JURIST - Paper Chase: DOJ finds prosecutorial misconduct in ex-senator Stevens case

[JURIST] A report [text, PDF] released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] concluded that two of the prosecutors involved in the 2008 trial of former senator Ted Stevens [JURIST news archive] acted recklessly in their management of evidence, leading to a failure to disclose crucial evidence to Stevens's defense team. The DOJ suspended Joseph Bottini and James Goeke without pay. Stevens was convicted on corruption charges in October 2008, but the verdict was set aside [JURIST reports] in April 2009 after the DOJ admitted that it had failed to disclose relevant information to the defense in preparation for the trial. The report found no intentional misconduct by the prosecution.

Stevens was convicted in October 2008 on seven counts of making false statements relating to an alleged corruption scheme and for falsifying his Financial Disclosure Forms. Following his conviction, Stevens lost his re-election bid in November of that year to Senator Mark Begich. Stevens was charged [indictment, PDF; JURIST report] in July with accepting approximately $250,000 in gifts over an eight-year period from the founder of oil services and engineering company VECO Corp. [corporate website]. In August, A US district court judge denied Stevens' request to move the case from Washington, DC to Alaska, rejecting the argument that he needed to be in Alaska to campaign for re-election.