ATLANTA - Now that former State School Superintendent Linda Schrenko, Sen.-elect Charles Walker and ex-Rep. Robin Williams share the fate of having been indicted by federal grand juries, mounting a defense becomes their primary task.
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Robin Williams
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Last month Ms. Schrenko appeared at the U.S. District Courthouse in Atlanta and entered the same plea as Mr. Walker and Mr. Williams: Not guilty.
All three are accused of separate fraud schemes, and each denies any wrongdoing. Their cases are likely to follow a logical path between indictment and trial, say lawyers who have defended people accused of white-collar crimes in federal court. The first task is to assess the evidence.
"You have to remember that the allegations in the indictment are just that, allegations, and there may or may not be any evidence to back them up," said federal prosecutor-turned-defense attorney Thomas D. Bever, of Chilivis, Cochran, Larkins & Bever LLP in Atlanta.
Defense attorneys will review copies of all the documents that prosecutors intend to present at the trials. Typically, the documents are made available the day the defendants turn themselves in, or soon thereafter, because the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled prosecutors must give the other side time to examine damaging evidence.
The defenders will review them with their clients to see whether anything was omitted or forged, and whether there is an explanation for what the government claims they show. They'll also interview witnesses to learn what they are likely to testify to and how credible they sound.
"They'll try to do two things with regard to the witnesses. They will try to impeach and discredit government witnesses," Mr. Bever said. "With regard to the documents, they will try to attack the relevancy or the completeness of the documents."
The lawyers will have to decide whether they want to ask the judge for a trial separate from their client's alleged conspirators. Generally judges want to clear their backlogs of cases and prefer joint trials, especially when most evidence and witnesses are likely to be the same. But if one person's defense includes evidence that would implicate another defendant, then separate trials are almost required.
Lawyers say federal prosecutors typically try to persuade some defendants to turn against their prime target.
In Ms. Schrenko's case, they already may have convinced someone to take that route, said veteran white-collar defense attorney B.J. Bernstein. She noted that a prosecutor's statement last month that there might be additional people charged could have been a message to a wavering government witness to keep cooperating or face getting indicted.
