Sen. Ted Stevens Prosecutors Hid Evidence, Report Concludes

ABC OTUS News/Yahoo ^ | 3-16-12 | Jason Ryan

[STARWISE]

Excerpt

A court-appointed special prosecutor has determined that serious misconduct by Justice Department prosecutors tainted the federal investigation and trial of former Sen. Ted Stevens, according to a report released Thursday.

*snip*

"The government introduced false business records to boost the value of renovations on the Senator's Alaska home. It also hid from the defense the evidence needed to show that the value was much less than the government claimed, including evidence that its key witness disagreed with the government about the value of the renovations," Stevens defense lawyers Brendan Sullivan and Robert Cary said in a statement.

*snip*

Following the trial, the FBI's Chad Joy filed a whistleblower complaint with the District Court alleging that the lead FBI agent on the case, Mary Beth Kepner, might have had an inappropriate relationship with Allen, the government's star witness, and that the agent was allegedly telling potential witnesses about grand jury information before trial.

[STARWISE]

Judge orders misconduct report in Sen. Stevens case released

Excerpt:

Sullivan in 2009 overturned the conviction of Stevens, who was the longest-serving Republican senator in history, because prosecutors failed to turn over to the defense information helpful to Stevens.

The judge appointed a veteran lawyer, Henry Schuelke, to investigate and possibly prosecute the six Justice Department attorneys who handled the Stevens case. One of those lawyers, Nicholas Marsh, committed suicide in September 2010.

Some of the attorneys who were the target of the investigation urged Sullivan to keep the report under seal in part because it was much like a secret grand jury proceeding, an argument the judge rejected.

~~~~~~

Poor man .. never had a chance. God help me, I was convinced he was guilty from the lamestream reporting. Though his conviction was finally overturned due to prosecutorial screwups, he still dies a year later with the pain and stain of shame, leaving his wounded, scarred family along with him .. and NO RESTITUTION >> NO APOLOGY >> no full reclaiming of his name and reputation. I hope his family sues for all the gold in Fort Knox.

Filthy, stinking, massive corruption .. politicians, officials everywhere you look, on the take or with a personal agenda .. a nation wide, government wide cesspool and contagion that's now the norm among those who swore an oath to serve the Constitution and the governed. What and who's left to be trusted in America, except each other?

[STARWISE]

.. Ping!

[NonValueAdded]

As Ray Donovan said, “Where Do I Go To Get My Reputation Back?”

[Lazlo in PA]

...Stevens defense lawyers Brendan Sullivan...

Whenever this dudes name pops up, all I can think about is potted plants. BTW, I think that these criminals in the Justice Dept need to go on trial themselves for this outrageous activity. Stevens was innocent and these clowns knew it.

[originalbuckeye]

Stevens would have won his election and likely not have been on the plane that crashed. I hope the Prosecutors and Begich are somehow held accountable for his death.

[STARWISE]

Another piece of the untold story of Obamacare
Posted by William A. Jacobson Saturday, March 17, 2012

###

So many things had to go wrong for Obamacare to evade a Senate filibuster.

Arlen Specter had to switch parties. Al Franken had to pull out a slight victory.

And Senator Ted Stevens needed to lose relection just after being convicted of corruption.

Now a new report reveals how bad the misconduct was:

The late Sen. Ted Stevens was found guilty in 2008 of making false statements on financial disclosure forms, but the verdict was set aside after it was discovered that prosecutors failed to give the defense evidence that could have helped clear the Senator.

The release of a scathing report last week detailing widespread prosecutorial misconduct that botched the corruption trial of the late Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has reignited calls to revisit the rules requiring government prosecutors to hand over evidence that could help exonerate criminal defendants.

Though the underlying cause of the derailed prosecution has been known since April 2009, when Stevens’ conviction was set aside after the Department of Justice said it had failed to disclose evidence that would have helped the Senator’s defense team, details of prosecutors’ “willful nondisclosure” in last week’s report stunned legal observers, who say this is just the latest case that illustrates how badly the rules need revision.

It truly is amazing how close we came to avoiding the disaster known as Obamacare. But close was not good enough.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

“BTW, I think that these criminals in the Justice Dept need to go on trial themselves for this outrageous activity.”

Absolutely!

[kcvl]

Mary Beth Kepner

[STARWISE]

For the scorched earth, stinging reality .. see my last post above.

[kcvl]

Among the startling accusations in the statement by the agent, Chad Joy, is that another agent maintained an inappropriate relationship with the prosecution’s star witness. Mr. Joy said his colleague, Mary Beth Kepner, almost always wore pants but on the day the witness, Bill Allen, took the stand, Ms. Kepner donned a skirt, which Mr. Joy said she described as “a present” to Mr. Allen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/us/politics/11stevens.html

In its court filing, Mr. Stevens’s defense team has magnified Mr. Joy’s complaint about an improper relationship between Ms. Kepner and Mr. Allen, asserting that they appeared to have had a sexual relationship. Mr. Joy did not raise that possibility in the redacted version of his statement, but did say Ms. Kepner had improperly gone alone to Mr. Allen’s hotel room.

His statement also said agents received gifts from Mr. Allen, including help in getting a family member a job.

[kcvl]

Among the startling accusations in the statement by the agent, Chad Joy, is that another agent maintained an inappropriate relationship with the prosecution’s star witness. Mr. Joy said his colleague, Mary Beth Kepner, almost always wore pants but on the day the witness, Bill Allen, took the stand, Ms. Kepner donned a skirt, which Mr. Joy said she described as “a present” to Mr. Allen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/us/politics/11stevens.html

In its court filing, Mr. Stevens’s defense team has magnified Mr. Joy’s complaint about an improper relationship between Ms. Kepner and Mr. Allen, asserting that they appeared to have had a sexual relationship. Mr. Joy did not raise that possibility in the redacted version of his statement, but did say Ms. Kepner had improperly gone alone to Mr. Allen’s hotel room.

His statement also said agents received gifts from Mr. Allen, including help in getting a family member a job.

[Revolting cat!]

As I recall, this lifelong RINO didn’t find much sympathy here at the time.

[Twotone]

Prosecutors should find themselves at the mercy of a law that states, “If you are found guilty of deliberately withholding exculpatory evidence, you will face the same prison term that your intended victim faced.”

Throw the b*st*rd in jail!

[GoldenPup]

If the Bastards could do this to a sitting U.S. Senator, imagine what they could do to you or me!!

[SaraJohnson]

She needs to be prosecuted. The DOJ is corrupt and getting worse because they don’t fear getting caught and don’t fear any punishment when they do get caught.

[Clump]

As a former prosecutor and present defense attorney I can tell you that this corruption is deep and wide across the country.
The duty to see that justice is done is not taken seriously by far too many DAs and USAs.
Scary stuff.

[STARWISE]

Excerpt:

Mary Beth Kepner was the lead FBI agent in the Alaska corruption investigation. She was accused by FBI whistleblower Chad Joy of having an inappropriate relationship with lead government witness Bill Allen.

Her role is still under investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility, a Justice Department agency that investigates allegations of wrongdoing by federal prosecutors and law enforcement.

Read more about all the sullied and unsullied participants in this debacle here:

http://www.adn.com/2012/03/15/2372397/whos-who-in-the-schuelke-report.html#storylink=cpy

