Tempers were boiling over at the Rumpled Academic's trial, and his lead defense attorney demonstrated that perhaps he has been learning a bit of peace and tolerance from his clients. "Emotions Boil In Al-Arian Case," from the Tampa Tribune, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:
TAMPA Frustration seized the day briefly Tuesday in the terror-support trial of Sami Al-Arian as a defense attorney bumped a federal prosecutor and accused the government of "cheating."William Moffitt was angry that Hebrew documents an Israeli government official testified about had no English translation attached. Moffitt said he wanted to question the witness about the documents' contents during a morning break.
Federal prosecutor Cherie Krigsman told Moffitt she wanted someone else in the room to observe the conversation.
That set Moffitt off. Prosecutors should have provided translations, he said, throwing the documents onto the defense table. He then bumped Krigsman and hollered, "This is business. You're trying to put a guy in jail for life."
"You cheat," he continued. "You cheat all the time."
Both the jury and U.S. District Judge James Moody had left the courtroom and did not see the incident.
It seemed to catch the other lawyers and U.S. marshals in the courtroom off guard. FBI Agent Kerry Myers got between Moffitt and Krigsman, telling Moffitt to leave Krigsman alone because "she's a female."
Moffitt challenged the agent. "Get in my face one more time," he said.
In the end, Moffitt did meet with the witness. Then he chose not to cross-examine him.
Later, Moffitt said the issue was part of a pattern of unfair behavior by prosecutors.
"They hand me a Hebrew document. I have no translation," Moffitt said. "I'm expected to make a decision about cross-examination. This is typical of the way things have happened, and I finally got fed up with it."
Krigsman downplayed the incident.
"I'm a federal prosecutor," she said. "I was in the Army 23 years. I've seen men get mad before. It's all in a day's work."
The witness, Nissim Elyassaf, brought government records Israel keeps that show a person's identification number, marital status and parents' names. He searched the records of four men who carried out a 1992 attack against Israeli soldiers. That helped show that four payments of nearly $2,000 that Al-Arian sent later went to the attackers' families.
I'm sure that woman prosecutor can make quick work of that punk defense attorney!
Looks like Moffitt's been hanging around with Muslims for too long, now he's starting to treat women just like they do. What a punk ass.
So the defense attorney had nooooooo idea he would be examining other language documents, offical .gov documents or foreign language witnesses? That's rather hard to believe given the ethnicity of his client. Shame on him for not being prepared and hiring his own "expert" in Hebrew language to translate for him.
I doubt very seriously he would have accepted the US or Israeli .gov's translation of evil Israeli, albeit legal, documentation.
Sounds like a "cheap trick" by the defense. He has to pay a translator.
Bullying is the historical favorite tactic of the ideology spread by the sword, leading individualsto cave in at the mere thought of perhaps falling victim to their tactics. Any kid in the schoolyard knows that bullies are successful when appeased. Europeans know from their experience with Hitler and Stalin.
"You cheat," he continued. "You cheat all the time." ~ Moffitt
Maybe Mr Moffitt would like some cheese to go with that whine!
This is BS. Moffat is angling for a mistrial and just getting the ball rolling.
I'm not familiar with procedural rules in the US, criminal or civil, but in Cana-duh, the rule is full disclosure by both sides at pre-trial and new evidence can only be submitted under certain rules. Presumably, the US system will allow some means for Moffat to have access to the translation and when presented with it, he will come up with some lame excuse to argue that it is inadmissable.
I am an interpreter and translator of Russian. I have worked for lawyers....scum, mostly. Only one lawyer I ever did translations for was an honest guy. Once, the lawyer wanted me to translate...on the spot during a deposition a translation done by a Polish translator, who had done a bad job. It is up to the defense to translate the documents in question. What is wrong with the guy? Surely he had to have known there were Hebrew documents. Why didn't he get them translated himself? In my case, the translator who did the documents before me so badly botched up the job, that the guy lost his case. He would have anyway. He absolutely had no clue about the culture or language he was dealing with.
During an affray trial I once had the victim's brother leap over the dock to shake one of the defendants warmly by the throat.
There was an incident at a party when 2 court cleaners fought over one of the dock officers.
But I have never had counsel come to blows.
This BBC report is OT but it fits here better than at any other thread tonight as it too concerns a trial.
7 soldiers of the Parachute regiment are being court martialed, accused (very flimsy evidence in my opinion which would be laughed out of a Crown Court) of murdering an Iraqi citizen 2 years ago. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4246278.stm
Mr Saddam told the Colchester military court: "I have sworn on the Koran. Why would I lie? How could I lie?"
We know how.
Moffitt is probably a closet muslim. I bet he wouldn't treat his goat that way.
Well, if Al-aryan's attorney "goes berserk" then maybe they will declare a mistrial. And if there is a mistrial, then the next dhimmi-defense team will say shit like "this has been going on now for five years" and "he did this stuff 15 years ago" and make it more likely to get the murdering bastard acquitted.
"William Moffitt was angry that Hebrew documents an Israeli government official testified about had no English translation attached. Moffitt said he wanted to question the witness about the documents' contents during a morning break."
They attorney had every right to DEMAND a certified translation.
We have your latest book. Saw you on television. I agree with you 1000000% in your assessment of the Muslim religion. I just wish you and others would make a clearer distinction between Arab and Muslim for the lay person.
I served in Bosnia with the United Nations International Police Task Force. That a story over a good beer.
Aaron Saylor