folo

The title is a joke, not a quote.

While everyone outside the Scruggs case was speculating through the month of January, John Keker has been tied up from January 6th with trying and ultimately settling a big civil case:

A trial that could change the face of Hispanic television got under way in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Tuesday as Grupo Televisa, Mexico’s largest media company, pressed its claims for over $100 million in damages from Univision, the leading Spanish-language broadcaster in the U.S.   …

Represented by chief trial counsel Marshall Grossman of Bingham McCutchen, Grupo Televisa is asking for $118 million in damages in additional licensing fees and ad revenue from Univision.  …

Univision is being advised by longtime outside counsel Ronald Olson of Munger, Tolles & Olson. But facing a potential bet-the-company case, the broadcaster has turned to star litigator John Keker of San Francisco litigation boutique Keker & Van Nest as trial counsel. Assisting Keker at trial: Keker & Van Nest partners Elliot Peters, Susan Harriman and R. James Slaughter.

The case settled on January 22nd.

Usually, what I do with rumors on the blog is to start looking for facts that might confirm some or all of them. Sometimes, I’ll post questions to see if anyone comes forward with confirming facts.

Lately, almost any time I encounter a person who has passed through the Scruggs story at one point or another, I hear more precise rumors. The one exception is that when I’m talking to someone I am absolutely sure knows what’s going on– they’re not talking. But people close to this thing (as distinct from inside it) seem buzzing, specifically with the idea that there’s an indictment out there under seal and negotiations are taking place. This is why I posted about the missing docket numbers in the N.D. Miss. criminal docket entries.

Anyhow, it appears that John Keker was kind of tied up this month, and apparently a little time-out would have been required if there was going to be any opportunity for talk to see if there was a possible resolution. I’ve been involved in a case where there was a sealed indictment, and a time-out to allow the parties to talk about possible resolutions alternative to going forward on the indictment…

Update: Added the link to the docket reference.

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Watch this!

(h/t Tin hat mafia)

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Ah, a repository for news other than Frank Melton’s and Thad Cochran’s woes — whatcha got?

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The jury that U.S. District Judge Dan Jordan expects to take all next week to pick will hear of Jackson mayor Frank Melton’s confession that in August 2006 he tore apart a northwest Jackson duplex, but it won’t hear the allegations a transvestite prostitute made against the prosecution’s star witness, former Melton bodyguard-now snitch Marcus Wright. So reports Chris Joyner after yesterday’s last pre-trial hearing in U.S. v. Melton.

According to prosecutor Mark Blumberg, Melton told [then-Jackson Police Chief Shirlene] Anderson following the Ridgeway Street incident, “We did it. I did it,” and “we tore that … up.”

Objections to using the statement mostly came from Recio’s attorney, Cynthia Stewart, who said it unfairly implicates her client who will not be able to cross-examine Melton since the mayor is his co-defendant. Jordan said the statement will be accompanied by a special jury instruction warning jurors not to assume the “we” meant Melton and Recio.

Stewart’s day must have been wearing, what with two unsuccessful battles. Joyner says she also “struggled to give weight to the theory” that prosecutors used Wright’s fear of the allegations of transvestite prostitute Torey Smith — i.e., that in 2005 two male hookers he’d seen get into Wright’s car then told him they’d had sex with Wright for money — to coerce Wright’s guilty plea.

Recio testified he talked with Wright about it after Wright had entered his plea.

“I said, ‘Marcus, let me ask you something. Did you plea because of that situation?’ And he said, ‘You mean that lying boy? Let me put it to you this way. They told me if I plea [sic] to this they won’t go any further with this.’ ”

Wright and his attorney, John Colette, testified the issue never came up, and Blumberg said he was not aware of the allegations until informed of them by John Reeves, Melton’s attorney.

Blumberg challenged Recio’s understanding of the events leading up to Wright’s plea deal.

“You don’t know when he started cooperating, do you?” Blumberg asked.

