Witness in Stevens trial must produce medical records

Attorneys for Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens might have a chance to discredit the government’s star witness in the corruption trial of the longest-serving GOP senator in history.

But Stevens’s legal team still could be faced with hundreds of exhibits, photographs and taped phone calls that prosecutors plan to present as evidence when his trial starts next week.

{mosads}Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday ordered Bill Allen, the former head of the oil-services company Veco, to produce medical records from a 2001 motorcycle accident in which he sustained head injuries. Allen is now cooperating with the Justice Department.

The defense pushed for those records in an attempt to discredit Allen's recollection, but the government resisted, saying his testimony had been permitted in prior court cases.

The judge said he would allow the defense to issue subpoenas for the records. But he said the records could not be used in the trial unless the court permits them.

"They are not to be utilized without further court order," Sullivan warned at a pre-trial hearing Thursday.

Stevens has been charged with concealing more than $250,000 worth of gifts and home renovations arranged by Veco.

Stevens has pleaded not guilty to all seven charges and is seeking reelection this November.
Jury selection begins Monday, and arguments are not expected to begin until the middle of next week.

The judge said he would rule on an individual basis on objections to 320 of the more than 1,000 exhibits that both sides might bring forward during the trial, which is expected to take about four weeks. The defense plans to argue that some of the exhibits violate the Speech and Debate clause of the Constitution, which is intended to shield lawmakers from prosecution over their legislative activities.

Part of the evidence the defense is challenging is eight taped phone calls with people not a party to the case.

James Goeke, a U.S. attorney in Alaska, said the phone calls, mainly between Allen and his associates, corroborate the government’s case that Stevens knowingly concealed gifts he was receiving from Veco.

For instance, Goeke said a man laughingly told Allen in a phone call: “Ted gets hysterical when he spends his own money.”

Allen responded: “I know.”

Robert Cary, an attorney for Stevens, chalked up some of the conversations to “third-person heresy.”

In one of the calls, Allen is discussing a racing horse that Stevens co-owned with Allen. But Cary said that is irrelevant to the case.