Judge Berates Prosecutors in Trial of Senator (Stevens)

WASHINGTON — The federal trial of Senator Ted Stevens, the longtime Alaska Republican, teetered briefly on the verge of a mistrial Thursday after the discovery that Justice Department prosecutors had withheld information they were supposed to turn over to defense lawyers.

But at the end of the day, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of Federal District Court decided not to dismiss the charges or declare a mistrial, as had been urged by Mr. Stevens’s lawyers. The judge, though, severely admonished the department and its public integrity section, which is handling the prosecution.

“How does the court have confidence that the public integrity section has public integrity?” Judge Sullivan asked at the end of an extraordinary hearing he had called after dismissing the jurors for the day.

He ordered the government to turn over almost all its files to the defense, saying he no longer believed in the ability of prosecutors to make full disclosure on their own, as is customary.

The surprise development came after prosecutors late Wednesday night sent to the defense team a copy of an F.B.I. report of an agent’s interview with Bill Allen, an Alaska oil services executive who is the prosecution’s chief witness and has been on the stand this week. In addition to the judicial scolding of the government, the revelation produced a heated confrontation between the chief defense lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, and the chief prosecutor, Brenda Morris, outside the presence of the jury.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/us/03stevens.html?th&emc=th