By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com
The Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section which blew the case against Sen. Ted Stevens, may be screwing up a big public corruption case in Montgomery, Ala. Both cases involve allegations of withholding evidence from the defense.
The Associated Press reports that an angry U.S. Magistrate Judge Wallace Capel Jr. is fed up and said at a pretrial hearing on Friday that he may impose sanctions against the government for repeatedly failing to hand over all the documents pertaining to FBI wiretaps in a gambling case involving alleged payoffs to politicians to pass legislation.
“This is supposed to be some elite group coming down from D.C., and how this case has been conducted is ridiculous,” the judge said at a pretrial hearing, according to AP. The trial is set for June 6.
The judge did not say what sanctions he might impose, but the defense is asking that the judge toss the case because the government failed to share certain documents.
AP reported that Casino owners Milton McGregor and Ronnie Gilley, four present and former legislators, and four others are charged with buying and selling votes on legislation. The votes would have kept opened Gilley’s and McGregor’s shuttered electronic bingo casinos.
Prosecutor Steve Feaga said in court, according to AP: “In the course of this case, there have been some mistakes made by the government.”
But AP reported that Feaga said the mistakes were unintentional, such as handing over computer disc without the passwords to access data.
The government has conceded that it has made mistakes, but they weren’t intentional, AP said.
The Public Integrity Section convicted then-U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens in Oct. 27, 2008 of public corruption charges shortly before his re-election. Stevens lost the election, but the Justice Department subsequently moved to vacate conviction because its Office of Public Integrity failed to turn over evidence to the defense.
