan, and Kott himself did briefly before he joined the Air Force, so that support for labor is easy to understand. There wasn't much beyond a love of hunting and fishing in his background though that gave us a hint about the source of his interest in natural resource development prior to his hooking up with Allen.

But the more I thought about it, the less apt the chess metaphor seemed. I wish Goeke had asked Kott if he even plays chess. Poker seems a much better metaphor. But talking about chess was a good move on Wendt's part. Chess is much classier, a smart man's game. In chess, except for white's opening advantage, both players start out equal and everything is in the open. You win on pure skill - being able to see four or five or more moves ahead. But in poker, like in the legislative games Kott described, you can have more players and they begin with unequal hands. Some of your cards are hidden, and deceit is required to win; it's even admired. I mentioned this to a legislative staffer I know and he replied, "And Pete was in the regular Wednesday night poker game in Juneau."

The idea that Kott's love of the legislature comes from the fun of 'playing the game' seems consistent with what we saw and heard. Certainly the tapes revealed lots of back room planning on how to keep the 20% tax rate. Kott seemed terribly proud when he told Allen and Smith of tricking Harvard grad Ethan Berkowitz. (In court he acknowledged that he hadn't.) Kott didn't have a vision of programs he wanted to promote in the legislature. Kott liked the play of the game. While one can say passing PPT at 20% was a vision, it was the oil producers' and Allen's vision that was handed off to Kott. And Kott liked the challenge of getting it through for them.

Oh, my staffer friend also mentioned that at the Wednesday night poker games the word was the lobbyists came with lots of cash and they never seemed to be able to win. Do poker winnings from lobbyists have to be listed with the APOC?


Story 2: Kott's Need for Approval Got Him Into Trouble

This story is pieced together from what I heard in court and from a comment by Fred Dyson outside the courtroom. In this story, Kott has such a strong need for approval from a father figure, that he was willing to do whatever it took to please Bill Allen and, his sidekick, Rick Smith (as Kott's chief of staff described him). So carrying their water in the legislature was one way he could please them, telling them what they wanted to hear while hanging out with them and getting drunk were others. Kott did tell us one of the things he and Allen had in common was "he was by himself. So was I." So both, in this story needed each other.

This could be the story the defense will give us in the closing. Kott was caught up in a bad environment. Staffer Ohmer, who articulated Kott's drinking problem also said that the Veco Suite 604 was called the Animal House and it was where people drank, smoked, swore, and watched Gavel to Gavel. Ohmer told us she had two bosses. The one on the tape was only around after a few drinks, drinks he felt he had to accept to please his buddies in the Animal House. The real Kott was the one in front of them in court. The real Kott wouldn't have done so much drinking if he hadn't fallen under the aura of this Uncle Bill father figure.

To a certain degree it makes sense and probably does explain his dependence on Uncle Bill. And as someone from an economically humble background, being around all the money in the Allen entourage was probably mesmerizing. And Allen was a man who came from even more humble beginnings than Kott. What a role model!

But blaming the environment is the sort of story that is more consistent with Democratic ideology than Republican. According to the Alaska Republican Party Platform Republicans believe

The values that strengthen our nation are family, faith, personal responsibility and accountability

Yom Kippur Thoughts

So exactly why does a skeptical agnostic spend most of his day in the synagogue, fasting and praying? Several things come to mind.

1. It's good to have some days where you check out of life as usual and sit and reflect on how you are living your life.
2. The Jewish High Holy Days structure that sort of meditation. Thousands of years of collected wisdom have been invested into this. A lot of the stuff makes good sense in very modern and practical ways.
3. The reformed Jewish movement has a fairly open view that allows everyone to come at this their own way.
4. I figured out, long ago, while living in a northern Thailand town for a couple of years, that tradition is a way to connect people with their ancestors and the generations to follow. At least theoretically, my ancestors were at Mt. Sinai when Moses came down with the Ten Commandments. Who am I to break those links? Hitler tried to wipe out the people who practiced those traditions. Since my parents got out of Germany in time to survive, I would just be completing Hitler's unfinished work if I were to abandon the tradition.
5. I like to see the many people I've come to know over the years who come together at the synagogue.

So let me show you a little about what I like in the services. (All citations are from The New Union Prayer Book: For the Days of Awe. [well it was new once.])

On Rosh Hashanah it is written,
on Yom Kippur it is sealed:

So during the ten days between the two holidays, people have time to repent, ask forgiveness, forgive others and to change their fate before it is sealed.

How many shall pass on, how many shall come to be:
who shall live and who shall die;
who shall see ripe age and who shall not;
who shall perish by fire and who by water;
who by sword and who by beast;
who by hunger and who by thirst;
who by earthquake and who by plague;
who by strangling and who by stoning;
who shall be secure and who shall be driven;
who shall be tranquil and who shall be troubled;
who shall be poor and who shall be rich;
who shall be humbled and who exalted.

But REPENTANCE, PRAYER, and CHARITY
temper judgment's severe decree.

