Subject:  No verdict in first day of Fieger deliberations |
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Date Posted: 05/28/08 7:32pm
No verdict in first day of Fieger deliberations
BY DAVID ASHENFELTER - FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER - May 28, 2008
A federal court jury went home today without deciding the fate of Southfield criminal lawyer Geoffrey Fieger and Vernon (Ven) Johnson.
The 12-member jury spent about 3 1/2 hours reviewing exhibits in the case before U.S. District Judge Paul Borman sent them home at 3:45 p.m. They will return at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
The original 16 member jury was pared to 12 at the end of jury instructions. The two men and two women who were excused waved good-bye to their colleagues and
left the courtroom. One or more could be called back if other jurors become sick or unable to complete their service.
The jury is to decide whether the men broke the law when they recruited 64 people to contribute a total of $127,000 to John Edwards' 2004 presidential campaign and reimbursed them with law firm funds.
Today marks the 20th day of the trial.
In court Tuesday, prosecutors and defense lawyers spent five hours trying to bring jurors around to their point of view.
Prosecutors warned jurors not to believe Fieger's testimony last week that he and Johnson had no idea they were violating the law.
Defense lawyers countered that the men would never have put their employees, family members or friends in harm's way if they knew it was wrong.
Fieger "thinks he's smarter than you are," Justice Department lawyer Kendall Day told jurors in closing arguments in U.S. District Court in Detroit. "No one is
above the law, especially a lawyer."
Fieger lawyer Gerry Spence and Johnson lawyer Steve Fishman insisted that their clients were innocent.
"If the government can do this to Mr. Fieger, the government can do this to any of us," Spence said. He argued that bigwigs in the Justice Department were out
to get Fieger, a 1998 Democratic candidate for governor, and dispatched 80 agents to raid his firm and confront his employees in the darkness of Nov. 20, 2005, as if Fieger and Johnson were mobsters or terrorists.
Pounding on the podium and at times speaking in a booming theatrical voice, Spence said the government built its case on snippets of evidence and half-truths.
"If it's a snippet, let's nip it," Spence declared, adding that the Edwards campaign never gave the money back and that the IRS never reimbursed the law firm for the federal taxes it paid on the reimbursements, which it gave to
employees in the form of salary bonuses.
Spence, 79, a famed Jackson, Wyo., criminal lawyer, told jurors it was his last criminal trial.
Fishman gave the shortest argument -- 45 minutes -- and jurors laughed and nodded at his wisecracking sports analogies.
"Ven Johnson didn't do anything wrong," Fishman said, adding that there was no evidence he or Fieger knowingly violated the law. He said prosecutors put Johnson on trial because he refused to turn on Fieger.
Adam Rosen, a Boston jury consultant and Spence fan, said he wouldn't be surprised if the jury acquits.
"They'll feel in their gut that this highly crafty guy was up to something," Rosen said of Fieger, "but that the government didn't prove he did it."
Contact DAVID ASHENFELTER at dashenfelter@freepress.com
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