Judge to decide on dividing Chvala trial
0:00 AM 3/20/03
Ed Treleven Courts reporter

A Dane County judge will decide Monday whether to divide corruption charges against state Sen. Chuck Chvala into three trials.

Prosecutors, who oppose holding more than one trial for the former Senate majority leader, said they want the trial moved from its scheduled Oct. 6 start so that they have more time to present their case.

Chvala's attorney, James Olson, filed a motion on Monday to divide the felony charges against Chvala into three trials. This month, Circuit Judge David Flanagan had suggested splitting the case into two trials to keep from confusing jurors hearing the complex case and to reduce the burden of the trial, expected to last six weeks.

Under Olson's motion, related charges would be grouped. One trial would be held in October, when Chvala's trial is now slated to start. The second would start in March 2004 and the third in June 2004.

"Sen. Chvala is alleged to have extorted lobbyists, used caucus employees to run campaigns on state time and violated campaign finance laws," Olson wrote. "Each of these categories is distinct from the other, and the evidence necessary to prove any one category would not be admissible for any other category."

Olson also wrote that during a single trial on all 19 felony charges against Chvala, prosecutors would attempt to sway the jury unfairly by making Chvala look like a "bad person by the sheer number of charges against him."

In a letter written Tuesday, Flanagan said he wants to resolve the matter on Monday. He told prosecutors to come up with proposed plans by Friday for separate trials in case he decides to try Chvala's case that way.

Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Kurt Benkley, who is prosecuting the Chvala case at the request of Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard, wrote to Flanagan on Monday that he opposes dividing the case.

In his letter, written before Benkley had seen Olson's motion, Benkley also wrote that he would favor rescheduling Chvala's trial entirely.

Benkley said news coverage of an initial trial for Chvala would make it hard to find jurors for a second trial who would be unswayed by the outcome of the first.

Benkley also said that during separate trials, evidence would have to be repeated and the juries would not get a coherent presentation of the "systematic corruption" in which Chvala allegedly engaged.

"Rather than confusing the jury," Benkley wrote, "this pattern of misconduct fits perfectly together like a jigsaw puzzle. Only when viewed together do all 19 counts reveal the completed picture. The picture is one of (the) defendant systematically abusing his legislative power to perpetuate his control of the Senate."