Prosecutor says Sen. Stevens knowingly hid gifts... http://www.mercurynews.com/nationworld/ci_...
9/25/2008 23:28
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Prosecutor says Sen. Stevens knowingly hid gifts
By Neil A. Lewis, New York Times
Article Launched: 09/25/2008 08:03:12 PM PDT
WASHINGTON — A Justice Department prosecutor told a jury on Thursday that Ted Stevens, who has represented
Alaska in the Senate for 40 years, engaged in "a scheme to conceal from the public" a variety of gifts and home
renovation services he received.
In her opening statement of what is expected to be a nearly monthlong trial, the prosecutor, Brenda Morris, said
Stevens knowingly did not list on Senate disclosure forms goods and services totaling $250,000 that he received from
an Alaska contractor, Bill Allen. Stevens, 84, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate's history, has pleaded not
guilty to seven felony counts of filing false statements.
Morris listed several items she said Stevens had received in recent years, including a sled dog and a massage chair,
but at the heart of the case, she noted, was the makeover of the Stevens family home in Girdwood, Alaska. She said
Allen, a freewheeling oil services contractor and one-time friend of Stevens, paid for most of the renovations, which
included a new first floor built after jacking up the house, along with two new decks, a garage, lighting and a built-in
gas grill.
In his opening statement, Stevens' lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, told the jury that the senator did not "intentionally violate
the law" and was misled by Allen about the exact costs. But Sullivan also offered a new and striking assertion: that
Stevens had not been familiar with the details of the project and could
not have knowingly concealed the costs, because
Stevens' wife of 28 years, Catherine Stevens, had the
Advertisement principal responsibility to look after the details of the
renovation.
Sullivan said that although it might be uncomfortable to talk about their relationship and how they divided chores, he
would introduce evidence that Catherine Stevens, a prominent Washington lawyer, was the family's designated
overseer of the project.
"Catherine ran the financial part of the renovation," Sullivan said. "Ted devoted all of his time and energy to what he
had always done," serving in the Senate.
Sullivan also said it had been Catherine Stevens' wish to have such an elaborate home expansion. Stevens, he said,
had wanted to build only a room to serve as a bunkhouse for his 11 grandchildren.
In addition to offering up Catherine Stevens' role as an explanation for the senator's failing to list the goods and
services on the disclosure forms, Sullivan laid out to the jury an elaborate counternarrative. A "devious" Allen did lots of
extra and unwanted work on the house, he said. Allen, who is awaiting sentencing on a conviction for bribing Alaska
state lawmakers, is expected to be the principal prosecution witness.
In all, Sullivan said, the Stevenses paid about $160,000 toward the home renovation, a figure they could have believed
was an accurate cost.
Morris, the prosecutor, said that while Stevens paid some of the contractors who worked on the house, he never paid
Allen or his company, Veco, which she said performed $188,000 worth of work.
Stevens used Veco and its owner as "his own personal handyman service," with a clear understanding that he would
not have to pay for anything done by Veco, the prosecutor told the jury.
"We reach for the Yellow Pages," Morris said. "He reaches for Veco."
Stevens, regarded as a formidable legislative player in the Senate, sat quietly at the defense table throughout the day.
The criminal case will turn heavily on the issue of intent, a question of whether Stevens knowingly omitted the receipt
of the goods and services from his Senate form.
Morris said testimony from Allen and secretly taped telephone conversations would demonstrate that Stevens fully
understood he was getting "lots of stuff for free." She said that in one conversation, Stevens told Allen that if things
went badly, "no one's going to be killed, just some legal bills and a little jail time."
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