Judge denies Kohring fair process

When the U.S. government — with its endless resources drained from its people — chooses to attack and marginalize someone, it’s called politics or statesmanship. When a sitting federal judge blatantly prosecutes a case it’s major crime. A federal judge did this to our former state House Rep. Vic Kohring. I am convinced given the evidence that Kohring not only is innocent of the charges he has been convicted of, but has been railroaded by a biased and vindictive judge, John Sedwick.

May I present my evidence?

More than a year ago, when attorney Wayne Anthony Ross first saw the alleged evidence against Kohring, he laughed at the government lawyers. He said to prosecutors this isn’t serious evidence; these are allegations. You don’t have a case.

He was right. In the end, the government took the word of an admitted crook (former VECO CEO Bill Allen) and ballooned it into a federal case of bribery. In the normal course of events, this would have been completely exposed in an open trial, but the government had the judge on its team. Here is what Sedwick did:

• Federal law requires jurors and judges to tell both parties at the start of a trial if there are any apparent conflicts of interest between them and the accused, the lawyers or the witnesses. In federal law there is the emphasis on even the “appearance” of a conflict of interest. This, too, must be revealed.

• After cautioning the jurors about this, Sedwick concealed the fact that he was married to Kohring’s biggest political enemy with whom Kohring battled openly about the size of her government agency, which he ultimately merged with another department. Vic cut millions out of Deborah Sedwick’s budget, including eliminating her job as commissioner. Judge Sedwick also concealed the fact that he lives literally 65 feet from Allen, the government’s main witness. These facts alone should make this case null and void.

Kohring motioned to change the venue of the trial to a neutral location where the press had not already tried and convicted him. He presented a 5-inch-thick portfolio of newspaper clippings and references to television news that excoriated Kohring over and over. The amount of proof of a tainted jury pool in Alaska was overwhelming. Other cases had been moved because of far less media bias than in Kohring’s case. Sedwick denied a change of venue.

During the trial, Kohring had more than 80 people lined up ready to tell the jury about his well-known habit of telling people to “please feel free to call me anytime. Let me know what I can do to help,” which was twisted by the government into meaning that Kohring would help VECO by performing illegal acts. Kohring did tell everyone that. We all knew it. It was on his newsletters and doorknob fliers. He added it to his newspaper columns. We were prepared to show how Vic was totally innocent of this aspect of the charges. Chief Judge Sedwick denied all the ready witnesses a right to speak to the jury and to be cross-examined by the government.

When Kohring was denied the testimony of his witnesses, he offered to show the court and the jury his written documents over the last 10 years that prove he used this phrase over and over, and when it was viewed by the jury on a government surveillance tape it was out of context.

On the last day of the trial, Deborah Sedwick, the person Vic had battled with politically, walked into the courtroom. It was only then that Kohring made the connection that this was the wife of the judge. This is when it became obvious that Judge Sedwick had denied all his motions.

But Sedwick’s negative rulings did not stop at the end of the trial. Kohring filed a motion asking for a new trial and that the judge recuse himself from the case. Like the fox guarding the hen house, Judge Sedwick denied the motion.

I know Kohring never accepted a bribe. All his friends know this, too. He accepted a monetary gift from Bill Allen for his daughter, but did nothing in return for it. A gift is not a bribe. Yet the jury was not allowed to hear any of this. Kohring is now bankrupt, has had to sell all his assets to pay his attorney, is losing his home to foreclosure and will have to appeal his case while in prison.

Who is the real criminal here?

Glen Fryfogle

Wasilla