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| Sen. Stevens' Testimony Hurt His Case |
| 2008-11-16 |
| I had to find something for this page! The jurors had spent the better part of two days battling one of their own, Juror No. 9, who had refused to participate in deliberations. Several feared that they were headed for a hung jury, an ignominious end to the month-long corruption trial of Sen. Ted Stevens, one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress. But when the jurors reconvened a few days later, it took them just hours to find Stevens guilty on all seven counts of lying on financial disclosure forms to hide more than $250,000 in gifts and renovations to his Girdwood, Alaska, house. The jurors said they went from near-disaster to a quick verdict after they put their bickering aside and realized that prosecutors had presented an overwhelming case. Stevens, they said, did himself no favors by taking the stand, where he destroyed the grandfatherly image his lawyers had carefully crafted. For most of the trial, the 84-year-old senator sat hunched over the defense table listening to testimony through court-issued headphones. He fit the part, some jurors said, of an elderly gentleman who left many of life's details - including his house renovations - to others. But the jurors' empathy vanished the moment Stevens came under cross-examination. Stevens, the jurors said, came off as evasive, arrogant and combative, and his answers did not jibe with the evidence. He said one gift was a loan and that others were not gifts at all. He said he was not aware that work had been done on his house. "He looked fragile for most of the trial, and then he testified, and, man, he became this lion," said Colleen Walsh, one of two jurors and two alternates interviewed about their experiences during the trial. "I thought, 'Wait a minute, if the defense is trying to portray this man as a sympathetic character who didn't know what was going on in his life, why did they put him on the stand and he could recall everything that happened except the gifts?' " Two weeks after the jury returned its verdict, its ramifications still are not known. Stevens's lawyers are expected to file court documents seeking to overturn it, and U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan has not set a sentencing date. Stevens faces as much as five years in prison on each count. Despite the trial, Stevens ran for a seventh full term and trails his Democratic opponent by 1,022 votes in the most recent tally. The jurors said they are not surprised the senator garnered such support. Stevens is revered in Alaska, and testimony from high-profile figures such as former secretary of state Colin L. Powell showed that Stevens is well liked and respected, they said. After Veco workers testified about helping to turn the modest cabin into a two-story house with a garage, whirlpool and two wraparound decks, the trial got interesting, jurors said. That is when prosecutors introduced a stack of e-mails between Stevens and a family friend who monitored the renovations. The e-mails highlighted Allen's work and lauded the labor of Veco employees at the house, which Stevens and his wife call "the chalet." |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #2 He's one piece of trash the NEW Republican Party doesn't need cluttering up the landscape. John McCain is another - too old, too slow, and too opinionated, trusting too many of the wrong people. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-11-16 14:02 |
| #1 Being guilty as sin probably didn't help his case much either. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2008-11-16 12:30 |