Although he admitted to talking “constantly” to Wright and Melton about the charges, Recio said the allegations by Smith never came up until after Wright’s plea deal. …

But Judge Jordan settled it with “I do not anticipate any testimony today – or really ever – on what happened that day.” As for the winning argument in the trio’s state trial in 2007 — that the prosecution must prove “evil motive” to convict — Jordan said he won’t use that term but will tell the jury to consider whether Melton acted “with a bad purpose intending to deprive someone of their rights.” He’ll also revisit the jury questionnaires first used in the fall, before two trial-delays.

“I’m going to ask initially if there is anybody who has not heard about this case,” he said. “I don’t know if there will be anybody at this point.”

Jordan said the questionnaires show some people already have formed opinions about the charges, one way or the other, but “there are a lot in the middle.”

Jordan said he will be “heavy-handed” in making sure jurors who have formed opinions keep them to themselves.

“I don’t want somebody with a big opinion walking around lobbying,” he said.

Look for the trial to last most of February, Joyner advises: once the jury is seated, the prosecution projects needing five days to make its case, Teams Melton and Recio two days apiece.

In the comment thread of an earlier story, Joyner wrote, “I’m soliciting opinions about the upcoming trial for a story in Sunday’s CL. Will it go on as scheduled? What will be the verdict? Will you keep up with the trial when it starts? Give me a call at 601-360-4619.” So, foloers, what do you hope for? Does that differ from what you expect?

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“To be honest, she’s more valuable to us than a rank-and-file house member.”

According to the AP, the author of this sentence is Todd Boulanger, Jack Abramoff’s former deputy who yesterday pled guilty to influence-peddling, admitting to a federal judge that he’d bribed congressional staffers — including “she,” AKA “Staffer E,” Thad Cochran’s longtime aide Ann Copland — with tens of thousands of dollars worth of lavish entertainment to buy their help.

… Another Senate staffer sent an e-mail to Boulanger’s colleague, Kevin Ring, asking for tickets to see Paul McCartney, Green Day, NSYNC, ice skating, the circus and a hockey game, detailing how many tickets she needed and where she would like to sit. An attorney with knowledge of the case, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, identified her as Ann Copland, a former aide to Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., who could help with legislation benefiting a client, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

Boulanger told Ring to make sure she gets whatever she wants and at one point wrote, “To be honest, she’s more valuable to us than a rank-and-file house member.”

She ended up getting more than $25,000 worth of gifts from Boulanger and his associates, but also at times complained about the food in the box seats the lobbyists provided. She urgently e-mailed Boulanger from the ice skating event, saying she was “freaking out” because she had brought 14 people and there was no food in the suite. Boulanger responded that he would reimburse her for whatever she had to pay to feed her guests.

The Hill also reports a court document’s showing that in March 2002, Ring forwarded to Abramoff and Boulanger an e-mail from Copland requesting tickets to various events.

In the e-mail Ring commented: “Wow…We already told her she was fine on McCartney, ice skating, and Green Day – although we need to let her know how many tix she can have for each. Also, please review the other requests and let me know what we can do there.”

Boulanger allegedly sent an e-mail replying: “[Copland] should get everything she wants.”

Abramoff then weighed in with his own e-mail: “She’ll get everything she wants.”

A fixture of Cochran’s office for over 30 years, Copland left last spring for another well-paid ($92,000/yr) government job at Mississippi Public Broadcasting — but funny thing: she also drew her $140,000 annual salary from Cochran for most of two more months.

Copland could not be reached for comment Thursday. Cochran’s spokeswoman, Margaret McPhillips, said Copland was kept on the senator’s staff to ensure “a seamless transition.”

“She was helping us out by training the new staff person and passing on her extensive knowledge of the issues she covered,” McPhillips said. “That’s not uncommon.”

McPhillips later said some of the seven weeks of pay was also for unused vacation time but could not specify how much.

To prevent conflicts of interest, congressional ethics rules limit Senate staffers’ outside employment and income. Senior staffers also are required to report outside income on annual financial statements submitted to the Senate. Copland did not report her state income in a statement she filed in December.

Cochran’s office did not respond when asked if the work was approved by the Senate Ethics Committee.

MPB Executive Director Marie Antoon told reporters that she knew Copland was double-dipping during the transition, but

Copland worked outside MPB’s programming area, Antoon said, handling projects that deal with MPB’s education initiatives. “From our standpoint we did everything that under the law and as a state agency we’re supposed to do,” Antoon said. “She was in her desk the required hours. We have flex time here and there may have been some Fridays that she was in Washington during that period … but she was here and she was working.”

