Last week it was reported that prosecutor Brenda Morris, in violation of law, withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense. She has continued behaving lawlessly:
Judge Emmet Sullivan threw out two big pieces of evidence in the Justice Department's prosecution of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) after it was disclosed that prosecutors failed to provide defense attorneys with all the information they needed to put on their case.
Stevens' attorneys are also expected to offer a motion for acquittal on Thursday, once the government finishes putting on its case for conviction. Stevens' defense team has repeatedly sought to have the case dismissed or a mistrial declared due to alleged prosecutorial misconduct.
Judge Sullivan is throwing out a portion of the business records from Veco Corp., whose former CEO, Bill Allen, allegedly spent $188,000 renovating Stevens' home in Girdwood, Alaska. Two former Veco employees, Rocky Williams and Dave Anderson, are on the company's records as having spent significant time working on Stevens' home in late 2000 and early 2001.
She even hid a witness from the defendants:
But prosecutors never presented testimony from Williams, who was suppose to be the foreman on the home project, and instead shepherded him out of Washington right before the trial started, all without informing Stevens' attorneys.
The judge seems very frustrated with Ms. Morris:
"Jurors will be instructed that the government presented evidence to those jurors that the government knew was not true," Judge Sullivan told both sides this afternoon.
Will the judge refer Ms. Morris to the State Bar for disciplinary proceedings? If not, why not? UPDATE: There are many other posts about Ms. Morris' prosecutorial misconduct here.
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