U.S. Lies Fueled Laos-Overthrow Case, Veteran Defense Lawyer Says
A veteran defense lawyer’s allegations that a federal case against 11 defendants accused of plotting the overthrow of the government of Laos is permeated with lies should be taken “right to the top” of the U.S. Department of Justice, a judge overseeing the case said today in a hearing in Sacramento, Calif.
Saying that he’d never before heard anything like this from a veteran defense lawyer, U.S. District Judge Frank Damrell Jr. urged attorney John Keker, who said he was speaking for the entire defense team, to file a motion to dismiss detailing his allegations, reports the Sacramento Bee.
“In 38 years of practicing law, I’ve never seen so many lies by prosecutors and agents in support of a case,” Keker told the judge.
Damrell also urged the lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney S. Robert Tice-Raskin, to consult with the top DOJ official responsible for the case. Tice-Raskin agreed that Keker should file a motion to dismiss detailing his claims, so the government can respond to them.
More details about the case—in which a lawyer for a former Wisconsin official named in an affidavit (but not charged) said in 2007 that his client “has as much interest in seeing the government of Laos overthrown as he does in the Klingons taking over the Starship Enterprise”—are provided in a previous ABAJournal.com post.
