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February 7, 2008

Oster trial: Judge denies motion to stop trial

PROVIDENCE -- A Superior Court judge denied a defense motion to stop the bribery and conspiracy trial of former Lincoln Town Administrator Jonathan F. Oster this morning, because the prosecution had neglected to provide the defense records of phone messages.

Associate Justice Gilbert Indeglia said that the prosecution's failure to disclose the phone records was serious, but it was not reason enough to stop the trial.

Indeglia said he would instead adjourn today's testimony early to give the defense time to go through the messages, contained on 25 books of 100 pages each.

Indeglia said he didn't think it would take the defense too much time to go through the books. He described them as mostly containing mundane messages about everyday town business.

Indeglia told the defense, "You should be able to pick out the ones of significance.''

The prosecution told Indeglia that the evidence had been misplaced while in custody of the Rhode Island State Police.

Defense Attorney C. Leonard O'Brien told Indeglia that he believed the prosecution's failure to provide him the messages during discovery was inadvertent, but he argued that the messages could be crucial to his case. He said the prosecution's case this week had entered a phase where the state was trying to show connections between town officials' actions and his client.

He said whether people were calling Oster to ask for things or not calling him were significant details he needed to have to defend his client.

Read about yesterday's trial testimony..

-- Journal staff writer John Hill

Posted by Jack Perry  at 11:03 AM | Permalink

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