Jury decides 1 charge in Abramoff-related trial
WASHINGTON — Jurors on Tuesday reached a verdict on one criminal charge and appeared deadlocked on seven others in the trial of a lobbyist caught up in the Jack Abramoff influence peddling scandal.
The jury for Kevin Ring decided to keep secret for now its verdict on the one count after being directed by U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle to resume deliberations Wednesday on the other counts.
The charge on which a verdict was reached involves a payment of $5,000 to a credit union account controlled by the wife of former Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif. The payment was in connection with a job that Abramoff arranged for Doolittle’s wife. According to evidence at the trial, Ring communicated with both Abramoff and the congressman about work for Julia Doolittle.
Ring is accused of providing thousands of dollars worth of drinks, meals and tickets to sporting events and concerts to the offices of two congressmen and to Justice Department officials over a four-year span in return for appropriations and assistance for clients of the now-imprisoned Abramoff.
Wednesday would be the seventh day of deliberations for the panel of seven women and five men.
On the still-undecided counts, jurors sent a note to the judge saying their deliberations had been contentious and that arguments had shown no sign of movement toward a verdict.
Huvelle told the jury that they were required to continue deliberations.
The Ring case is part of a long-running criminal probe that led to guilty pleas by 17 people, including Abramoff and ex-Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio. Ney served a prison term. David Safavian, the former top procurement official in ex-President George W. Bush’s administration, faces sentencing in the scandal Friday.
The charges against Ring are conspiracy, paying illegal gratuities and six counts of scheming to deprive taxpayers of the honest services of employees in the legislative and executive branches of government from 2000 to 2004.
The Supreme Court is reviewing three challenges to the “honest services” anti-fraud law, a favorite tool of federal prosecutors in white-collar crime and public corruption cases. The latest challenge came Tuesday when justices agreed to consider the case of former Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeff Skilling for his role in the collapse of the one-time energy giant.
In the Ring case, defense lawyers argued that public officials can be charged under the law, but not someone in the private sector.
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