Federal Criminal Defense Blog : Georgia Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer & Attorney : Gillen Withers & Lake Law Firm : White Collar Crime, RICO, Trial : Atlanta, Savannah, GA

Westar Energy, the largest electrical utility in the State of Kansas, announced last week that it will pay former Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board, David Wittig $36 million as an arbitration settlement relating to Wittig's compensation contract, as well as $3.1 million in attorney's fees and $2.7 million in stock compensation, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. Westar's settlement with Wittig follows its settlement in the Spring with its former Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Douglas Lake for $21 million in unpaid compensation and $5.3 million in legal fees. Wittig and Lake claimed Westar violated their employment contracts by terminating them prematurely.

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The compensation for legal fees was for Wittig's and Lake's defense of a criminal prosecution. In 2003, the men were charged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas with conspiracy, circumventing internal accounting controls and falsifying books and records, honest services fraud, wire fraud, submitting false statements and engaging in monetary transactions derived from an unlawful activity. Their first trial ended in a mistrial in 2004 after the jury could not reach a verdict. They were convicted at their second trial in 2005, but the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed their convictions last year following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision regarding honest services fraud in U.S. v. Skilling.

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Two years ago, Deputy Sheriff David Swanson and Sheriff's Captain Raul DeLeon of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department in California were indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California for making alleged false statements to federal investigators regarding leaks during a federal investigation of Road Dog Cycle in Denair, California. The owners of Road Dog Cycle, Robert and Brent Holloway, were also indicted for heading a racketeering enterprise, which involved members of the East Bay Dragons outlaw motorcycle club of California; the Merced, California, chapter of the Hell's Angels; and the Red Devils outlaw motorcycle club of Sweden. The defendants were charged with acts of trafficking in stolen motor vehicle parts, robbery, making extortionate extensions of credit and collecting extensions of credit by extortionate means.

Swanson was charged with allegedly leaking confidential law enforcement information to an associate of Robert Holloway who informed Holloway of search warrants which were to be executed at Road Dog Cycle. DeLeon was similarly charged with allegedly concealing his relationship with Robert Holloway and having contact with Holloway during the execution of a State search warrant at the residence of one of Holloway's employees in order to enable the employee to conceal evidence. Swanson and DeLeon faced a maximum of 15 years imprisonment.

Well, as reported by the Modesto Bee, the prosecution of Swanson and DeLeon turned out to be a case of prosecutorial overreaching when a jury acquitted Swanson and DeLeon on all charges earlier this month. Following the verdict, one juror told reporters that Swanson and DeLeon had been "railroaded." The problems in the government's case caused it at one point to offer Swanson the chance to plead to one felony count with no jail time and not even any probation. Even courthouse employees told the defense that they did not believe that he could have conspired to impede the federal investigation into the Holloways' activities.

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Knoxvillenews.com has been intensively covering here, here, here and elsewhere the trial of David C. Kernell, son of Tennessee State Representative Mike Kernell of Memphis and former University of Tennessee student, who was charged in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee with hacking into the electronic mail account of former Governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2008. The jury received the case today, and is still deliberating. The trial began last week.

Kernell, 22, is charged with guessing the answers to various security questions to gain access to Palin's Yahoo! e-mail account shortly after she was chosen to be Arizona Senator John McCain's running mate during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. Screenshots, pictures and a new password for the e-mail account were then posted on the website 4Chan. Ten other individuals in the U.S. and abroad proceeded to access the account more than 70 times.

Kernell, who was a 20 year-old economics major at the time, was charged with identity theft and other offenses. Palin herself testified on Friday, and her daughter, Bristol Palin, testified last week. Kernell did not testify.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Weddle argued to the jury yesterday that Kernell intended to do something malicious from the beginning. Authorities seizing Kernell's computer found a New York Times article questioning whether Palin was using private e-mail accounts for government business. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krotoski quoted Kernell's message on the 4Chan discussion board: "'I'm not going to ruin someone's life' but I'll give you the key, the pass(word)." Weddle cited Kernell's statement to persons who posted the information for him on the website 4Chan "make me proud."

Kernell's attorneys defended that Kernell did not believe that such a high-profile public figure could use such a poorly protected e-mail account. They argued to the jury that Kernell only used information available in newspaper articles and from the official state of Alaska website, and that what Kernell did was stupid and closer to a prank than a crime.

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Leading the Georgia news today is the nomination of Assistant United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates by President Barack Obama to be the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. The President announced Mrs. Yates' nomination in a Christmas Eve press release.

Mrs. Yates has served as the interim head of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia since August, when the former U.S. Attorney, David E. Nahmias, stepped down to become Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. She has had a distinguished career as a federal prosecutor since joining the U.S. Attorney's Office in 1989. Mrs. Yates became the Chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office's fraud and public corruption unit in 1994, and became a top aide to the U.S. Attorney in 2002. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney's Office, Mrs. Yates, a double graduate of the University of Georgia, was in private practice with King & Spalding. Notably, Mrs. Yates successfully prosecuted former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell and former Georgia State Schools Superintendant Linda Schrenko for corruption, and was an integral part of the investigation into the 1996 Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta. Mrs. Yates is married to J. Comer Yates, an attorney and Executive Director for the Atlanta Speech School, which has served children with speech, hearing, language or learning disabilities since 1938.

Mrs. Yates' nomination has been widely praised, including by the criminal defense bar. The nomination must be approved by the United States Senate. If confirmed, Mrs. Yates will be the first female U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. Georgia was one of the 13 original federal districts created by the Judiciary Act of 1789, and was subdivided into the Northern and Southern Districts in 1848, and further subdivided again to include the Middle District in 1926. The Act provided that "there shall be appointed in each district a meet person learned in the law to act as attorney for the United States in such district, who shall be sworn or affirmed to the faithful execution of his office, whose duty it shall be to prosecute in such district all delinquents for crimes and offences, cognizable under the authority of the United States, and all civil actions in which the United States shall be concerned, except before the supreme court in the district in which that court shall be holden." Judiciary Act of 1789, Sec. 35. There are currently 93 U.S. Attorneys in a corresponding number of districts across the nation. The Federal Criminal Defense Blog congratulates Mrs. Yates on her nomination and expected confirmation.

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