By Tony Hopfinger and James Rowley, Bloomberg, June 5, 2009
5 Jun 2009 // Two imprisoned Alaska ex-legislators should be released and their convictions reconsidered because prosecutors withheld information from their lawyers, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Former Representatives Pete Kott and Vic Kohring should be released from federal prison and their convictions sent back to District Court for further proceedings, the government said yesterday in papers filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The request came two months after a judge threw out the conviction of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.
“After a careful review of these cases, I have determined that it appears that the department did not provide information that should have been disclosed to the defense,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. “The department’s mission is to do justice, not just win cases, and when we make mistakes, it is our duty to admit and correct those mistakes.”
Four prosecutors who were part of the case against Stevens also were involved in the legislators’ cases, court records show. Holder has called for an internal review of the Justice Department’s investigation of public corruption in Alaska.
The federal probe, which is ongoing, began more than five years ago and has largely centered on Alaskan politicians’ ties to Bill Allen, the former owner of the oil-contracting company Veco Corp.
Bribery, Corruption
Kott and Kohring, both Republicans, were convicted on bribery and corruption charges in 2007. They were accused of taking bribes from Allen in exchange for agreeing to torpedo a controversial vote that would have raised state taxes on oil companies.
The evidence at their trials included dozens of hours of video surveillance and phone calls allegedly showing the lawmakers discussing the tax vote with Allen and oil lobbyists and taking favors in return, including thousands of dollars in cash.
Kott was sentenced to six years in federal prison and Kohring got a 3 1/2-year sentence. Both men appealed their convictions.
In court filings yesterday, federal prosecutors said material has been uncovered “that, at this stage, appears to be information that should have been, but was not, disclosed” before Kott’s and Kohring’s trials. Prosecutors didn’t disclose what information should have been provided.
Toward Vindication
“The big thing for Pete right now is to get out and be vindicated, and it looks like we’re moving in that direction,” Kott’s lawyer, Sheryl Gordon McCloud, said yesterday in a phone interview.
John Henry Browne, Kohring’s lawyer, said yesterday in a phone interview that he sent Holder a letter a month ago detailing two documents that he hadn’t received before Kohring went on trial. “Both would have been helpful to Vic’s case,” Browne said.
The Justice Department contacted Browne yesterday saying that prosecutors had uncovered other documents as well that should have been turned over, Browne said.
“This is enough excitement to turn Vic into a Democrat,” he said.
The Justice Department’s admission of mistakes in the two Alaska cases came two months after a federal judge in Washington set aside the political corruption conviction of Stevens.
Stevens went on trial for allegedly failing to publicly disclose more than $250,000 in gifts from Allen and others. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan railed against federal prosecutors for their handling of evidence and a witness.
Stevens Case
Stevens, a Republican, was convicted by a federal jury in Washington on Oct. 28 and lost his bid for re-election the following week by a few thousand votes. In April, the Justice Department admitted that prosecutors had made mistakes in the case and asked Sullivan to dismiss the conviction. Sullivan threw out the conviction on April 7.
In requesting that Steven’s conviction be set aside, the Justice Department cited the prosecution’s failure to turn over evidence that might have helped defense lawyers rebut the charges.
Four of the prosecutors involved in the Stevens case, Joseph Bottini, James Goeke, Nicholas Marsh and Edward Sullivan, were involved in the cases of Kott and Kohring, according to court records.
Bottini and Goeke are assistant U.S. attorneys in Anchorage, the capital of Alaska. Marsh and Sullivan are Washington-based prosecutors in the Justice Department’s public integrity section.
Probe of DOJ
Sullivan appointed a special prosecutor to determine whether any of the prosecutors were guilty of criminal contempt of court for failing to turn over evidence the defense was entitled to see. The outcome of that investigation, by a Washington lawyer recruited by the judge, is pending.
Laura Sweeney, a Justice Department spokeswoman, declined to comment on the employment status of the four prosecutors.
Bottini, Goeke and Sullivan prosecuted both Kott and Kohring. Marsh participated in the Kohring case.
In an e-mailed statement, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said she was “wildly curious what went on in DOJ back then, and what is going on in DOJ now that’s resulted in these stunning turn of events.”
“I agree with the attorney general that the Department of Justice should be about justice, not just about winning cases,” Palin said. “I will withhold further comment until we see how this plays out.”
The cases are U.S. v. Kohring, 3:07-cr-00055, and U.S. v. Kott, 3:07-cr-00056, U.S. District Court, District of Alaska (Anchorage).