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| Tuesday, July 8 Key testimony regarding Martin connections prohibited Associated Press |
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DETROIT -- A federal judge on Tuesday prohibited prosecutors from presenting key testimony and evidence at the perjury trial of Sacramento Kings star Chris Webber. Prosecutors at next week's trial in Detroit will be barred from telling jurors that Webber received $280,000 from University of Michigan basketball booster Eddie Martin during Webber's days as a high school and college star, according to a ruling by U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds. She also prohibited prosecutors from using notes Martin kept about money authorities say he loaned to Webber and other Michigan players and testimony from the players about amounts they said they received from Martin. Edmunds said she also was leaning against admitting wire tapped phone conversations in which Martin reportedly tells an acquaintance about how much Webber owed him. She hasn't decided whether to allow a statement that Webber's agent gave to Michigan when it investigated payments Martin made to basketball players. Martin died in February of natural causes without testifying before a federal grand jury. Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Corbett said he plans to proceed with next Tuesday's trial. "Nothing unsuspected happened today," Corbett told the Detroit Free Press after the two-hour hearing. "I don't think we're any worse off than I anticipated ... Hope springs eternal." Lawyers for Webber and his father, Mayce Webber Jr., were pleased. "We are always happy to win any motion that we file," Chris Webber's lawyer Steve Fishman said. |
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