Odom Wants Prosecutor Off Case
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Odom Wants Prosecutor Off Case
Date:
Mon, 28 Oct 2002 16:00:59 -0500
From:
Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide
Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Odom Wants Prosecutor Off Case
By
MARLENE NAANES
mnaanes@theadvocate.com
Advocate staff writer
Indicted Department of Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Bob Odom's attorneys said Thursday that District Attorney Doug Moreau should be taken off the case because he may have played a part in the same criminal acts he accuses Odom of committing.
Odom's attorneys filed documents in court Thursday afternoon saying that when Moreau was state district judge, he ruled in a case "the state now alleges to be a major part of and the genesis of a criminal conspiracy."
Moreau's involvement makes him at least a witness or, at worst, a co-conspirator, wrote defense attorneys Karl Koch and Mary Olive Pierson.
"What is now being called a criminal conspiracy, Doug Moreau said grace over as a judge," Koch said in an interview.
Assistant District Attorney Sandra Ribes, one of the prosecutors on the case, said she did not have a chance to thoroughly read the document Koch and Pierson filed Thursday. However, she said what she did see is "ridiculous."
Moreau was a 19th Judicial District Court judge before being elected district attorney in 1990.
Koch claims Moreau's decision as a civil court judge in 1985 gave a contract for food storage to Lehman Williamson. Three bribery and conspiracy counts against Odom originally stem from Williamson gaining the warehousing contract over the lowest bidder, Koch said.
Williamson filed a lawsuit claiming competitor Roy Roshto didn't deserve the contract because he won the bids even though his warehouse wasn't built yet.
Moreau ruled Roshto didn't qualify for the contract because he didn't have the necessary warehouse, Koch said.
Williamson wound up being awarded the bid.
Prosecutors say the two men subsequently reached an agreement under which Roshto bought Williamson's warehouse and received what Williamson had bid for the contract.
Prosecutors claim Roy Roshto's son, Tommy Roshto, paid bribes to Odom between 1988 and 1992 in order to remain partners with Williamson and several other men in an Agriculture Department food storage contract.
Koch and Pierson allege that under the state rules of professional conduct, Moreau cannot act as an attorney in matters in which he was judge. They also say that because Moreau was personally involved in conduct his office now alleges is criminal, he qualifies as a witness in the case against Odom and cannot act as a lawyer.
Moreau has a personal interest in the Odom case, the lawyers claim. Koch said Moreau should remove himself and his staff from the case because of his involvement in the civil case.
Ribes claims the defense's request to remove the District Attorney's Office from the case is a stalling tactic.
"If they want to get to trial Dec. 2, why are they filing this motion?" she asked. "I really don't like Christmastime for trying this case, but if that's when they want it, that's when they can have it."
Koch and Pierson argued earlier this month that prosecutors were stalling by claiming an e-mail Odom sent was hindering their investigation.
Odom was indicted on 21 felony charges in August after an 18-month investigation. The charges accuse him of accepting bribes for contracts and using department assets and personnel to build homes for his children, among other activities.
Two weeks ago, prosecutors dropped 11 of the charges, saying they wanted to shorten the time it will take them to find Odom guilty in the trial. The defense said the charges were dropped because they were unfounded.
Williamson faces related charges but will be tried separately.
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