DALLAS -- In a month, 100 North Texans will report to the federal courthouse in Dallas to find out who among them will be picked to serve on the jury in the public corruption trial of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price.
How exactly that will happen is still in the planning stages. On Monday, prosecutors and defense attorneys met before U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn to hash out the particulars of jury selection, known as voir dire in legalese, including what questions to ask potential jurors, and which topics are off limits. Price himself was not required to attend Monday's pretrial hearing.
Starting Feb. 21, Price will be on trial with his longtime assistant, Dapheny Fain, who is accused of helping the commissioner get and hide bribe money paid by businesses seeking to do business with Dallas County. A third co-defendant, Price’s former political consultant Kathy Nealy, will be tried after Price and Fain. Judge Lynn granted her a separate trial to resolve questions about whether she has immunity from prosecution because of years of cooperation with the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office.
At Monday’s pretrial hearing, Judge Lynn told attorneys that they could not talk to jurors about Nealy’s immunity deal during the Price and Fain trial without clearing it with her first.
Here are some other topics that were covered in Monday’s pretrial hearing:
- + Price’s lawyers plan to plan to call a tax expert to argue that because the commissioner did not sign his tax returns over several years, they are not valid evidence. Prosecutors say that’s for jurors to decide. Judge Lynn cautioned the defense not to make any legal conclusions about the situation to jurors, as that will be her job to counsel them on the law during the trial.
- + The law requires that defendants have the charges against them read in open court at their trial. To save time and attention, Judge Lynn discussion with lawyers whether they should prepare a summary, since the indictment in the case is more than 100 pages long. “This isn’t beach reading,” Judge Lynn quipped.
- + Judge Lynn ruled that the 2011 searches of Price’s home and office were not overly broad, as Price’s lawyers argued. Agents seized several expensive watches, as well as $229,000 in cash, from a safe in Price’s Oak Cliff home. They also took computers and electronics, as well as documents and other evidence.
- + Prosecutors told Judge Lynn that they do not plan on mentioning Price’s 1996 bankruptcy in the trial.
- + The length of each sides’ opening arguments to jurors were discussed. Prosecutors asked for one hour; Price’s lawyers asked for two hours; and Fain’s lawyers asked for 30 minutes.
- + Even though he is on their witness list, prosecutors told Judge Lynn that retired FBI special agent Don Sherman likely won’t testify. Over a more than 20-year career, Sherman served as the lead investigator in all significant public corruption investigations involving Dallas city officials, including former council members Paul Fielding, Al Lipscomb, Don Hill and former state representative Terri Hodge. He also worked on the Price case before he retired in 2012.
- +Judge Lynn released a trial calendar Monday. Proceedings are expected to begin Feb. 21 and wrap up by June 30.
John Wiley Price trial decorum and media order by JasonTrahan on Scribd