Whether our lives are actually determined for the next year or not, it is true that some will live and some die, etc. I find it good for me to reflect on that. And to consider where I'm slipping, where I can do better, who I've wronged and ask their forgiveness; and whom I have the power to forgive.

And collectively, we have a time to be forgiven and to forgive:

For tansgressions against God, the Day of Atonement atones; but for transgressions of one human being against another, the Day of Atonement does not atone until they have made peace with one another.

I hereby forgive all who have hurt me, all who have wronged me, whether deliberately or inadvertently, whether by word or by deed. May no one be punished on my account.

As I forgive and pardon those who have wronged me, may those whom I have harmed forgive and pardon me, whether I acted deliberately or inadvertently, whether by word or by deed.

This discussion about forgiveness and judging has special meaning this year as I've spent the last two weeks in court watching the trial of an Alaskan politician accused of bribery. He apologized to the jury for his vulgar behavior seen in the surveillance video tapes. Is their forgiveness enough? What about his constituents? All Alaskans? Peter Kott, for my part, I forgive any transgression. And as a blogger, I'm reminded by "whether by word or by deed." Blogging gives me lots more opportunity to do harm by word. And I ask forgiveness for those I might have inadvertently harmed.

But I think what I like about this service is that next we get into specifics. We can all smugly assume we haven't wronged any, or at least not too many, people when it is stated that generally. But the prayer book gives us an alphabet of sins to help prick our memory.

Who among us is righteous
enough to say: 'I have not sinned?'
We are arrogant, brutal, careless,
destructive, egocentric, false;
greedy, heartless, insolent,
and joyless,
Our sins are an alphabet of woe.

And that still isn't specific enough. We aren't just talking about murder and theft and adultery. The prayer book identifies a list of things that cause all of us to pause:

FAILURES OF TRUTH

We sin against You when we sin against ourselves.
For our failures of truth, O Lord, we ask forgiveness.

For passing judgment without knowledge of the facts,
and for distorting facts to fit our theories. [Who doesn't have work to do here?]

For deceiving ourselves and others with half-truths,
and for pretending to emotions we do not feel.

For using the sins of others to excuse our own,
and for denying responsibility for our own misfortunes.

For condemning in our children the faults we tolerate in ourselves,
and for condemning in our parents the faults we tolerate in ourselves,

FAILURES OF JUSTICE

For keeping the poor in the chains of poverty,
and turning a deaf ear to the cry of the oppressed.

For using violence to maintain our power,
and for using violence to bring about change.

For waging aggressive war,
and for the sin of appeasing aggressors.

For obeying criminal orders,
and for the sin of silence and indifference.

For poisoning the air, and polluting land and sea,
and for all the evil means we employ to accomplish good ends.

FAILURES OF LOVE

For confusing love with lust,
and for pursuing fleeting pleasure at the cost of lasting hurt.

For using others as a means to gratify our desires,
and as stepping-stones to further our ambitions.

For withholding love to control those we claim to love,
and shunting aside those whose youth and age disturbs us.

For hiding from others behind an armor of mistrust,
and for the cynicism which leads us to mistrust the reality of unselfish love.

There are more verses, but you get the point. For most of us, it's these 'little' sins that accumulate and I find it a list that I respect.

And Judaism is not rigid. The rabbis do not all agree, but give their interpretations and the prayer book offers conflicting interpretations:

Rabbi Samuel ben Nachmani said: At times the gates of prayer are open, at times the gates of prayer are barred. But the gates of repentance are never barred.

But it is reported that Rabbi Juday the Prince taught: In truth, the gates of prayer are never barred.

Rabbi Akiba taught: The gates of prayer are open, and the prayer of those who practice steadfast love is heard.

Rav Chisda taught: Though sometimes the gates of heaven seem shut to all prayers, they are open to the prayers of the wounded and the hurt.

And so the prayer book recognizes that everyone has a unique relationship to God.

You are my God, and my redeemer. Therefore, while around me others think their own thoughts, I think mine; and as each one of them seeks to experience Your presence, so do I.

So whether there is actually a God external to human beings, or a God lives 'only' inside of human beings, we have available this connection to each other and connection to this heritage of moral teachings. If someone needs to believe that there is an external God who is watching and who will reward and punish, in order to live a righteous life, then they can have such a God to help them. If others cannot accept that a God exists outside of human consciousness, the words of the prayer book are still a good guide to reflecting on one's actions over the past year and the coming year.

Of course, there is also the music - the melodies that have been heard over and over again and are good friends. And in our synagogue I love that we have so many members who sing and chant the various songs and prayers. They aren't professional cantors, but they have beautiful voices and their participation enriches our services. No cantor's singing of Avinu Malchenu can reach me the way our friend Lynn, standing in front of the open ark and torahs, her dog Mary at her side, can. And members of the congregation come to the bima to read sections of the prayer book as well as the Torah. We aren't just an audience, we're participants.