Ganier trial put on hold for appeal

Prosecutors said they would ask the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overrule a judge who won’t allow them to present recently discovered evidence against Al Ganier III, a longtime friend of former Gov. Don Sundquist.

Ganier is accused of destroying or trying to conceal computer files after learning in 2002 that prosecutors were investigating how his company received a $106 million contract from the Sundquist administration to provide Internet service to public schools.

The appeal came just before jury selection and centered on testimony by a forensic computer expert concerning information found on a hard drive.

Eli Richardson, the lead attorney for the prosecution, said the evidence the expert found is important because it shows the computer performed specific searches that included the names of Sundquist, his then top-aide Alex Fischer and Monteagle businessman John Stamps.

Stamps, who is also a longtime friend of Sundquist, has been indicted in a separate case over his dealings with the Sundquist administration and has pleaded guilty to charges of lying to get a state contract worth $1.9 million and tax evasion.

Judge Karl Forester, a Lexington, Ky., federal judge specially appointed to hear the case, said it was too late for prosecutors to bring up the evidence.

Richardson said the government “has the right to appeal an order excluding evidence.”

Aubrey Harwell, attorney for Ganier, said, “We were prepared to go to trial. Our client is very anxious to be vindicated. We’re disappointed the government saw fit to appeal.”

The case is on hold at least until the appeals court decides whether to take the appeal. Because the appeal is not an “expedited process,” attorneys said it could be months before the trial begins.

Whenever it does start, federal prosecutors have gotten permission to admit as evidence e-mails that show a romantic and business relationship between Ganier and Jackie Shrago, a former state employee who helped him get the Internet access contract. Shrago has not been charged and has declined to talk about the case.

The trial was expected to shed more light on how the two-term administration of Sundquist, a Republican, awarded contracts worth millions of dollars to two friends and supporters.

In June, Forester issued an order that showed Ganier’s Education Networks of America paid $667,000 between July 1998 and December 2002 to Stamps and Stamps’ lobbying company, Privatization Strategists Inc.

Stamps, who also invested in ENA, is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 22.

Joanna Ediger, a former grants director with the state Labor Department, started a three-year prison sentence in June for fraud for using her position to help Stamps secure the no-bid contract for Chattanooga-based Workforce Strategists. She later became a consultant and part owner in that company.

Forester’s order also said the government contends “there is, in fact, some evidence that Sundquist interceded in some way on behalf of ENA with respect to at least one contract,” and prosecutors will be allowed to use that evidence to rebut evidence by Ganier’s attorneys.

The judge’s order said prosecutors are “entitled to explain to the jury that the defendant’s deletion of documents regarding Stamps and Fischer occurred in the midst of an investigation focusing on, among other things, Stamps and Fischer.”

Both Sundquist and Fischer, who with Stamps owned another company that was a state contractor, have declined to comment about the case.