Antoon says Copland resigned from MPB on January 12, giving no reason. Perhaps she feels her time is better spent lawyering up? Perhaps Thud and Antoon should consider that too? Abramoff and Boulanger are still trying to talk-down their sentences . . .

UPDATE: Note Researcher’s indication of how well the Abramoff-Cochran connection worked . . . for a time.

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Oh my . . .

HEBRON, Ind. (AP) — A woman who wasn’t invited to her sister’s wedding reception showed up anyway and attacked the bride, pulling out clumps of her hair, police said. Annmarie Bricker, 23, of Valparaiso, was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of battery.

Jeremy Glotzbach told police he was hosting a reception for newlyweds Nicholas Landry and Lori Kappes at his home on Jan. 23 when Bricker, Kappes’ sister, attacked Kappes on the front porch.

Bricker pulled out clumps of Kappes’ hair, struck her head and took the bride to the ground during a struggle, according to the Porter County Sheriff’s Department.

Bricker told police she went to the house because she ”just wanted to talk” to her sister and parents about family problems. She said she never touched her sister, but five witnesses contradicted her, authorities said. Kappes did not need medical treatment.

Bricker later resigned from her job as a Porter County 911 dispatcher, officials said.

Will Ms. Kappes borrow Linda Abbott’s .22? Stay tuned . . .

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On the sixth ballot (with a 5 PM deadline to clear the hall for a wedding party), the me-too RNC finally elected Maryland’s Michael Steele its first black chairman. He won 91-77 over South Carolinian Katon Dawson, the racist-backlash candidate, so what this means for GOP unity will be intriguing to observe.

We can, however, expect dirty tricks like the one Steele used in his last election (when he lost the Senate race to Ben Cardin):

(h/t TPM)

From Ambinder’s analysis:

… The RNC isn’t diverse yet; only five black delegates were chosen to attend the national convention. Steele was disgusted by that. It prompted him to run.

Even more than race, even as Steele lauded the party’s conservative members, his election marks a step away from the balkanized Southern white ethos of the party. Steele, pro-life, has worked with moderate Republicans all of his life, although he did his best during the campaign to minimize those ties. If he reverts to form, it means that the RNC has just selected a chairman who will not prioritize social issues above economic issues.  When people speak of broadening the party’s geographic diversity, they are speaking in code. They mean that the party needs to welcome more moderates; needs to be more forgiving of departures from orthodoxy; need to be less antagonistic to pro-choicers and gays.

A Democratic strategist sums up their skepticism about Steele’s transformative powers. “I remember hiring homeless people to hand out literature in African American neighborhoods. If that is their national strategy to broaden their appeal to minority voters it’s going to get awfully expensive,” this strategist said.

And awfully interesting to watch.

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The facts of this murder case, reported from Millington, TN in the Memphis Commercial Appeal just keep getting better and better:

A Millington woman who killed her husband with a .22-caliber rifle while he made doughnut circles in his pickup truck was sentenced today to three years of probation. …

She was charged with second-degree murder for killing husband Gary Abbott, 43, on July 23, 2005, behind their home at 9401 Riverbluff west of Millington.

Authorities initially believed that Abbott died in a violent crash when his truck hit a piece of farm machinery and burst into flames.

When a .22-caliber bullet was found in his head during an autopsy, however, Linda Abbott admitted firing one rifle shot in the air and a second shot that she said was an accidental discharge.

Authorities said the shot traveled some 150 feet across a field behind the house, struck Gary Abbott in the head and caused the truck to crash.

Linda Abbott testified in trial that her husband sometimes drove in circles in the field when he was angry or had been drinking. His blood alcohol was .26.

She told a jury the shooting was an accident, that she was trying to get his attention to come to dinner and that she had no reason to intentionally shoot him.

She’s a pretty good shot, isn’t she? And he got a warning shot and everything.  I don’t ever want Mrs. Abbott to feel the need to get my attention.

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The Cottonmouth blog, which has been a Mississippi Democratic blog, said good bye in a post yesterday, its first since Thanksgiving.

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