Gory Details Await Jurors in Rogers Trial
The case is so grisly the prosecutor thinks jury selection may take longer than usual. Jurors in the trial of Richard W. Rogers will hear about the slayings and dismemberments of four gay or bisexual men, and pore over photos of severed arms and legs, decapitated heads and mutilated genitals.
Rogers, 55, is charged with killing only two of the men, but the judge is allowing evidence from all four slayings, agreeing with prosecutors that the evidence was so similar that it could amount to a “signature” of a single killer.
“It is bizarre. It is unique. It’s chilling,” Superior Court Judge James N. Citta said in his ruling. “I don’t know if that’s a legal term, but that’s what it is.”
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80% of Poor Lack Civil Legal Aid, Study Says
At least 80 percent of low-income Americans who need civil legal assistance do not receive any, in part because legal aid offices in this country are so stretched that they routinely turn away qualified prospective clients, a new study shows.
Roughly 1 million cases per year are being rejected because legal aid programs lack the resources to handle them, according to the study, “Documenting the Justice Gap in America,” by the Legal Services Corp. (LSC), which funds 143 legal aid programs across the country.
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Nationally, on average, low-income households experienced approximately one civil legal need per year. These legal needs arise out of the everyday problems of poor people — matters relating to family law, housing, employment, government benefits or consumer problems, according to the LSC.
Left unresolved, these problems can affect and cost society much more than the expense of legal services to address them, LSC President Helaine M. Barnett said.
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Questions Said to Focus On Differing Accounts
The grand jury investigating the CIA leak case pressed White House senior adviser Karl Rove yesterday to more fully explain his conversations with reporters about CIA operative Valerie Plame, including discrepancies between his testimony and the account provided by a key witness in the investigation, according to a source familiar with Rove’s account.
Making his fourth appearance before the grand jury, Rove answered a broad range of questions for 4 1/2 hours, including why he did not initially tell federal agents about a July 2003 conversation about Plame with the witness, Time magazine’s Matthew Cooper, the source said.
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His story has changed from the earliest days, when he told reporters he had nothing to do with the leak of Plame’s name. Since then, Rove has testified that he discussed Plame in passing with two reporters, including Robert D. Novak, whose July 14, 2003, syndicated column first publicly identified Plame as a CIA operative married to former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.
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The source close to Rove would not provide details of yesterday’s exchange, other than to say the grand jury was very interested in discrepancies in testimony. Rove initially did not tell federal agents about his conversations with Cooper. In an earlier grand jury appearance, he testified that the purpose of their conversation was welfare reform, not Wilson or Plame
But Cooper testified that he did not recall discussing welfare reform at all. He said he had detailed notes on their discussion about Wilson and Rove’s passing reference to Wilson’s wife.
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Some lawyers in the case think Fitzgerald may no longer be interested in proving whether Plame’s name was illegally leaked to reporters. That would require the difficult task of showing that an official knew the material was classified, that the official knew that the CIA was actively working to keep it a secret and that the person purposely leaked the information.
Instead, the lawyers, who based their opinions on the kinds of questions Fitzgerald is asking and not on firsthand knowledge, think the special prosecutor may be headed in a different direction. They said Fitzgerald could be trying to establish that a group of White House officials violated the Espionage Act, which prohibits the disclosure of classified material, or that they engaged in a conspiracy to discredit Wilson in part by identifying Plame.
Another possibility, the lawyers say, is that Fitzgerald could charge Rove or others with perjury or providing false testimony before the grand jury. This is a popular avenue for prosecutors in white-collar criminal cases.
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