(NH) Testimony wraps in phone-jam case

Eugene

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Fri Dec-09-05 09:07 AM
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(NH) Testimony wraps in phone-jam case

Testimony wraps in phone-jam case

Defense asks for all charges to be tossed

By ERIC MOSKOWITZ
Monitor staff

After the prosecution called its last witness in the Election Day phone-jamming trial yesterday,
lawyers for James Tobin made an unsuccessful appeal for all charges to be dropped. A federal judge
agreed to strike one count and tighten the definition of another, but the former national Republican
Party official will still have his fate decided by a jury.

Tobin, 45, now faces up to 17 years in prison and a $750,000 fine if convicted of one count of
conspiracy to violate the right to vote, one count of conspiracy to commit telephone harassment and
one count of aiding and abetting telephone harassment committed by others. After a break today,
lawyers will present their closing arguments Monday.

<snip>

Romero also tried to dismiss the most serious charge, the one involving the right to vote, on the
grounds that Tobin never knew McGee and Raymond would specifically block ride-to-the-polls calls -
since McGee testified only that he told Tobin he wanted to "disrupt the phone lines" and "tie up
communications" for the Democrats on Election Day.

<snip>

Romero also pointed out that few people actually accept the rides that get offered. Evidence earlier
in the day showed that only about 0.1 percent of voters contacted by Democrats on the weekend before
the election actually needed a ride to the polls. The judge disagreed, saying it's not the
effectiveness but the intent of a plan that matters.

<snip>

Full article: http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051209/REPOSITORY/512090341/1031

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MaineDem

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Fri Dec-09-05 09:48 AM
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1. From the Maine press...

One of 4 jamming charges dropped

CONCORD, N.H. — The defense in Republican James Tobin's phone-jamming trial took only about an hour to present its case Thursday, surprising prosecutors with a witness who raised questions about the circumstances of a key phone conversation.

Also on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Steven McAuliffe dismissed one of the four charges against Tobin and narrowed the scope of one of the other charges, both involving plotting to aid telephone harassment. The most serious charge, an alleged conspiracy to violate voting rights, was not affected.

Tobin, 45, of Bangor was an influential player in national GOP politics at the time he is accused of helping to plan the scheme to jam Democratic phone lines on Election Day 2002 in New Hampshire. He has pleaded innocent.

At the time, Tobin oversaw GOP Senate campaigns in the Northeast, and in 2004 he was named the Bush-Cheney team's New England campaign chairman. Tobin, who grew up in Windham, has also advised Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, and spent seven years on the staff of former Maine Sen. William Cohen.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/051209tobin.shtml

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