| OCR Text |
Show Vernal Express Wednesday, January 30, 2003 A7 Mitchell, Erickson seeking new trial By Geoff Liesik Uintah Basin News Service Defense attorneys for Gil Mitchell and Kathryn Erickson are asking the federal judge who sentenced the pair this month to grant them a new trial. The Roosevelt businessman and the former director of the Uintah Transportation Special Service District claim in court documents filed by their attorneys attor-neys that federal prosecutors failed to turn over evidence that may have led to their acquittal on obstruction of justice charges. "The defendants recently discovered that the government failed to disclose additional, exculpatory information to the defendants," wrote Mitchell's attorney, Loren E. Weiss, in a 12-page motion for a new trial. Weiss claims the prosecution never provided the defense with the results of a 1999 forensic audit of the UTSSD, conducted by Robert Foley at the direction of the Uintah County Commission. Commis-sion. Among the items in Foley's audit report was a document that appears to contradict testimony offered by current UTSSD Executive Ex-ecutive Director Cheri McCurdy during Mitchell and Erickson's trial. McCurdy, who was the service ser-vice district's secretary under Erickson, testified that she saw her boss and Mitchell alter three change orders for small paving and gravel projects before submitting sub-mitting them to a federal grand jury. An investigation determined that two of the contracts Mitchell was being paid for by the UTSSD had actually been terminated in 1998 and the third had been awarded to another company. But while conducting his audit, Foley wrote that McCurdy told him a change order for one of the disputed contracts was added to the list of documents for submission to the grand jury after she had left work one night in August 2000. "Cheri found the change order and an amended list of documents for the grand jury Recall advisory issued for long-term food storage items The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) is advising people with long-term food storage pantries to check for recalled food items because of the potential for Botulism contamination. The U.S. Foodand Drug Administration (FDA) announced that New Era Canning Company, New Era, Mich., is expanding its product recall because of potential Clostridium botulinum (C. botulinum) contamination to all canned green beans and garbanzo beans distributed by the company nationwide over the last five years. C. botulinum can cause botulism, a serious and sometimes life-threatening condition. The affected cans are large institutional-sized institutional-sized containers, weighing approximately six and a half pounds. UDAF inspectors have found-nonerbf found-nonerbf 'the products ori store' shelves in Utah, but because the product distribution spans the past five years, and the large size of the cans, it is possible some of the canned beans may be in long-term long-term food storage pantries. "We want to emphasize that we do not believe any of the recalled products are on store shelves today. We are issuing our advisory to people who may have purchased the canned beans up to five years ago," said Regulatory Services Director, Richard Clark. If consumers find any of the recalled products they are advised to double bag the cans and throw them away. For specific brands and codes of green beans and garbanzo beans that are subject to this recall, consumers and retailers can access this information at http:www. fda.govocopacomhottopics newera.html. Additional instructions for safe disposal may be found at http:www.cdc. govncidoddbmddiseaseinfo botulismg.htm. Anyone with questions may call FDA at 1-888-SAFEFOOD. when she returned to work the next day," Foley wrote in a form identified as Exhibit 4-B, and included in Weiss' court filing. "She had never seen the documents docu-ments before, and supposes they were prepared that night." "In 2000, Ms. McCurdy reportedly re-portedly 'had never seen' the change orders produced under subpoena, and 'supposed' they were prepared overnight while she was at home," Weiss wrote in his motion. "By 2007, however, Ms. McCurdy had become certain she had personally observed Ms. Erickson and Mr. Mitchell signing sign-ing and allegedly backdating the change orders." Weiss said he uncovered the apparent contradictory statement state-ment by McCurdy while soliciting letters of support for his client for use at sentencing. Two of the letters - both from former Uintah County commissioners commission-ers - indicated that Foley had conducted a fourth audit of the UTSSD, one that Weiss said he was previously unaware of. Weiss doesn't believe prosecutors prosecu-tors intentionally withheld the document containing McCurdy's statement to Foley, but noted that the court can grant a new trial based on newly discovered evidence when doing so is "in the interest of justice." He added that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that prosecutors are required to turn over exculpatory evidence even if they don't know about it and even if the defense never requests it. Mitchell and Erickson were convicted in January 2007 of Basic Skills Competency Testing Uintah High School will start late for some students on Feb. 5,6 and 7 in order to conduct the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test. All sophomores need ti attend at the regular time 7:45 a.m. for testing. Any juniors or seniors that need to retake any part of the test will be notified and will need to attend only on the day(s) of their subtest. Students may check with their counselor if they are unsure about their standing. All juniors and seniors that have passed all three subtests will need