Kott alleges prosecutorial misconduct

Aaron Jansen illustration

Prosecutorial misconduct brought down the case against former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens this year, and former state Rep. Pete Kott argues the same type of behavior was so rampant during his 2007 trial that his case should also be thrown out.

RELATED STORIES: Another sexual abuse claim threatens to taint star witness in Stevens's trial Full Disclosure: Anchorage police say Bill Allen's name came up in a 2004 criminal investigation--one suspended at the request of the feds--raising questions about his cooperation with the government. DOWNLOAD MOTION: Pete Kott's motion to dismiss

In a motion to dismiss the case, filed in Anchorage's federal court late Thursday, Kott's attorney Sheryl McCloud points to a string of alleged incidents of withheld information, lying witnesses, and FBI agents and federal prosecutors shaping witness testimony to elicit what they wanted to hear on the stand, even if it contradicted prior interviews.

The filing is noteworthy for two reasons: It provides a gold mine of previously undisclosed details referencing the inner-workings of the Justice Department's sweeping investigation into political corruption in Alaska. Yet, at the same time, it sheds light on how the Feds became entangled with a witness accused of sexually abusing teenage girls and have now found themselves in trouble with alleged missteps.

Kott was convicted in federal court in fall 2007 for taking bribes while serving in the Legislature from former VECO Corp. chief executive Bill Allen, once a heavyweight in the state's lifeblood oil industry. Acting on a request by the Justice Department, a federal appeals court in San Francisco this summer ordered the release from prison of Kott and former state Rep. Vic Kohring, also convicted on bribery charges, and a review of their convictions because prosecutors withheld information from their lawyers.

More than 1,000 pages of documents were released to Kott's and Kohring's lawyers. And McCloud cites extensively from the withheld information in her motion to dismiss Kott's case.

Among the alleged misdeeds committed by the Justice Department, she claims the government failed to disclose Allen's entanglement in a series of child sex and prostitution investigations. McCloud claims newly released information would have been crucial during trial to help attack Allen's credibility and perhaps question his cooperation in the FBI corruption investigation.