~~~~~~~~~~~~

2-10-09 - Excerpt:

Among the startling accusations in the statement by the agent, Chad Joy, is that another agent maintained an inappropriate relationship with the prosecution’s star witness.

Mr. Joy said his colleague, Mary Beth Kepner, almost always wore pants but on the day the witness, Bill Allen, took the stand, Ms. Kepner donned a skirt, which Mr. Joy said she described as “a present” to Mr. Allen.

Both Mr. Joy and Ms. Kepner continue to work in the Anchorage office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/us/politics/11stevens.html

[Clintonfatigued]

Ted Stevens should have retired due to age years ago, but he didn’t deserve what he got. Why did the Bush Administration leave so many Clinton holdovers in the Justice Department?

[kcvl]

During the trial Stevens defense lawyers argued that Stevens paid $160,000 for the home renovations and did nothing wrong. The report highlights that the lead FBI case agent, Mary Beth Kepner, did not write reports following interviews with Bill Allen, who had asserted that the work only cost $80,000.

“The value of VECO’s work on the Girdwood residence was $80,000, constituted significant …information. However, that information was not recorded in any [FBI reports] and was not disclosed to Williams & Connolly until 2009, after the trial, when the new team of prosecutors took over,” the report found.

“The government introduced false business records to boost the value of renovations on the Senator’s Alaska home. It also hid from the defense the evidence needed to show that the value was much less than the government claimed, including evidence that its key witness disagreed with the government about the value of the renovations,” Stevens defense lawyers Brendan Sullivan and Robert Cary said in a statement.

In a September 2006 phone call intercepted by the FBI that was released at the trial the feisty senator told Bill Allen, “We got a fight out there ahead of us. And we’re gonna win it because we didn’t do anything wrong.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/03/sen-ted-stevens-prosecutors-hid-evidence-report-concludes/

[The Cajun]

WELL said about the condition of our country.

I'm seriously having doubts, more than ever, that it is fixable anymore by the political process.
That's the reality I see, doesn't mean I give up in the least, but that's the reality.