Bail hearing set for former economist

Thursday, 24 May 2007

Page 2 of 2 Parish’s shackles rattled as he approached the podium, and he spoke in a soft but clear voice as he addressed the court. Asked whether he was aware of the charges and whether he wanted to waive his right to have them read to him, Parish answered, “You can waive that.” Given the option of a guilty, not guilty or no contest verdict, Parish unequivocally said, “Not guilty.” With that, Savage asked to address the issue of his client’s continued detention and said he was prepared to call witnesses on Parish’s behalf. “Based on the complete psychological evaluation, which I received only last night, there is no issue of my client’s competence, and the psychological problems he has suffered has no impact on the proceedings,” Savage said. Kosko responded: “In light of the situation, it would seem beneficial to your client, the government and this court if we had time to review the psychological examination of your client.” Once the next hearing date was set, Parish was led out of the courtroom. Outside the federal courthouse, Parish’s brother, Johnny Parish, declined to comment on what had transpired, saying only, “We love and care for my brother and are concerned about his family.” A short time later as Savage was making his own way from the courthouse, he likened his client to those charged in the Enron scandal. All of them, he said, were released on bail before their trials. “I think, given what we know today—that there are no secreted funds and that his memory is improving—there is a way that Al can be released and that there is no necessity to keeping him behind bars,” Savage said. “I’m not asking that he be allowed to simply go free. I think he’d only be released under some pretty restrictive guidelines. But I think the request was a reasonable one to make at this time and will enhance his ability to assist me in his defense.” Asked if he expected to case to actually go to trial, