The lawyer for Shelton developer James Botti wanted to rearrange the court schedule for Botti’s federal corruption trial slated for October.
But a federal judge in the U.S. District Court in New Haven denied the request Monday.
Botti’s attorney, William Dow III, filed a motion with the court on July 20 asking to have a jury selected before any more hearings occur.
Click here to read Dow’s motion.
Click here to read the government’s response.
Click here to read the judge’s order.
Click here to read the schedule for the case.
According to the motion, Dow wanted to avoid “the possibility of jury taint” that occurs when possible jurors have read about the case in the media before selection. The hearings generate media attention because of the notoriety in the case.
“The defendant simply requests that the sequence be reversed so the jury is selected first – and the jurors directed not to read, watch, listen to or discuss any information about the case – and the hearings held thereafter,” Dow wrote in the request.
But Monday, Senior District Judge Charles S. Haight, Jr., ordered the schedule to remain as originally proposed – with pre-trial hearings held in September and jury selection held in October.
“Weeding out any possible taint in the jury is precisely the purpose of voir dire (jury selection and interviews),” Haight wrote. “Botti’s interest, as well as that of the government and the Court, in having an unbiased jury will be best served by holding any hearing on pre-trial motions, with whatever publicity it may generate, before jury selection, and then using voir dire to identify and remove any potential jurors who have been affected by media accounts.”
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 public official has been identified in many news reports as Mayor Mark A. Lauretti, although he has not been charged with any crime or officially identified.
Dow declined to comment about the order Tuesday.
U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy had objected to Dow’s proposal in a written response on July 22.
Dannehy wrote that her office agreed with having jury selection in September, but objected to placing it before the pre-trial hearings.
“No defendant has the right to dictate to the Court the timing of the Court’s ruling on pre-trial motions or the date it should conduct pre-trial hearings,” Dannehy wrote. “While defendant suggests that “pre-trial publicity” requires the Court to rearrange its schedule, defendant offers absolutely no evidence that pre-trial publicity has had any impact on the prospective jury pool.”
People in Shelton may be following reports of the case, Dannehy wrote, but prospective jurors will be called from the New Haven region.
Also, the pre-trial hearings may need each side to disclose more information, so waiting until right before a trial “makes very little sense,” Dannehy wrote.
