KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | Courting ridicule
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U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick has ruled that former Reps. Bruce Weyhrauch and Pete Kott did not have to disclose to the Legislature a conflict of interest in regard to their dealings with VECO Corp. "The Legislature clearly knows how to establish a duty to disclose and has done so in several instances. Its failure to include an explicit duty to disclose (in the relevant law) is significant."
Sedwick says federal prosecutors also may not introduce evidence of additional "bad acts" by Kott in connection with VECO for which he is not being charged. Some impatience is implied in the judge's order: "In closing, the court notes that it is not willing to revisit this issue on a motion for reconsideration. The upcoming trial will be long and difficult enough without further consideration of issues that could have been more fully laid out in the existing briefing."
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Meanwhile, Kott is trying to prohibit evidence of or reference to CBC -- the self-styled Corrupt Bastards Club -- from being admitted at the trial that starts tomorrow, as well as "sleeping pills allegedly given to Peter Kott by Bill Allen."
Part of the record is a transcript of a surreptitiously recorded phone call on May 31, 2006, between Kott and former VECO CEO Allen.
Kott: "Hey, ah, remember those pills you gave me?"
Allen: "Yeah."
Kott: "Man, I've been having a hard time sleeping. [Expletive], I took one of 'em last night. [Expletive], every time I rolled over, rolled over on my [expletive]."
Allen: (laughs) "So that worked pretty good, huh?"
Kott: "No, kept me awake all night. Every time I'd roll over, man, I was like rolling on a, you know, a tire that was flat, you know."
Allen: (laughs)
Kott: (unintelligible) "Geez. Which ones are which?"
Allen: (laughs) "You [expletive]. (laughs) Oh [expletive]."
Kott: "You know, you know which one of those are which?"
Allen: (laughs)
Kott: "I'm not [expletive] you."
Allen: "[Expletive] it, I told you now, just use the white ones for the feet, to, to sleep ... "
Kott: "Okay."
Allen: "And, and the [expletive], ah, brown or whatever they are, that's for [expletive], and the other one is for sleeping."
Kott: "There's two sleeping one and one [expletive] one, huh?"
Allen: "Yeah." (laughs)
Kott. "Oh, [expletive]. I took the wrong one then. No wonder I couldn't sleep."
Allen: (laughs) "You [expletive]. What did your old lady think about it?"
Kott: "[Expletive], she was sleep. I was trying to get some sleep. I just kept rolling over, [expletive], this, it's like rolling over on a log. Klunk."
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This sounds like an Alaska version of the Nixon tapes.
