Evidence excluded in Stevens trial
Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of U.S. District Court declined to declare a mistrial or dismiss any of the seven felony counts, as had been urged by Stevens' lawyers. But Sullivan delivered a severe scolding to the prosecution and said he would bar the government from using two categories of evidence central to its case.
Perhaps more important, he said he would tell the jury Thursday that he was excluding some of the prosecution's evidence because "the government presented evidence the government knew was not true," an instruction likely to undermine the credibility of the prosecution.
In a special hearing outside the presence of the jury, Sullivan said, "The government knew the documents were lies."
Stevens, a veteran Alaska Republican, is in the second week of a trial on charges that he knowingly failed to list on Senate disclosure forms some $250,000 in gifts and services he received from Bill Allen, an Alaska oil services tycoon and longtime friend. The judge had earlier admonished prosecutors for failing to turn over to the defense evidence about the gifts and services that were used mostly in the renovation of Stevens' Alaska home.
"The government knew those records were not truthful records. All along the government knew that was a lie," Sullivan said angrily to Nicholas Marsh, a prosecutor. "Why did you do it? I want an answer."
Facing the withering verbal flogging, Marsh answered, "We didn't see the case that way," and argued that the information about Anderson's absence from Alaska was not material.
"We're talking about the U.S. government using documents it knows are false," Sullivan responded. "You have an obligation to see this man gets a fair trial."
Anderson's falsely billed hours amounted to about $16,000 or $17,000, less than 10 percent of the time attributed to the Stevens home, which was why "we looked at this in a different light," Marsh said.
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