Analysis: Stevens suffered after his testimony

Ted Stevens gambled – and lost. 

The Alaska Republican pushed for a quick trial, thinking he could beat charges of concealing gifts from an oil executive before he stood for reelection on Nov. 4. But Stevens was convicted Monday on all seven felony counts – eight days before the toughest reelection bid of his four-decade Senate career.

What led to that conviction was likely the biggest role-of-the-dice in the month-long trial: Stevens’s decision to waive his Fifth Amendment rights and take the stand in his own defense.

{mosads}After two brutal days of questioning from prosecutor Brenda Morris, Stevens came across as evasive and combative and gave sometimes-confusing explanations about the gifts. His testimony helped lend credence to the government’s theory that Stevens and his friends had concocted a scheme to hide free renovations at his home in Girdwood, Alaska, from a company that stood to benefit from his position in Washington.

His difficulties under cross-examination seemed to undermine Stevens’s credibility, despite high-profile character witnesses like retired Gen. Colin L. Powell attesting to the senator’s forthrightness and integrity. And it allowed the Justice Department to regain its footing after fumbling evidence and witnesses, and presenting a sometimes-disjointed case to the jury.

A 12-person jury returned a unanimous verdict Monday afternoon and convicted the longest-serving GOP senator of failing to disclose more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from Bill Allen, head of the now-defunct Veco Corp oil services company.

The 84-year-old senator could serve the rest of his life in prison, but he won’t be sentenced until after a hearing in late February, if at all. If he wins reelection next week, it will be up to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics to decide whether to expel him from the chamber.

Monday's verdict marks the first conviction of a sitting senator in a generation.

Stevens, who will likely appeal the conviction, had contended that he paid every bill he received, some $160,000 for home renovations, and that any bill that was left unpaid was because of Allen’s decision to conceal costs.

Stevens said Allen was hiding the costs and made home improvements without his knowledge. Despite the defense’s attempts to impugn Allen’s credibility, the government’s star witness seemed to convince jurors that Stevens was just “covering his ass” in asking for bills.

While he asked for bills from Allen and other Veco employees, Stevens failed to follow up to make sure they were paid. Stevens said he disliked the improvements, but didn’t ask Allen to remove them, and in some cases, the gifts still remain at his home.

Under cross-examination, neither Stevens nor his wife could properly explain that discrepancy.

Stevens and his wife, Catherine, were the final witnesses called by Brendan Sullivan, Stevens’s lead defense attorney. Their testimony was intended to shore up the argument that the Stevenses believed they paid all bills and that Mrs. Stevens was in charge of the project.

But under a barrage of questions from prosecutors, each seemed to struggle during key portions of cross-examination.

For instance, in 2000, Stevens met with architect John Hess of Veco, who drew up plans for the remodeling project. But neither Stevens nor his wife asked for a contract for Hess’s work. Neither asked for costs of the project. Stevens later sent Hess a thank-you note and asked for a bill – without inquiring about the costs and without following up.

Stevens said it was the “Alaska way” to conduct business in that manner. But when he contracted business with other people – not affiliated with Veco – he received a breakdown of their work in writing and made sure they were paid.

“Does that make any sense?” prosecutor Joseph Bottini said in closing arguments.

Mrs. Stevens fared no better in explaining why the couple, both lawyers, did not ask for contracts from Hess and other workers employed from Veco.

“You just took drawings from someone you never met, and you relied on them and gave them to the permitting person?” Morris asked the senator’s wife.

Mrs. Stevens said she believed the costs of the architect’s plans were folded into the work performed by a subcontractor. The Stevenses paid Augie Paone $130,000 for his work at the Stevens’s home and insisted he was in charge of the project – not Veco.

But Paone only worked on the Girdwood property part of the time and completed his portion by early 2001.

The couple’s testimony failed to sufficiently answer key questions: about a second-round of home improvements that occurred in 2002, including the installation of a first-floor wrap-around deck, a plastic roof between the first and second floor decks, and a new lighting system; and regarding kitchen appliances they received in 2004; and about additional repairs to the boiler system and roofing later paid for by Allen.

“There is no deck on the first floor, but a deck gets built in 2002. Who built the deck?” Morris asked Mrs. Stevens.

The senator’s wife gulped, ran her hand through her hair and said: “I don’t know who built the deck. We built the deck, I thought.”

Mrs. Stevens said she thought a bill would come in for the deck, even though the Stevenses did not request one be built.

“So you came home one day and a deck was there?” Morris asked Mrs. Stevens.

“Yes,” she said.

Both the senator and his wife said they believed the costs for the laborers on site had also been folded into the bills they paid Paone.

But the couple appeared to know that Rocky Williams, a foreman on the site, was a Veco employee; Mrs. Stevens asked a staff member to ship materials and doorknobs to Williams at his Veco address. They also sent him a pair of first-class plane tickets to his Veco address, a thank-you gesture for his work on their home.

Mrs. Stevens said she believed that Williams was only a seasonal worker for Veco and was working for Paone because “he had time off.”

But a bevy of e-mails from Stevens to Persons and Allen repeatedly praised the work of Williams, along Veco welder Dave Anderson – and seldom mentioned Paone.

On top of the questions over the unpaid home renovations was the other gifts Stevens received but did not report: the $2,700 massage chair from Persons, the $5,000 Viking gas grill from Allen and the $3,200 stained glass window from close friends Bob and Jeanne Penney.

Stevens and his wife both said they didn’t want some of the gifts, including cigarette-burnt leather sofas that Allen gave them in exchange for their furniture. Such gifts made the senator’s wife “very angry,” but prosecutors asked why – several years later – did they still have them in their possession?

“We have lots of things in our house that do not belong to us, ma’m,” Stevens said tersely.