Bruce Weyhrauch Seeks Permission to Give Evidence to Alaska Bar Association Allegedly Showing Prosecutorial Misconduct

Anchorage-- Attorneys for ex-State Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch (R.-Juneau), a lawyer and former defendant in the federal government's "POLAR PEN" probe into Alaska public corruption, have asked the federal trial court for permission to give material to the Alaska Bar Association that allegedly reflect prosecutorial misconduct. The lawyers for Weyhrauch allege that the material--currently under seal--"refers to evidence of serious misconduct by government prosecutors appearing before the grand jury, including subordination of perjury...." The pleadings filed today cite a professional obligation by Weyhrauch and his lawyers to report serious misconduct to the body that oversees the practice of law in Alaska. The pleadings do not allege that any particular prosecutor committed misconduct. A footnote in today's papers, however, names the four prosecutors who entered appearances in Weyhrauch's case: Nicholas Marsh and Edward Sullivan, then Trial Attorneys for the Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section; and Joseph Bottini and James Goeke, Assistant U.S. Attorneys then based in Alaska. All four were active in other "POLAR PEN" cases, including the prosecution of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens that has produced two separate investigations into prosecutors' conduct. As of next month, both of those probes will have run at least two years.