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Jul 11, 2007 6:15 pm US/Eastern
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Judge's Ruling May Bode Well For Wecht Team
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
There's some good news for the defense in the fraud case against former Allegheny County Medical Examiner Cyril Wecht.
Last Month, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan asked a federal judge to sanction Wecht's attorney and possibly throw them in jail.
But today, the judge denied that request.
In fact, the judge called for a time out in all these hostilities and a fresh start in the case.
However, he also threw the Wecht defense a bone.
From the start attorneys for Wecht have called it a political prosecution and said they would not keep quiet even under the threat of jail.
But rather than sanction the attorneys, Trial Judge Arthur Schwab gave the Wecht case a big boost.
Schwab unsealed the disciplinary records of Bradley Orsini, the FBI agent who headed the investigation into Wecht and who obtained search warrants to confiscate records and computers from Wecht's offices two years ago.
Wecht's attorneys were not talking today but in the past they have called Orsini a rogue agent with a history of credibility problems who overstepped his authority in the search.
"We're attacking the investigative techniques of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office as well as the law they relied upon in the execution of the search warrants.
In fact, the unsealed documents reveal that Orsini was demoted in 2001 and suspended for 30 days by his superiors in New Jersey for a myriad of internal offenses including:
-falsification of official documents
-an improper personal relationship with a subordinate
-threatening another subordinate with physical assault
-making unprofessional and insensitive remarks concerning peoples' sexual orientation.
Wecht's attorneys want much of the evidence obtained in the search warrants suppressed or thrown out.
Neither Wecht's attorney or the U.S. Attorneys Office would comment.
But Judge Schwab will allow a hearing on the Orsini matter and the search warrants in September.
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