Saturday, September 18, 2004
Burrow won't face perjury charges yet
A jury of 13 women and one man was chosen for Richard Burrow's second trial in connection with allegations of illegal fund raising.
On the first day of Burrow's second trial in connection with how he raised funds for the construction of the $25 million memorial, federal judge James Turk described the case against Burrow to a pool of about 40 potential jurors as a trial about fraud allegations and did not mention perjury. After attorneys in the case selected 14 people to serve as jurors and Turk sent them home early Friday afternoon, Turk told attorneys he planned to separate the two perjury counts from the ten fraud charges Burrow still faces. Turk did not give any indication when those additional counts might be heard.
Turk also dealt head-on with the issue of Burrow's first trial ending in a hung jury. Before the questioning process of jury selection began, Turk told the prospective jurors that the case had been moved to Charlottesville because of tremendous publicity in the Lynchburg and Roanoke areas.
He also told them that Burrow's first trial resulted in a hung jury but said jurors would have to set that knowledge aside when considering the evidence at Burrow's second trial. The first trial, in December 2002, ended with the jury deadlocked 7 to 5 in favor of acquittal.
The jury selection process revealed a pool of people that included a handful of veterans and a few people who had visited the Bedford memorial. Some potential jurors who wound up empaneled said they'd heard some information about the case, but none said they had a very close connection to the monument. Several also said they had some experience in fund raising and nonprofit matters.
About 12 people out of the jury pool said they had heard or read media reports about the memorial or the case. Several of those people still made the final cut. Most said they couldn't recall much of what they read or heard.
Ultimately, the jury picked is composed of 13 women and one man. That total includes two alternates, who will be determined when it's time for the jury to deliberate.
One juror, who said during the selection process that her husband is a World War II veteran, also said she had visited the monument twice. She recalled hearing something about some legal action in the case but said that she didn't remember much about it.
"Kind of lost interest in it to be honest, I'm sorry," said the juror, which drew smiles around the courtroom, including from Burrow, 57. His relatives filled a row in the courtroom Friday.
Another juror, who said she was involved in school administration, said during the selection process that she had an uncle who died during the D-Day invasion. She said she did not think that would affect her ability to be impartial in the case.
A third juror said the knowledge that the first trial ended in a hung jury made her want to make sure she paid very close attention to the details in the case so that the second trial didn't also result in a hung jury.
A fourth juror said during the selection process that she had been surprised when she read in the newspaper that there had been an indictment in the case. But she said she could set aside anything she had read. And she added that she doesn't believe everything she reads in the newspaper anyway.
After Turk empaneled the jury and sent them home, he dealt with several other outstanding motions in the case.
He denied a request by defense attorneys John Lichtenstein, John Fishwick and Gregory Lyons to permit jurors to see the Bedford memorial Monday, when the trial is not in session. Turk said it would place too much of a burden on the U.S. Marshals Service to rent vans to take jurors there.
Federal prosecutor Patrick Hogeboom, who is working with federal prosecutor Tom Bondurant on the case, argued that defense attorneys had improperly subpoenaed the attorney of the witness who will likely be a large part of the prosecution's case - former D-Day foundation attorney Louis Harrison.
Harrison, who is represented by his brother, attorney Cliff Harrison of Radford, has cooperated with prosecutors in the case against Burrow.
But Fishwick said the defense team did not plan to call Cliff Harrison as a witness in the case.
Opening statements in the case are scheduled to begin Tuesday at 9 a.m. The trial is expected to last until Sept. 30.





