I’m down in Chicago for a couple of days reporting on the Conrad Black trial for CTV Newsnet. This is a big week in the three-week old trial because David Radler — Black’s longtime number two — is on the witness stand providing evidence for the prosecution.
Yesterday, U.S. assistant district attorney Eric Sussman started walking Radler, (right) through some of the complex deals that are at the heart of the fraud charges levelled at Black and three of his associates: Peter Atkinson, Jack Boultbee and Mark Kipnis.
Radler, who faced several fraud charges himself, made a deal with U.S. attorneys and pleaded guilty to one count of fraud. In exchange for providing testimony for the government, the government will recommend he be sentenced to 29 months in prison and pay a $250,000 fine. If Radler wants to apply for a special program that would let him serve his sentence near Vancouver, where he lives, the U.S. attorneys say they will not object. But Radler has to impress the U.S. attorneys with his truthfulness and helpfulness or else, as the plea agreement says, all bets are off and Radler could face stiffer sanctions.
Naturally, the defence lawyers for Black believe Radler is motivated to tell something other than the truth — or at least that may be a line of defence they will take. The defence probably won’t get a chance to cross-examine Radler until later today or perhaps tomorrow.
For the jurors in this case, credibility is likely to be a key issue. On the one hand, a key witness — Radler — is a self-confessed swindler, someone who lied and deceived others in order to line his own pockets.
The attorneys will try to convince the jurors that Black is of the same ilk. At this point, we don’t know if Black will take the stand. CTV’s legal analyst Steve Skurka says if Radler does well for the prosecution, the defence may have no choice but to put Black on the stand. (Skurka also has a nice summation of Radler’s first day in court yesterday)
Then, it will be up to assistant D.A. Sussman to get the jurors in this case to come to the same conclusiion that Delaware Chancery Court Judge Leo Strine did after Black took the stand in his own defence in a 2004 civil suit. Strine ruled against Black and had this to say about Black’s performance on the witness stand:
“It became almost impossible for me to credit his word. I found Black evasive and unreliable. His explanations of key events and of his own motivations do not have the ring of truth.”
Black’s criminal trial continues today with Radler in the box.