Sen. Ted Stevens covered up gift-taking, prosecutor saysItems from Stevens’ oilman friend came at the right price — free — the government alleges in his corruption trial. The Alaska senator’s lawyers say he’s the innocent victim of overzealous charges. By Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer Reporting from Washington — Sen. Ted Stevens repeatedly turned to oilman Bill J. Allen for items he wanted, from a generator to a new bed for his wife, because “the price is always right when you know it is free,” a government attorney asserted today. Prosecutor Joseph Bottini, in a closing statement to the jury at Stevens’ corruption trial, said that the Alsaka Republican repeatedly made up false stories to cover up the things of value he got from Allen, once head of the state’s largest private employer, because he knew that public disclosure of the items would be embarrassing and possibly damaging to him. “Ted Stevens had a good friend, and his name was Bill Allen,” Bottini said. “He knew Bill Allen would give . . . and he was perfectly willing to receive.” Bottini said that Stevens also knew that Allen and others “were trusted associates and would cover for him,” fabricating stories in e-mails and other documents that were designed to conceal the truth. Stevens is charged with failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts and home improvements in violation of Senate financial disclosure rules. Most of the gifts and improvements allegedly came from Allen. Juror deliberations in the case are expected to begin Wednesday. Stevens’ lawyer, Brendan V. Sullivan, in his closing remarks, said that Stevens was being victimized by an overzealous prosecution. “We are trying to convict an innocent man in this courtroom on an interpretation of evidence that is so far from real life that it should make you sick,” Sullivan told the jury. He urged the jurors to accept at face value statements Stevens had made in e-mails and other correspondence when the gifts and home improvements were made, and not ascribe ulterior motives to them after the fact. “If you look at life through a filthy dirty glass that doesn’t get washed for five or 10 years, then the whole world looks dirty,” Sullivan said. “You’ve heard evidence that this is a very decent man. Would he be involved in a conspiracy in 2000 and 2001, year after year covering it up? To believe the government, you would have to ignore the written record.” The government case, he said, rests on the notion that Stevens “must stay awake all night long thinking about what to say in these letters and whether it is going to look good eight years out.” The government has charged that Stevens accepted a series of gifts, including a gas grill, bronze art work, a generator and hand-crafted stained-glass, along with more than $100,000 in free labor on a makeover of his home in Girdwood, Alaska. Sullivan, in his remarks, cited appraisals of the home after the renovation, suggesting that the Stevenses actually overpaid for the renovation even based on those bills they paid. “Do you have any evidence he cares about a grill or a fish sculpture or the rest of that stuff?” Sullivan said. “Just because it is foisted upon you doesn’t mean you have to take it.” Sullivan said the intent of the disclosure rules Stevens is accused of violating is to ensure that the judgment of lawmakers is not unduly influenced, but that the government was trying to “dirty him up” by innuendo even though there was no evidence of improper influence. Stevens testified that even though the items were delivered to and remained at his home, he did not consider them to belong to him. His wife, Catherine, testified that she paid more than $160,000 in bills on the renovation. She said she paid every bill she ever received for the project, although she and Stevens both conceded that Allen may have withheld some bills. Bottini, the prosecutor, said Stevens’ explanation for the gifts was implausible. He said that the Stevenses paid some of the bills only because they were owed to people whom they did not know well and who could not be relied upon to withhold bills. “Why would he ask Bill Allen and Veco to be involved in this home renovation?” Bottini said, referring to the oil firm that Allen once ran. “They were the most improbable home contractor around,” the prosecutor said. Stevens “knew his friend Bill Allen was wealthy and generous,” was “willing to cover for him,” and “knew how the price was right,” Bottini said. Bottini buttressed his case with a secretly recorded phone conversation involving a neighbor of Stevens in Girdwood, Bob Persons, in which Persons said that Stevens gets “hysterical when he has to spend money out of his own pocket.” Stevens and his wife have said that while some Veco employees may have worked on the renovation, they were moonlighting for a general contractor whom the Stevenses said they always paid. Bottini said the Stevenses turned a blind eye to the work of the Veco employees, and the prosecutor identified 19 people from the company who had worked on the renovation, as the names of the workers popped up on a video screen in the court room, one by one. Concluding his morning remarks, Bottini played a phone conversation between Stevens and Allen in which Stevens raised the possibility of having to do jail time. “Who talks about spending a little time in jail unless they have done something wrong?” Bottini said. Sullivan is set to complete his closing argument after lunch; the government will then have the opportunity to respond. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said he would instruct the jury Wednesday, after which it would begin deliberating Stevens’ fate. Schmitt is a Times staff writer. rick.schmitt@latimes.com |
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