American Idol 2012 finale
Rollover crash injures 2
News hounds (5/24/12)
Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2009 > July > 31 > Entry
Orlando Carter trial day five, week wrap-up
The fifth day of the trial of former Dynus Corp. owner Orlando Carter continues today in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati.
I’ll post updates here throughout the day, as well as provide a weekly wrap-up so the past five day’s coverage is all in one place.
So far today, Carter’s defense team is continuing its cross examination of Julia Light, the former controller of Dynus Corp.
There also may be a few additional angles to pursue today.
Thoughts on the trial thus far?
Read on for the weekly wrap-up.
Jury selection and opening statements
The trial’s first two days were consumed with jury selection and opening statements on behalf of Carter’s defense team and the U.S. government.
Race was the biggest issue that came out of the jury selection. Carter’s attorneys argued their client, who is black, couldn’t get a fair trial because just two of the 16 total jurors (including four alternates) were also black.
Responded U.S. Judge Sandra Beckwith: “Obviously your client is not entitled to a jury that is packed with his ethnic peers.” Opening statements by U.S. attorneys tried to paint Carter as a shady businessman living above his means, obsessed with success to the point that it eventually cost him (and his company of nearly 60 employees) everything. Whether it will cost him his freedom remains to be seen.
Attorneys for Carter kicked off the trial by trying to portray their client as a capable businessman who was misled by Dynus President James Smith and others.
In response to a commenter below, Carter’s defense team has been consistent with this message, often deflecting their client’s responsibility onto people like Smith. They have offered little other explanation in their cross examination off U.S. witnesses thus far. Their time will come, however, when the government rests its case, perhaps not until late next week or early the week after.
Prosecution: Auditor’s letter, lies helps Carter obtain loan
On Wednesday, July 29, U.S. attorneys delved deeper into explaining the methods Carter allegedly used to obtain a loan from a west coast mortgage company for his $1.2 million mansion in Maineville.
The rest of the day focused on Carter’s Maineville home and the loan.
Other methods Carter allegedly used to obtain the loan was the topic of discussion on Thursday, July 30, as the government called to the stand a former Dynus mortgage broker and the company’s chief controller, both of whom testified (as mentioned above) they forged pay stubs and tax forms to inflate Carter’s income.
Friday’s testimony included John Rieser, who was the trustee in Carter’s bankruptcy filing in January 2006, about 90 days after Dynus folded.
Rieser said Friday Carter ultimately lied to him during the voluntary information gathering process of filing his bankruptcy petition. He said Carter transferred thousands of dollars to friends, family members and others in the weeks leading up to the filing, and never claimed the acts on bankruptcy forms.
Rieser is suing Carter in U.S. District Court.
Here’s the filing.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Dynus
Comments
By Barb
July 31, 2009 3:09 PM | Link to this
I don’t think I have heard both sides being reported. I keep hearing all negatives against Mr. Carter. Is there any chance that he is NOT guilty - as I have not seen anyone even attempt to report his defense - or cover his side of the story in any news outlet. I am just very curious about his side of the story.
By John Bradburn
July 31, 2009 9:08 PM | Link to this
West Chester Trustee George Lang was Chief Financial Officer of Dynus when all this happened. He was either involved or getting a salary (political favor) and doing nothing in return for that salary. Which one?
By h. b. grant
August 1, 2009 9:16 AM | Link to this
the county fiber deal is a very interesting subject. a private company in Middletown is still around that now owns a large segment of this asset of which a remainder is government held. contact me if you want to know more about it.
By Twinkles
August 3, 2009 2:27 AM | Link to this
Carter is guilty, but likely not evil (except to the extent that he took risks with OTHER people’s lives and money). Smith was a scapegoat, naive but also too in love with his own brilliance to understand the degree he was being manipulated until it was too late (and even after that, his ego wouldn’t let him admit how MUCH of a tool he was). Carter’s brilliance was his ability to convince others that he was their closest friends, from P&G VPs to politicians to the lowest level staffer (not to mention his near-perfect effeciency at milking white man’s guilt). Lang made introductions but wasn’t involved enough in the day to day operations to know much if anything about the fraud that was going on. He also really wanted to see the wireless/fiber project take off and likely wanted a piece of the recognition when it did (the profit was likely a second thought). So “political favor” is likely the best answer there. This was a house of cards - most of which were unknown until the FBI got invovled. The particular card that made everything fall was the loan that Dynus took out with National City in Butler County’s name without full proper approval (Fox gave his verbal OK to Dynus and Rogers, Rogers gave her written OK, but more was needed than that but National City fell asleep at the wheel). But still, Dynus was clipping along, paying the loan, until Chuck Furman took out vengeance on Rogers (she ratted him out for cheating on his wife years earlier) by waiting until the timing was just right to announce in Aug ‘05 what he had pretty much known since the loans inception: The name holder on the loan was Butler County, not Dynus. The result was the closing of the business (with 60 mostly inner-city employees), the closing of an inner city Montessori school of which Dynus was the primary benefactor and the transferring of the fiber project that he has a stake in (either financial or via the aforementioned “political favors”). Had he gone to the banks or the county or Dynus first, instead of going to his press lacky first, perhaps Carter/Smith could have been removed by the banks and someone could have stepped in and finished whatever good work was being done. The next few weeks will be very interesting.
By JMB
August 6, 2009 5:01 PM | Link to this
Perry Thatcher bought the remaining county fiber optics for several million. He is likely connected in some way to the county folks already named. But then again he may have been sold a (profitable) bill of goods from his so-called user friends who like to be close to money and power in case they have a problem. I have never heard whether Perry did anything with his fiber optics segment.
By Buy valium
April 4, 2010 2:42 PM | Link to this
myths photographs kuberan subvert discharge hunt harper combating culminated olulp marker
By Buy Ambien
April 5, 2010 8:42 AM | Link to this
unsuccessful ombudsman tufts complained refusing holes parcel usedwindows erisa gruhl berkely
By seo lace
May 1, 2010 11:52 PM | Link to this
I can’t read www.westgern-star.com in Savri 8.55, I just hought I mjght tell you botu it.