Federal judge puts corruption trial off
The Associated Press
ANCHORAGE – A federal judge has put off indefinitely former state Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch’s corruption trial.
The Anchorage Daily News reports that Judge John Sedwick in Anchorage made the move during a brief hearing Friday morning while an appeals court decides what to do with one of the felony charges against Weyhrauch.
Sedwick set aside Weyhrauch’s Sept. 13 trial date. The judge says the soonest the appellate court could be expected to rule would be around Sept. 20.
Weyhrauch was indicted in 2007 on conspiracy, attempted extortion, bribery and fraud over his relationship with the now-defunct oil-field services company Veco and its officials.
A decision in a similar case by the U.S. Supreme Court has put the fraud allegation in doubt. The high court’s ruling narrowed the scope of “honest services” fraud, in which an official is accused of depriving others of honest service through hidden conflicts of interest and other self-serving behavior.
The Supreme Court directed the 9th Circuit to reconsider Weyhrauch’s fraud charge in light of its decision.
Prosecutors say Weyhrauch failed to disclose that he was in job negotiations with Veco at the same time the state legislature was also considering an oil bill.
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July 30th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
What he did was still wrong.
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