With the jury selection scheduled to begin Monday, the trial of six narcotics officers charged with racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, robbery, kidnapping and drug dealing was upended over the weekend.
Defense attorney Michael J. Diamondstein, who is representing former Philadelphia police Officer John Speiser, filed a motion Sunday charging there is "ample evidence to prove that the only witness to implicate his client in a RICO conspiracy perjured himself when he testified before a grand jury," bigtrial.net reported.
Diamondstein sought to quash the federal indictment of his client, the court blog reported:
The perjury, Diamonstein writes, was "easily and readily identifiable by the government's agents," but federal officials chose to willfully ignore it, exhibiting a "reckless disregard for the truth."
If Diamondstein's charges are true, federal officials were pretty sloppy. Diamondstein claims that before a witness identified as "C.C." perjured himself before the grand jury, federal officials didn't bother to interview "C.C." or check out any easily obtained court records that plainly show the witness is "an immoral, despicable and opportunistic liar."
Diamondstein's motion has been joined by lawyers for four other defendants in the case, including Linwood Norman, Michael Spicer, Brian Reynolds and Perry Betts. Thomas Liciardello is charged.
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