Posts Tagged ‘ legal strategy ’

Did Kirschner’s canary come out of defense coal mine alive? Nationally-recognized, Washington-based crime writer Harry Jaffe  came out of the Wone trial gate early, hard  and fast with three verdicts: “Innocent, Innocent, Innocent.”  He doesn’t say even hedge with “Not Guilty,” but goes all in with “Innocent, Innocent, Innocent.”  Kind of has a “Mercedes,...
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Kicking Up Distractions Before the Court.  Why It Matters In modern times it dates back to December 15th, 1991.  H. Ross Perot – remember him? – then a member of the General Motors board, parried with GM CEO Roger Smith’s optimistic perspective of GM’s future.  Distilling Smith’s rosy sales pitch, Perot scooped imaginary dirt and...
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Govt’s Streamlined Case Up Ends the C.W.  Who Wins and Loses? Friday’s status hearing revealed that the government was “winnowing” their case as the May 10 trial date draws near. By dropping  many of the uncharged conducted aspects and focusing only on the charges against the defendants, the government dramatically changed the contours of the trial. With this...
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Someone’s Clearly Not On The Same Page Whatever else can be said, this week’s motions have clarified one question…and raised multiple new ones. First, the question answered: how would the defense counter the prosecution’s filing of “Uncharged Conduct 1″? The government’s blueprint was assertive and the case brought by AUSA Glenn Kirschner and his deputy Patrick Martin...
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Not Safe For Wone Last week’s filing of the Government’s Notice of Uncharged Conduct I generated a fair amount of light and heat in the Robert Wone case.  The ‘light’ column features highlights of the government’s position – that the murder investigation “…continues”, that the “…killer is someone know to and being protected by...
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The January 15 Status Hearing DC Superior Court’s steam-powered rule that prohibits TV coverage of hearings has long vexed both seasoned journalists and cub reporters alike. Not dissuaded, and taking a cue from the rascals who are reenacting the Prop 8 proceedings in California (the federal civil trial concerning the legality of same sex marriage), we offer a similar...
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Hard Copies As promised, the three motions filed ahead of Friday’s 2:05pm status hearing.  Two seem rather routine.  The third, not so. The Government’s Response to Defendants’ Joint Motion to Exclude Uncharged Criminal Misconduct at page one argues that since the case’s previous Judge Frederick Weisberg had not set a briefings and motions schedule, which would...
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Points On The Board Just four months from today, barring no last-minute delays or penalty flags, Judge Lynn Leibovitz will gavel in the trial in which defendants Joe Price, Dylan Ward and Victor Zaborsky face charges of obstruction of justice, crime scene tampering, and most damning – conspiracy. Try as he might, Glenn Kirschner - chief of the Homicide...
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Government Beats Back Motion to Dismiss In the latest motion filed in the Wone case, the government responded in opposition to the defense’s joint motion to dismiss counts one (conspiracy to obstruct justice) and two (obstruction of justice) of the indictment with direct and deliberate language that at times lays bare the “…Defendants’ contorted legal...
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Government to Judge Weisberg: “Meh.”  It’ s still undecided whether the annual Superior Court felony calender swap will bring  in a new judge – former prosecutor Lynn Leibowitz - to preside over the Wone case through the May 2010 trial.   Judge Frederick Weisberg, already 13 months into this case, indicated he was neither inclined to stay...
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