to be in school for first period which will start at 9:28 a.m. Students need to pass this test in order to receive a basic high school diploma. altering three change orders that were submitted to a federal grand jury investigating allegations of improprieties at the UTSSD in the 1990s. Defense attorneys had sought to have those convictions overturned or be granted a new ' trial in April, but U.S. District Court Judge Ted Stewart denied their motion. Stewart sentenced Mitchell and Erickson on Jan. 8 to serve 2V2 years on probation. Erickson was also sentenced to 300 days home confinement, while Mitch-ellreceivedasentenceofl80 Mitch-ellreceivedasentenceofl80 days home confinement. In addition, Mitchell must pay a $5,000 fine and $300 in court costs. Weiss said in a telephone interview Thursday that despite the decision to seek a new trial, the sense of closure brought by being sentenced has lowered his client's anxiety level. Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman spokes-woman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said prosecutors are reviewing the arguments made by Mitchell and Erickson's attorneys. at-torneys. She said no comment will be offered until a formal response is filed with the court by the U.S. Attorney's Office. Contributing: Lezlee Whiting Today's Weather Wed 130 18-4 Light snow. Highs in the upper teens and lows -2 to -6F. Sunrise 7:27 AM Sunset 5:33 PM Thu 131 132 A few clouds. Highs in the low teens and lows in the low single sin-gle digits. Sunrise 7:27 AM Sunset 5:34 PM Fri 21 200 Snow showers at times. Highs in the low 20s and lows 2 to -2F. Sunrise 7:26 AM Sunset 5:35 PM Sat 22 2211 Mix of sun and clouds. Highs in the low 20s and lows in the low teens. Sunrise 7:25 AM Sunset 5:37 PM Sun 23 ' 2611 Snow showers possible. pos-sible. Highs in the mid 20s and lows in the low teens. Sunrise 7:24 AM Sunset 5:38 PM ' ' ' 5 r mi We Celebrate Hometown Life Stories for and about hometowns just like yours. Look for us each week in this pjpei: Utah At A Glance Logan . 218 6 j V Ogden 2510 Salt Lake Citv O 2710 Provo 2811 Cedar City 262 Vernal I 18-4 Moon Phases o o Full Last Jan 22 Jan 30 o o New First Feb 7 Feb 14 UV Index Wed 130 2 Low Thu 131 3 Moderate Fri 21 2 Low Sat 22 2 Low Sun 23 2 Low The UV Index is measured on a 0-1 1 number scale, with a higher UV Index showing the need for greater skin protection. pro-tection. 0 .3 1 1 Area Cities Beaver Blanding Brigham City Cedar City Delta Elko, NV Evanston, WY Farmington, NM Fillmore Flagstaff, AZ 27 33 24 26 27 23 16 32 27 26 sn shower sn shower sn shower sn shower sn shower sn shower sn shower sn shower sn shower sn shower Grand Jet, CO Green River Heber City Kanab Logan Moab Mt. Pleasant Ogden Park City Preston, ID 27 27 20 30 21 29 22 25 19 20 sn shower sn shower snow sn shower sn shower sn shower sn shower sn shower snow sn shower EST Price Provo Richfield Roosevelt Salt Lake City Sandy St. George Tooele Vernal Wendover 28 27 17 27 26 43 26 18 29 snow sn shower sn shower snow sn shower National Cities Atlanta Boston Chicago Dallas Denver 51 43 19 58 36 33 sunny 21 rain 16 pt sunny 42 sunny 14 pt sunny Houston Los Angeles Miami Minneapolis New York b2 59 78 5 42 4b 40 67 -1 26 mst sunny rain pt sunny pt sunny ' rain Phoenix San Francisco Seattle St. Louis Washington, DC fab 49 41 40 45 13 sn shower 20 sn shower 1 1 sn shower -4 sn shower 9 sn shower 30 mst sunny 39 rain 37 mixed 27 mst sunny 31 pt sunny ?005 American Profile Hometown Content Service Basin council reports on housing authority Uintah Basin Assistance Council chair, Heather Hoyt, provided a quarterly report to the Uintah county commission on Monday, Jan. 28. "The Utah Code provides for public entities to create housing authorities," said Hoyt recounting recount-ing the history of assistance in the Basin. "Back some years ago, Myton took the lead and created the first housing authority in the region. Then Roosevelt, and finally, Uintah County was poised to do so, in 2001." "Instead, Uintah County partnered with Myton to create Uintah Basin Council Housing authority," explained Hoyt. "Today, the council has 38 Section-8 housing vouchers, all in use, between Myton and Vernal. There are usually 40 to 60 people waiting for vouchers. Jolene Daniels, our director, is working with Roosevelt is apply some of their unused Section-8 vouchers to serve some of those in need." The Uintah Basin Assistance Council has "three housingunits with 67 total units for seniors, including two duplexes, one triplex, 11 crown homes and one three-bedroom home," Hoyt recounted for the commission. "There is also one domestic domes-tic violence shelter operated through the council," she said. "Future projects on the agenda for the council may include construction con-struction of another shelter as well as more affordable housing units for Basin residents. u - -' n 7 - & pm r 3'i r- - 1 Expr it fir in iir1 f 1 4 d 5000 Sq. Ft. 1.77 Acres Horse Property 7 Bedrooms 5 Bathrooms 2 Car Attached Garage Hand Peeled 10" Logs Investment Opportunity MLS 723538 MLS 713949 3098 Sq. Ft. 9.78 Acres Horse Property Prop-erty 3 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms 2 Car Attached At-tached Garage Water Rights Stream on Property -.1 r ll" i. 4278 Sq. Ft. . 41 Acre Lot Lifetime Trek's Deck 5 Bedrooms 3 Full Baths 3 Car Attached Garage Custom Kitchen Spa-Like Master Bath $90Sq.Ft. rrs-v" 1 ' Exclusive Office Listing; ' m .J;" ; " ; ?! MLS 690871 1288 Sq. Ft. .24 Acres Mature Landscaping 3 Bedrooms 1 .5 Bathrooms 1 Car Garage & 1 Car Carport RV Parking Mature Landscaping In Town Location . A 111 &iviMer.,. Ita IMS! tof I CT I With Each Windshield Replacement You Receive 1 70th of r mm- n M mm 0 V el mi |
