Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Closing Arguments in the Shaygan Trial

Hi kids, SFL still in da' house (to paraphrase rap artist/Congresswoman Bachmann), while the big man does that thing trial lawyers do, what is it again, oh yeah:
Prosecutors and defense lawyers will make closing arguments today in the trial of a South Florida physician accused of acting as a drug dealer.

Dr. Ali Shaygan, 36, faces 141 counts of improper prescribing and is charged with causing the 2007 overdose death of a West Palm Beach man.

If convicted, he faces at least 20 years in prison.
I see David put his client on the stand:
"Have you ever just sold [prescriptions] for cash?" his attorney asked.

"No, never," Shaygan answered.

The trial, which has lasted almost four weeks, has been contentious, with aggressive lawyering on both sides.

Last week, Shaygan's attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Alan Gold to throw out the case because government agents secretly taped phone calls between the defense team and trial witnesses.

Prosecutors have said the taping "was not handled as well as it should have been," but that the charges should stand.
GOOD LUCK DAVID!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Really? I'm surprised the detectives here have no posts about Judge Zloch's A) granting a mistrial for four defendants in the middle of the trial maybe-or-maybe-not because the prosecutor referred to a defendant refusing to take the stand and B) granting a mistrial for the remaining defendants after the jury admitted to doing independent investigation during their deliberations on the internet of the facts, the defendants, and the lawyers. News travels slow.