A federal choose declared a mistrial Thursday within the bribery prosecution of former Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan after docs confirmed his legal professional wants months to get well from a latest hospitalization.
U.S. District Courtroom Decide John F. Walter instructed Chan to discover a new lawyer to interchange Harland Braun, whose March 2 hospitalization introduced the trial to a halt whereas prosecutors have been nonetheless presenting their case to the jury.
Braun, 80, one of many metropolis’s best-known legal protection attorneys, spent greater than two years making ready for Chan’s extremely advanced trial.
After reviewing medical details about Braun that was filed below seal, Walter mentioned it was clear that he couldn’t resume trial work till no less than August or September.
By then, Walter mentioned, jurors could be unlikely to have clear recollections of all of the testimony that they had heard in February and March.
Chan requested six weeks to discover a new legal professional, however Walter agreed to offer him solely 11 days.
Chan is the final defendant to face trial in a corruption scandal that uncovered pervasive graft within the metropolis’s byzantine course of for approving actual property tasks in downtown Los Angeles. Prosecutors say he was a central participant in a sprawling extortion racket led by former L.A. Metropolis Councilmember José Huizar.
Huizar has admitted taking greater than $1.5 million in payoffs from builders.
Political consultants, lobbyists and a prime Metropolis Corridor aide have pleaded responsible to felonies they dedicated as a part of Huizar’s payoff schemes. Some have been anticipated to testify towards Chan.
The prosecution’s proof contains many surreptitiously taped recordings of conversations among the many gamers.
One other former council member, Mitchell Englander, pleaded responsible in a associated case in 2020 and has already been launched from jail.
Prosecutors say Chan served as a go-between who facilitated payoffs to Huizar and in addition accepted tens of 1000’s of {dollars} in bribes himself.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Mack Jenkins instructed Walter that prosecutors would lay out their full case — together with some freshly obtained proof — for Chan’s new legal professional, a step that might result in a plea deal.
However Braun had been adamant that Chan was harmless. He instructed the jury to anticipate the previous deputy mayor to take the witness stand to defend himself.
