http://proctoringcongress.blogspot.com/2007/06/karl-thats-another-fine-mess-you-have.htmlLawyer Daniel Gerdts won an acquittal in federal court in Minneapolis last month for a New York computer consultant who had been accused of bringing child pornography into the United States on his way back from a business trip to Asia.
The defendant, who worked for a Japanese producer of adult videos, said he was hired to set up Web pages to market the videos and to search the Internet for pirated copies. He conceded he might have inadvertently downloaded child porn in the process of doing his job.
In court, Gerdts said prosecutors had failed to exercise proper discretion in bringing the charges. During his closing argument to the jury, he suggested a reason, alluding to published reports of upheaval in the office since Rachel Paulose had become U.S. attorney in 2006.
Paulose is believed to have gotten the posting with the help of Monica M. Goodling, a former Gonzales aide who recently testified under a grant of immunity from prosecution that she "crossed a line" by improperly allowing politics to influence hiring decisions at the Justice Department. Several senior prosecutors in the Minneapolis office resigned their management posts to protest Paulose's leadership.
The effect of Gerdts' courtroom remark was unclear. Government lawyers objected, and the judge told jurors to ignore the comment.
After the verdict, jurors said they did not believe the government's accusation that the defendant had intentionally downloaded contraband files.
... and this from a recent document dump:
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