Stevens' long criminal court fight about to end

April 07, 2009

Former Sen. Ted Stevens will be heading back into court on Tuesday. (KTUU-TV)

by Jill Burke
Monday, April 6, 2009

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The near-final chapter in the battle between Ted Stevens and federal prosecutors will play out Tuesday.

That's when a federal judge is expected to vacate the conviction and drop the charges.

Stevens said the move by the Department of Justice removes the black cloud that descended over him last year and cost him his Senate career.

But the fallout is likely far from over.

The judge is surely angered. Serious prosecutorial errors have cost the court, its jurors, and the government time and money they can never reclaim.

"The misconduct of prosecutors was stunning to me," Stevens' attorney, Brendan Sullivan said last week.

Stevens' defense team applied fierce and frequent pressure to have the judge overseeing the ex-senator's corruption trial toss the case and to keep prosecutors -- whom they accused of hiding and manufacturing evidence -- in line.

"The consensus among experienced prosecutors I know is that they lost their way along the way during the case and made some bad decisions," former prosecutor James Flood said in a phone interview Sunday.

The team is accused of repeatedly withholding evidence helpful to Stevens' case, and in the end it was a new Democratic attorney general who came to the career Republican's aid.

Saying the case was irreparably harmed by how the government handled evidence at trial, Attorney General Eric Holder has asked the court to throw the case and the guilty verdicts out.

"The prosecutors themselves will now face a long and federal investigation into their conduct in this case," Flood said.

The calls for correction are also reaching home soil.

"There was improper, undue influence in the campaign -- I'd love to see a fair, special election," Gov. Sarah Palin said. "I can't see how Mark Begich would argue that."

But the freshman senator who won Stevens' seat one week after the guilty verdicts came in isn't in the mood .

"That's not going to happen," Begich said. "I'm honored to serve the people of Alaska."

Sullivan says with the case dropped, Stevens' name is cleared, innocent as though the charges had never been brought.

But the line may not be that bright.

"We can't say he is guilty, but we can't say with conviction he didn't do anything, and that's a shame," Georgetown University law professor Paul Rothstein said in a phone interview Monday.

On Tuesday Stevens will walk into court a felon and likely come out with a clear name, with the label he endured for five months removed and left behind.

The publication Legal Times estimates Stevens spent at least $2 million on his defense.

Expense -- and time lost trying the case on both sides -- is also something the judge is expected to make remarks on at the hearing, where he is also expected to, as requested, drop the case.

Stevens opened a Senate expense fund last fall to collect contributions to help pay for his defense. Normally the amount collected would be a matter of public record.

But the attorney on that trust fund said since the reporting deadline was Jan. 15 -- when Stevens was no longer in office -- she was advised by the Senate Ethics Committee that no report was needed since the committee no longer had authority over him.

The Senate Office of Public Records said the same thing.

Contact Jill Burke at jburke@ktuu.com

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