{"id":11185,"date":"2016-03-26T08:04:26","date_gmt":"2016-03-26T14:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=11185"},"modified":"2016-03-26T08:04:26","modified_gmt":"2016-03-26T14:04:26","slug":"high-stakes-political-corruption-trial-opens-monday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/03\/high-stakes-political-corruption-trial-opens-monday\/","title":{"rendered":"High-stakes political corruption trial opens Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"State<\/a>

Larry Beckner\/Great Falls Tribune<\/p>

State Rep. Art Wittich, R-Bozeman, goes on trial Monday in a high-profile political corruption trial.<\/p><\/div>\n

After more than two years of allegations, counter-claims, investigations, and back-and-forth legal maneuverings, the high-profile campaign practices lawsuit pitting a Democratic appointee against a Republican state lawmaker will finally go before a jury on Monday.<\/p>\n

Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl first brought the lawsuit against Bozeman Rep. Art Wittich, the former Republican Senate majority leader, in January 2014.<\/p>\n

Wittich, who asked for a jury to decide the case against him, has called the lawsuit \u201ca lynching<\/a>\u201d and\u00a0repeatedly claimed<\/a> the process against him is unjust.The high-stakes civil trial, which is scheduled for five days, could have lasting impacts on Montana\u2019s campaign finance and disclosure laws and could cost Wittich his seat in the Montana Legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo public official has ever been so sued, and brought to trial,\u201d Wittich said in a March 18 post on his official Facebook page<\/a>. \u201cNo other case has allowed the \u2026 COPP to be the complainant, investigator, administrative judge, and \u2018expert witness\u2019 who can provide opinions. The district court judge also ruled that he doesn\u2019t want the trial to be \u2018about politics,\u2019 and is limiting my defenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wittich says he\u2019s the victim of a political prosecution orchestrated by a long-time liberal activist with close ties to Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock.<\/p>\n

Bullock appointed Motl to replace outgoing COPP Jim Murry in May 2013. The Republican-controlled state Senate confirmed Motl on a 29-21 vote<\/a> on one of the last days of the 2015 legislative session.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit against Wittich stems from a 2010 political practices complaint <\/a>Billings Republican Debra Bonogofsky filed against her primary opponent, Dan Kennedy. That complaint alleged illegal coordination between Kennedy and various groups that provided unreported campaign services. A subsequent investigation by Motl\u2019s office implicated other Republican candidates who also allegedly accepted illegal campaign contributions from groups such as American Tradition Partnership and its affiliated corporations.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Motl says the facts in the case are clear and said he \u201cappreciates\u201d that the lawsuit is finally going to trial.<\/p>\n

The jury will consider three main points during the scheduled five-day trial:<\/p>\n

1) Was there activity by a corporate entity in Wittich\u2019s 2010 primary campaign?<\/p>\n

2) If so, was that activity coordinated with Wittich?<\/p>\n

3) If so, what was the value of that activity?<\/p>\n

Dayton on Thursday said Motl\u2019s attorneys will not be allowed to raise the issue of \u201cquid pro quo\u201d corruption to the jury. Instead the court will decide the corruption issue after the jury returns its verdict.Anaconda District Judge Ray Dayton is presiding over the trial, which will take place in Helena District Judge Kathy Seeley\u2019s courtroom at the Lewis and Clark County Courthouse.<\/p>\n

In a statement emailed late Friday, Wittich\u2019s attorney, Quentin Rhoades of Missoula, called Dayton\u2019s ruling regarding\u00a0 corruption \u201ca stunning blow for Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathon Motl\u2019s two-year crusade against\u201d Wittich.\u00a0 \u201cIn the last four months, Motl has made numerous sworn statements and court filings claiming Wittich violated quid pro quo<\/em> corruption rules, and pledged to testify to allegations \u2018by opinion if necessary,’\u201d Rhoades wrote in the email. \u201cUnder the order, however, Motl is not permitted to even mention the issue to the jury.\u201d Motl said Dayton\u2019s ruling doesn\u2019t change anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything that Mr. Wittich is facing is based on a campaign practice act violation,\u201d Motl said. \u201cWhatever fine he could potentially pay, whatever consequences he potentially faces, those remain the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday morning. After the jury is seated the attorneys for the state will make their opening statements, after which Wittich\u2019s lawyers will lay out their opening statements.<\/p>\n

Over the next three days both sides will be allowed nine hours of witness testimony. The full 18-hours of testimony is scheduled to wrap up Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

On Friday both sides will make their closing arguments to the jury and the jurors are expected to begin deliberating by noon.<\/p>\n

In addition to Rhoades, his lead attorney, Wittich is also represented by Lucinda H. Luetkemeyer, an attorney with the Kansas City, Mo.-based Graves Garrett LLC.<\/a><\/p>\n

The COPP is represented by Billings attorney Gene Jarussi.<\/p>\n

The Montana Free Press is a statewide, independent, nonprofit source for in-depth Montana news, information, and analysis. Visit montanafreepress.org<\/a> for more information.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After more than two years of allegations, counter-claims, investigations, and back-and-forth legal maneuverings, the high-profile campaign practices lawsuit pitting a Democratic appointee against a Republican state lawmaker will finally go before a jury on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":11186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2303,2521,1122,782],"class_list":["post-11185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-art-wittich","tag-jonathan-motl","tag-montana-legislature","tag-steve-bullock","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}