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Ex-Senator?s Death Adds Coda to Case that Shook Public Integrity

By Joe Palazzolo

Former Sen. Ted Stevens was killed in a plane crash in southern Alaska on Monday night, according to a report by The New York Times. The Alaska Republican’s 2008 corruption trial had marked a low point for the Justice Department and its elite Public Integrity Section, after prosecutor errors led to the high-profile case’s dismissal.

There were nine people on board the plane. Five of them were believed to have died in the crash, and three survivors were airlifted to Anchorage for further medical attention, leaving one person unaccounted for. A Coast Guard official told the Times he could not confirm the number of fatalities or who was on the plane.

Stevens, who had been the longest serving Republican in the U.S. Senate, was 86. His corruption conviction crumbled last year amid allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. The case led to significant internal reforms at the Justice Department and spawned several ongoing investigations. The probes are unlikely to be affected by his death, though Stevens’ passing underscores how time is gradually putting one of the DOJ’s most painful recent stumbles into the past.

Stevens’ family had issued a statement on Tuesday expressing concern, but saying nothing about the former senator?s status.

?The Ted Stevens family offers their prayers for all those on board and for their families. We thank the brave men and women who are working to reach the site. We continue to work with the Alaska Air National Guard and the Alaska State Troopers. We thank everyone for their support.??

The European aerospace company, EADS, said the firm?s chief executive of North American operations, Sean O?Keefe, 54, a former administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was also on board.

The news of Stevens death added a tragic chapter to the career of a man who had been the longest serving Republican senator in 2008 when he was charged in a federal corruption case with failing to report extensive gifts and improvements at his Alaska cabin.

The case cast a dark shadow over Stevens but ultimately proved to be far more embarrassing for the Justice Department. Stevens was convicted in December 2008, but the verdict was thrown out at the request of Attorney General Eric Holder.

Holder’s decision came after an internal review found that  prosecutors failed to turn over evidence to Stevens’ lawyers that might have helped his defense.

The misconduct charges seriously damaged the reputation of the once vaunted Public Integrity Section at DOJ, which prosecutes official corruption and handled the Stevens case, and led to the turnover of its senior staff.

The department responded to the Stevens case with a number of reforms, including appointing senior lawyers in each U.S. Attorney?s office to serve as experts on criminal discovery, implementing a new training regime for federal prosecutors and naming a senior-level official to coordinate these efforts.

Stevens was flying to a fishing lodge near Lake Aleknagik, according to the Anchorage Daily News. The National Transportation Safety Board said the crash of the DeHavilland DHC-3T occurred about 10 miles north of the lake.

The aircraft and the lodge to which Stevens was flying are owned by GCI, the Alaskan telecommunications firm. It was not immediately known why Stevens was traveling to the lodge.

Nearly two years after Stevens’ conviction, the case is still reverberating though the department.

A court-appointed prosecutor, Henry Schuelke III, is looking into whether six Justice Department lawyers violated criminal-contempt statutes. He is investigating allegations that prosecutors intentionally withheld exculpatory evidence from defense lawyers.

Main Justice reported in May that Schuelke is also investigating whether Alaska-based prosecutors pressured an FBI agent-turned-whistleblower to doctor a witness’s statement to bolster the government’s case.

Schuelke finished interviews and gathering evidence in the spring, said people familiar with the matter.

In a separate, civil-contempt case, the Criminal Division’s top appellate lawyer is fighting a judge’s finding that she violated court orders in post-trial proceedings in the Stevens case.

In February 2009, U.S District Judge Emmet Sullivan held Patty Merkamp Stemler, chief of the Criminal Division?s Appellate Section, and three other Justice Department officials in civil contempt for failing to turn over 30 documents to Stevens? lawyers.

Stemler was not part of the Stevens trial team, and her supervisor at the time said in a sworn statement that Stemler played no part in the lapse. Sullivan has scheduled a Sept. 16 hearing in the case.

The Justice Department’s ethics office is also conducting probe to determine whether any of the six lawyers on the trial team violated their professional obligations, a finding of which would require that they be referred to their state bars for possible sanctions.

Neither Schuelke nor the ethics office have indicated when they will be finished.

Full post as published by Main Justice on August 10, 2010 (boomark / email).