CONTINUING COVERAGE
Count on The Journal-News to bring you the latest developments in the criminal trial of former state lawmaker Pete Beck. Visit www.Journal-News.com for the latest and follow @MDPitmanJournal on Twitter for live updates.
Taxpayers are footing a sizable bill for the criminal trial of former state lawmaker Pete Beck, but it’s not likely to be near the amount the Beck will payout himself.
The prosecution and defense teams involved in the Beck trial have pored over tens of thousands of documents, talked with dozens of witnesses and experts, and spent eight weeks — and counting — presenting their respective cases.
And in the years it’s taken the Ohio Division of Securities and later the Ohio Attorney General’s Office to investigate the case, tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars have been spent since the 2011 complaint filed with the Division of Securities by Christopher Technologies investor Tom Walter.
Hours spent by state investigators have not been tracked while investigating and prosecuting this case, according to the two state agencies, but estimates are that hundreds, if not thousands, of hours have been spent on this case against Beck that resulted in a 16-count indictment issued by a Hamilton County grand jury on July 19, 2013 — and a superseding 54-count indictment just seven months later on Feb. 13, 2014.
The first appearance before Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge John Andrew West was on Aug. 12, 2013.
Beck, 62, faces a lengthy prison sentence if found guilty. He faces several securities-related charges, money laundering, theft by deception and perjury, as well as the most serious charge of corruption, known as RICO.
Beck was involved with the failed start-up tech firm Christopher Technologies nearly a decade earlier. He was also friends with TML Consulting owner Tom Lysaght, the man charged by Christopher Technologies’ founders to help raise capital to get the start-up off the ground.
Court documents call Lysaght the “rainmaker” in the alleged scam, and the state claims he was deeply involved as the chief financial officer Christopher Technologies, and used his political influence and standing to convince people to invest. Beck’s defense team claim their client is merely a “scapegoat” in this ordeal and was lied to and tricked by Lysaght and others into thinking there was real interest and hope in the people-tracking technology being developed by the company commonly called C-Tech.
Beck represented the western portion of Warren County — which includes his home of Mason where he served as a city councilman and mayor — in the Ohio House of Representatives when the indictments came out.
The charges have been reduced from a collective 69 to 39 after the dismissal of the charges in the first indictment and pending the acceptance of the amended superseding indictment.
While the state has expended nearly $35,000 while investigating and prosecuting Beck — which doesn’t include the $7,200 owed the court in costs and fees — it’s a fraction of what the final price tag Beck could owe his defense team of Ralph Kohnen, Chad Ziepfel and Caitlin Felvus, attorneys with the Taft Stettinius & Hollister, which has a reputation within the city as being one of the best.
“Ralph is as good as it gets,” said one Cincinnati-based attorney on the condition of anonymity, adding attorneys hold fees structures “close to the vest.” “Pete is not (defending himself) on the cheap by any means.”
He said Kohnen, who declined to comment about his billing, could be charging Beck between $350 to $400 an hour, and after all the trial time is added up, Beck could be looking at a $500,000 legal bill, at minimum, just for this criminal case. The attorney said it’s more likely to be closer to $750,000 because “an amazing amount of work” has been done.
“It’s just phenomenal the amount of work that has to be done,” he said. “I would have no idea on actual hours. White collar cases are extremely labor intensive because, as you can see, it’s a paper chase.”
On the opening day of the trial, dozens of Banker boxes were wheeled into the courtroom, collectively containing dozens of binders of documents for the state. That doesn’t include the several binders prepared by the defense team.
It’s not uncommon for a case be in litigation for years, but for a trial to last this long is rare, according to many involved. Hamilton County doesn’t track the length of time every trial takes, but West said in his 19 years on the bench and the previous 25 years as an attorney, this is by far the longest trial.
“I’ve had cases that’s lasted longer,” said West, “but we just weren’t in court every day.”
West said one of the reasons this case is longer than others he has been involved with is, “it’s document-intensive.”
“There are just so many documents, and, of course, the state relies on these documents to prove their case, so their important documents,” West said. “And of course the defense wants to be careful and to cover its ground when cross-examining (the state’s witnesses).”
Former Christopher Technologies CEO and co-founder John Fussner was on the stand for nine calendar days, which included a weekend when court was not in session.
“That’s a long time for a witness to be examined,” West said. “And we’ve had several witnesses that have been on (the stand) for multiple days.”
The current witness on the stand, Beck’s former boss and CPA partner Donovan Donohoo, will be on the stand for a third day when court resumes on Tuesday.
“I don’t know if that’s anyone’s fault,” West said. “I think both sides are being very careful and very thorough, and by the very nature of the case itself, and 39 counts, you have to take your time with it. There’s no shortcuts to be had.”
The projection given to West by the state and defense was this case could be tried in three weeks, and four weeks were carved out in West’s court calendar.
Like West, this is the longest trial Kohnen said he’s been a part of “in terms of the number of trial days and the number of hours in trial.”
“I spent a lot of hours and days in trial defending a complicated 2013 federal criminal tax case, where hundreds of millions of dollars in income tax deductions were in dispute,” Kohnen said. “And, I prosecuted a few complicated, multi-state, multi-defendant, drug conspiracy, money laundering, and tax evasion cases in federal court in Dayton during the 90’s, which took three to five weeks to complete.”
The prosecution is expected to rest its case sometime this week, but it’s unclear whether the defense will present a case or not. Kohnen declined to comment on his team’s defense strategy.
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