Kohring to ask for dismissal

ALASKA — Former state Rep. Vic Kohring and his legal team plan to answer the bell swinging when his trial begins Oct. 22.

In a defendant’s status report filed with U.S. District court Oct. 11, the former lawmaker and his attorney, John Henry Browne, argue federal prosecutors should throw Kohring’s case out. They will contest evidence prosecutors intend to use against Kohring.

Kohring said Browne intends to file a motion to dismiss the case.

A seven-time state House member, Kohring faces federal charges of bribery, corruption and conspiracy. He will be the third former Alaska lawmaker to stand trial over the past six months.

In the report, Kohring and Brown say the government interfered with Kohring’s right to legal counsel and trial by using Eagle River state Sen. Fred Dyson as an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation informant.

Dyson has repeatedly denied acting on behalf of the FBI.

Prosecuting Kohring on behalf of the United States of America are William M. Welch, chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Public Integrity Section, trial attorneys Nicholas Marsh and Edward Sullivan, and assistant U.S. attorneys Joseph Bottini and James Goeke. Repeated phone calls and attempts to contact prosecutors about claims made in the status report were not returned.

In an affidavit accompanying Kohring’s report, Kohring’s former chief of staff, John Davies, explains Dyson’s alleged connection to the FBI. Davies works for Rep. Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, who was appointed to fill Kohring’s seat after Kohring resigned in June. Keller was Dyson’s chief of staff before Keller’s own appointment to the Legislature.

While Keller was working for Dyson and Davies for Kohring, Davies says Keller handed him the card of an FBI agent. Keller told him that “an FBI agent … had come by Senator Dyson’s office and left her card with the senator saying, ‘Have Representative Kohring call me. It will go easier for him if he cooperates with us,’ or words to that effect.”

Kohring and Browne maintain that this contact was the FBI, through Dyson, trying to deny him his right to legal representation and a trial.

Kohring said Browne also believes the government’s recent filing of an amended indictment amounts to a "last-minute filing."

“Now they're claiming they may not be prepared for the start of the Oct. 22 trial because of this,” Kohring said.

The government’s superseding indictment, released Oct. 4, should not delay the start of the trial, Browne says in the status report. “It is Mr. Kohring’s adamant desire to go to trial on the day presently set for trial.”

Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, said that despite any pre-trial posturing, Kohring could still reach a plea deal with federal prosecutors.

“You can always plead, depending on the strength of your case,” Gara said.

A plea arrangement would require a deal between Kohring and prosecutors. This can be done any time before a verdict, Gara said, adding it is not likely Kohring would take a deal.

Kohring, in an e-mail interview, said he would not accept a deal with prosecutors because that would be an admission of guilt.

“It might be that the prosecution has offered him nothing [less] than what he would get from the court,” Gara said. “That is often the case in a trial, if there is no significant offer of leniency the defendant decides just to go to trial.”

Gara said Kohring faces a national atmosphere where people see corruption at all levels of government. On a local level, the trials of former Reps. Tom Anderson and Pete Kott have shown an ugly side of the state Legislature.

“Juries are offended by the bribery conduct they are hearing about,” Gara said. “Makes you wonder if they were innocent legislators if they could get off on their indictments.”

Kohring attempted to have his trial moved out of Alaska because the media could have already turned the jury pool against him. U.S. District Judge John W. Sedwick denied the change of venue request.