Sen. Stevens ends testimony; defense rests

Sen. Ted Stevens (R) on Monday finished testifying in his corruption trial and his defense attorneys rested their case 15 days before Alaska's dominant political figure faces the toughest reelection bid of his 40-year Senate career.

It was the Alaska Republican’s third and final day defending himself on the witness stand against charges that he concealed more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from Bill Allen, the former head of the Veco Corp. oil-services company that stood to benefit from Stevens’s role in Washington. And it marked the first time in a generation that a sitting senator has testified in his own corruption case.

{mosads}In a contentious cross-examination, chief prosecutor Brenda Morris sought to undercut the senator's central defense: that he paid $160,000 to a separate contractor and was unaware of other bills that Allen paid. Stevens said Augie Paone of Christensen Builders charged him a fair price and he believed that covered all costs for the renovations.

Stevens has pleaded not guilty to seven charges of lying on his Senate financial disclosure forms about the gifts, including some $188,000 in renovations paid largely by Allen, who used workers from Veco for the labor.

The longest-serving Republican senator was forced to explain why he never paid for a backup power generator that was installed in 1999 to prevent against a Y2K shutdown, why a massage chair he said is not a gift has stayed at his Washington home for seven years, how he didn't know that workers with whom he had contact were not employed by Veco and why a number of e-mails he sent to Allen and mutual friend Bob Persons, discussing the project, made no reference to Christensen Builders.

Stevens, at times visibly angry, struggled to explain why he sent e-mails thanking Allen for the work even though he maintained his company was not involved in the project.

"It’s still your testimony at this point of time that Veco was not involved in renovating your house?" Morris asked.

"Veco was not involved in renovating my house," Stevens said.

The senator testified that Allen had volunteered to find some workers, whom he believed were doing work that was paid for by his wife, Catherine.

"Like I told you before, my wife paid the bills," Stevens snapped at Morris.

The senator's testimony capped a trial that began nearly four weeks ago with jury selection. Closing arguments will take place Tuesday, and the judge will send the case to the jurors with instructions on Wednesday, less than two weeks before the patriarch of Alaskan politics stands for reelection.

The case will come down to whether the jury believes Allen, now the government's star witness, or Stevens and his wife. Allen testified that he kept the senator apprised of his work and gave the Republican gifts because, in his words, "I like Ted."

On Monday, Morris tried to sow doubts on Stevens’s credibility. Stevens says he wanted all bills to pay for the costs, but the government contends he only asked Allen for bills to cover his tracks.

For instance, in a 2002 note to Allen, Stevens referenced ethical problems facing then-Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.), and asked for a bill, saying complying with ethics laws is "entirely different" from friendship. Morris suggested the senator only asked for the bills at that point, even though the project started in 2000.

"You wanted no gifts but you still received gifts, did you not?" Morris asked.

"No, I did not," Stevens said.

Stevens and his wife Catherine have testified, for instance, that Allen angered and surprised them when he replaced their living room furniture with black leather sofas, some with cigarette burns.

Morris questioned why the senator kept that leather furniture set for more than seven years. She pulled out a September 2005 e-mail where Stevens indicated to Allen that he would give the gift to his son.

Stevens grew agitated and tried to dodge the question.

"Just answer her question, sir," directed Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.

"You are actually trying to re-gift the furniture that is so hideous to your son. Is that correct?" Morris asked.

"No," Stevens shot back.

Stevens later testified that Allen "stole" his furniture and replaced it with his own, including the black leather sofas.

"Why didn’t you call the police when Bill Allen stole your furniture?" Morris asked.

"It never crossed my mind to call the police at that time," Stevens said. "I might now."

Stevens and Morris also sparred over a $2,700 Brookstone massage chair that Persons gave the senator in 2001. It is still sitting in his Washington home, even though the senator said it was not a gift. Persons testified that Stevens told him he could not accept gifts, even though the senator did not send it back to him.

The senator did not disclose it publicly, which he admitted would have been a violation of ethics laws — but he insisted that the chair belonged to Persons and that he and his wife "have lots of things in our house that do not belong to us."

"It’s quite similar to the barbecue on our deck — that's still Bill Allen's barbecue," he said, referring to a Viking gas grill that the senator did not disclose on his forms.

The senator also faced questions over his receipt of a bronze statue of migrating fish, which the senator said was meant for his still-unbuilt foundation. But Morris pointed to a 2002 e-mail where Stevens said the "sculpture was given to me."

"Your foundation has no building?"  Morris asked sarcastically.

"I have not died yet," Stevens shot back.