Where does Jolliffe fit into all of this mess ?
Stockwatch News Item
B.C. Securities Commission (C-*BCSC) - Street Wire
BCSC-known Purdy, Horvat square off in countdown to trial
B.C. Securities Commission *BCSC
Tuesday February 11 2003 Street Wire
by Brent Mudry
Veteran Vancouver penny stock promoter John (Jack) Purdy, facing his Bermuda Short money laundering trial set to start Feb. 18, is fighting hard to win more time as he and his Miami criminal defence lawyer scramble to digest hundreds of potentially incriminating documents. In a recent court filing in United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, defence lawyer Neal Sonnett seeks a delay of at least two weeks, although the judge has been quite firm to date.
Meanwhile, while Mr. Purdy's counsel is adamant that he cannot proceed on Feb. 18, co-defendant Ronaldo (Ron) Horvat is equally adamant that he be allowed to stand trial on that date with no further delays. "Co-defendant Purdy may be seeking a continuance in light of new discovery, but Mr. Horvat is not," states Miami defence lawyer Howard Srebnick in a recent filing.
The key witness against Mr. Purdy, a star Bermuda Short target, is expected to be his Howe Street partner Kevan Garner, who pled guilty on Dec. 6. Co-accused Harold Jolliffe, Mr. Horvat's boss, is expected to plead guilty as well, but no such plea has been formally entered.
In his latest filing, Mr. Purdy's lawyer Mr. Sonnett complains that he got a discovery dump of more than 500 pages of documents on Feb. 4 from the U.S. Justice Department. The next day, he got another box, stuffed full of documents and transcripts of undercover conversations totalling more than 1,200 pages. "Thus, in the last two days, counsel has received almost 2,000 pages of discovery documents from the prosecution." That is the same as four packages of your average 20-lb. photocopy paper.
Left unexplained is just how many of these pages relate directly to Mr. Purdy, and how much is just related or peripheral discovery required of the lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Hong. The only detail noted by Mr. Sonnett is the extent of paper on Martin Chambers, the other key Vancouver money laundering target. Mr. Chambers, in jail since his arrest on Aug. 14, hopes to convince a Miami judge on Thursday that he is nothing more than one of Vancouver's finest most upstanding businessman, and not an underworld associate of the Hells Angels, the organization of entrepreneurial motorcycle enthusiasts, as the RCMP claims.
"In our prior motion, we requested that AUSA Hong be ordered to provide us 'with the specific tapes and conversations from the Chambers case that the prosecution believes are admissible in the Purdy cases . . . and noted that we cannot file an appropriate Motion In Limine unless we know what collateral evidence the prosecution seeks to admit," states Mr. Sonnett.
"It appears that several hundred pages of the transcripts just provided to us involve conversations by Chambers."
Mr. Sonnett notes that he will be unable to start plowing through the new Purdy discovery materials until he returns to Miami from Seattle on Wednesday, after a week-long American Bar Association convention. "We believe a short contiuance is necessary under all of the circumstances for us to properly prepare our defence."
Mr. Horvat's lawyer Mr. Srebnick basically says no way. "Undersigned is ready for trial. Mr. Horvat does not seek a continuance and has made plans for himself, his family and his witnesses to travel to Miami to attend the February 18, 2003, trial. Mr. Horvat suggests that Purdy be severed and the case against Horvat proceed as scheduled," he states. Mr. Srebnick also argues that his calendar is fully booked up for much of March, so he cannot handle a delay to accommodate Mr. Purdy.
While prosecutor Mr. Hong has not yet filed a reply, he is not expected to roll over to either defence lawyers' demand. He opposed Mr. Horvat's previous bid for severance, launched after Mr. Srebnick argued that his client Mr. Horvat, the little guy on Howe Street's money laundering totem pole, will be prejudiced by stronger evidence against his alleged co-conspirators.
Meanwhile, Mr. Srebnick and Mr. Hong or another prosecutor will square off in court Tuesday on another matter, Mr. Horvat's bid to have his postarrest comments ruled inadmissible. Mr. Horvat claims that, in shock and pain after being arrested and handcuffed at the border last August, he blurted out silly theoretical comments about money from drug dealing or gun running.
bmudry@stockwatch.com |
