Witness admits memory lapses
"Would you like to change your answer?"
"Yes, sir."
That was the exchange of the day Thursday between defense attorney Joseph Duffy and the government's star witness, Stuart Levine, in the Antoin Rezko corruption trial.
Time and time again, Duffy managed to trip up the admitted 30-year drug abuser, at one point even getting Levine to testify he had seen an exhibit of his plea agreement in the last two weeks. In fact, that exhibit isn't even part of this trial, the government was forced to admit.
The testimony was part of the ongoing trial of Rezko, the 52-year-old former top fund-raiser to Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Rezko, of Wilmette, is accused of conspiring with Levine to shake down businesses for political donations in exchange for contracts. He is charged with extortion and mail fraud.
Duffy still must find a plausible explanation for audio tapes in which Levine, Rezko and others refer to Rezko's alleged crimes. Duffy has yet to start on those, but he maintained in his opening statement that Levine's memory was so addled by drugs and lying is so instinctual for him that even what he says on tape can't be trusted.
That may be a harder sell, since people other than Levine talk about things Rezko said. That includes longtime Republican power broker William Cellini, who was caught on tape scheming to punish businessman Thomas Rosenberg for not making political contributions to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and talking with Levine about making those arrangements with Rezko.
On Thursday, however, Duffy stuck mostly with discrediting Levine's memory.
He first tried a trap that failed, asking Levine how many days he had been on the stand. After thinking hard about it, Levine answered seven. In fact, he has been on the stand for a total of eight days, but two of those were less than whole days, so the answer could technically pass muster.
So Duffy moved on to tape recordings jurors and Levine have been listening to over the past three weeks. The calls were recorded in April and May 2004, jurors have been constantly reminded.
Duffy asked him for the timeframe.
"Early 2004," Levine answered.
"How early?" Duffy asked.
"The end of 2002 through May of '04."
Duffy asked him if he really meant 2002, and Levine said he did not. But Duffy pressed on, asking him how many times he had listened to the tapes with government investigators in preparation for his testimony.
"More than 50?" asked Duffy.
Levine admitted that was possible.
"And as you sit here now, you can't tell us the dates of these tapes?"
They "ended in May of 2004 and began months before then," Levine said.
"How many months?"
"Um, several months."
Again, Duffy pressed him for an exact number.
"Within three months … March through May," Levine said.
Handing Levine a binder of transcripts of the calls, Duffy said, "Identify for me the first tape that this jury heard that was from March."
"There is no recording in March," Levine said.
"Would you like to change your answer?" Duffy said.
"Uh, yes, sir."
"And you don't think you have a problem with your memory?" Duffy asked.
"No, sir," Levine said.
Later, Levine would admit that it was "possible" years of drug use may have affected his memory.
When Duffy asked if Levine had yet told the jury he was a felon, Levine said the jury had been told that, but didn't remember whether he had testified to it or if it had been read from his plea agreement.
Had Levine been shown his plea agreement on the stand, Duffy asked.
Yes, Levine said. It had been marked as an exhibit and shown to him.
Duffy asked the government to produce it.
"Your honor, we'll stipulate that there is no such exhibit," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Niewoehner, rising to his feet.
"Did you hear that?" asked Duffy, asking Levine if he had just testified he saw his plea agreement as an exhibit.
"I'm not sure," Levine said.
"If you did say it, was it wrong?" Duffy asked.
"Yes," Levine said.
"Do you want to change your answer?" Duffy asked.
"Yes, sir," Levine said.
The trial continues this morning in Chicago.