Tag: Geoff Fieger

Update: The jury acquitted on all counts. Congratulations, Geoff and Gerry and Van!

The U.S. District Court jury returned its not guilty verdicts Monday afternoon in the case against the 57-year-old Fieger, of Bloomfield Hills, and 46-year-old Ven Johnson of Birmingham. It heard 18 days of testimony, then deliberated over parts of four days.

Geoff had this to say:

“I’m very pleased with the American system and the jury. I thank the jury for listening. I hope this puts an end to political prosecutions in the age of Mr. Bush,” Fieger said.

More...

The Supreme Court today refused to consider the appeal of former Illinois Governor George Ryan, who is serving a 6 1/2 year sentence on corruption charges.

In other Chicago corruption trial news, the Tony Rezko jury is still deliberationg. They've been meeting part-time over the past 14 days, putting in only 6 days of deliberations. But they must know they're slacking off. Today's reason for cutting out early after four days off was that a juror had a job interview to go to. In a note, the jury wrote:

the jury told the judge in the second part of its note that it will be working until 5:50 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. The longer hours were "to help conclude our decision," the jury note said.

Friday is a no-deliberate day as one has child care problems that day. [More...]

The Government is expected to rest its case against outspoken Michigan lawyer Geoffrey Feiger tomorrow. He's accused of violating campaign finance laws by reimbursing associates for donations to John Edwards and obstruction of justice. His lead counsel is Gerry Spence. (Background here.)

It looks like Fieger's biggest liability is his mouth. Today's headline: "Gym owner says Fieger called him an 'idiot' for speaking to FBI"

Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger raised his voice to the owner of his gym and called the man an idiot when he learned the man had spoken to FBI agents who were investigating him, Fieger's criminal trial in federal court was told Wednesday. Shant Gharibian, owner of Exclusive Fitness in West Bloomfield, testified Fieger told him "he must be some kind of idiot" to talk to the FBI. "He raised his voice and yelled at me," Gharibian said.

Only when you get to the end of the article do you learn:

But under cross-examination, Gharibian testified Fieger never told him to lie to the FBI and Fieger told him he believed the reimbursements were legal.

Good luck Geoff and Gerry.