There wasn’t a strong enough link between federal corruption charges and money structuring charges levied against Shelton developer James Botti for the alleged crimes to be heard at the same trial.
That’s according to U.S. Senior District Judge Charles Haight, who this week agreed to sever Botti’s seven federal charges into two groups for purposes of trial. Friday, Haight issued a written opinion on that ruling.
“There simply is not a sufficiently strong link between the Indictment’s allegations of six months of money structuring and four prior years of unrelated corruption to justify the joinder of counts… especially when one considers the speculative nature of the link the government fashions,” Haight wrote.
The federal prosecutors had argued for keeping the charges linked, saying they didn’t need to prove that Botti engaged in corruption to prove structuring happened, but they would have to prove structuring in a trial on the corruption charges.
At a hearing on the motion to separate the charges Monday, federal prosecutors said they believed Botti lied to IRS agents about having cash to divert an investigation into his alleged corrupt actions. The feds claim Botti bribed a public official – identified by Botti’s attorney as Mayor Mark A. Lauretti – to get favor toward a construction project on Bridgeport Avenue.
Haight, in his written opinion, said the federal prosecutors’ claims were “rhetoric, not factual allegations in the Indictment, and questionable rhetoric at that.” Haight said Botti might have just as easily told the IRS he had very little cash to evade taxes.
And the timing was off to definitively link the two sets of charges, Haight wrote. The alleged corruption actions happened between 2002 and June 2006, according to the federal indictment. The alleged structuring charges began in June 2006.
Haight said the connection between the two sets of charges is “marginal at best” but slinging the two together in trial could lead the jury to be “more inclined to convict on the corruption counts than they would if the offenses were tried separately.”
The trial is set to start in mid-October.
Here is the full opinion issued by Judge Haight Friday.
Judge Haight Explains Severing Charges in Botti Case
Below is the original article:
A U.S. senior district judge has agreed to separate charges levied against Shelton developer James Botti.
Judge Charles Haight granted a request by Botti’s attorney William Dow III to sever federal money structuring charges from the corruption charges Botti faces, and hear the two at two separate trials.
Botti was charged in November 2008 with conspiracy to defraud the citizens of Shelton, bribery of a public official, mail fraud, conspiracy to structure cash deposits, structuring and two counts of making false statements to the Internal Revenue Service. The charges stem from three retail projects Botti developed on Bridgeport Avenue in Shelton between 2002 and 2006. Read the indictment here.
Dow had filed a motion for the separation last week, and argued his case before Haight Monday morning.
Dow said the charges of structuring and making false statements to an IRS agent don’t have a clear connection to the charges Botti allegedly bribed a public official. That public official was identified by Dow as Mayor Mark A. Lauretti at the hearing Monday. Lauretti has repeatedly denied any role and has not been charged with any crime.
The federal prosecutors allege Botti gave money to Lauretti, but don’t say the money comes from the pool of funds involved in the structuring charge, Dow said.
“Just because there’s an overlap in time, that doesn’t make it one conspiracy,” Dow said Monday about the timeline of the two allegations.
But U.S. attorneys said the structuring charge — which alleges Botti made several cash deposits of just below $10,000 between June 2006 and January 2007 — plays into the corruption charges because it shows Botti had the cash on hand to make bribes to public officials to get his Bridgeport Avenue developments approved.
“The common theme in all these charges is cash,” said assistant U.S. attorney Rahul Kale at Monday’s hearing.
Judge Haight granted the request Tuesday in a four-line order that didn’t disclose the reasons why. Haight wrote he would follow up the order with an opinion that detailed his reasoning.