Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Don Udstuen's Third Day at the George Ryan Corruption Trial

As the Tribune put it, “In referring to the Gramm revelation, Webb asked, ‘You finally remembered it nine days before you got on the witness stand?’” He implied that federal representatives had convinced Udstuen to come up with the new information.

“On two previous occasions in 2002 and 2004, Udstuen had told prosecutors he didn’t know who hooked up the two parties,” the Daily Herald reported.

“…the normally reserved (Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick) Collins exploded,” was how Copley News Service reported Assistant U.S. Attorney reaction.

AP printed this quote:

"He's trying to smear us with this jury and we're not going to let it happen, judge," Collins said, raising his voice. "We're not going to let it happen in this courtroom."
The Daily Herald was the only paper to describe Webb’s reaction to what it called the eruption of Mt. Collins:
Webb wavered in his response, first suggesting he hadn’t implied that the government did wrong, just that Udstuen did. Then, however, he appeared to take an if-the-shoe-fits, wear-it response.
After the jury left, Judge Rebecca Palmeyer had this to say, according to the Sun-Times, whose reporter noted that Collins said this was the fifth time Webb had made similar remarks about the behavior of government lawyers and agents:
Pallmeyer came down hard on Webb, pointing out that Udstuen first remembered the phone call while Webb interviewed him at his office. "You didn't trick him into coming up with it," Pallmeyer said. "Maybe he just remembered it."

WBBM-TV had another story about the day's activities.

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