Jurors scrutinize details of Stevens’s liabilities

A federal jury deliberating on Sen. Ted Stevens's (R-Alaska) fate is looking at the legal requirement for publicly disclosing liabilities.

In one of three notes given to Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on Thursday, the jury asked the judge to "please clarify the liability cost as it is not readily clear in Senate regulations."

{mosads}Sullivan proposed telling the jurors that the financial disclosure forms require "the filer to disclose the amount of liabilities in excess of $10,000 that were owed by the filer in any point in time during the calendar year."

But Robert Cary, Stevens's defense lawyer, called the statement an "oversimplification" and asked to give the jurors a more elaborate explanation.

The judge later said he would tell the jurors that he cannot give them any further information.

Sullivan would not publicly say what one of the notes was about, but he did tell the lawyers at a private bench conference. He asked for research and guidance from both sides to determine how to resolve the issue raised in the note, and suggested the prosecutors discuss the issue with their appellate section.

The judge also received a note in which the jurors said they had not received one page in the indictment, which Sullivan said means they are being "very attentive."

Thursday marks the second day of deliberations for the jury, which is weighing charges that Stevens broke federal law and is guilty of seven counts by concealing more than $250,000 in gifts from friends. The indictment says Stevens did not report the freebies and unpaid home renovations as either gifts or liabilities in his Senate forms. The threshold for gifts is much lower, ranging between $260 and $305 in the years for which Stevens has been implicated.

The judge gave the jury an extended lunch to allow the court to resolve the issues.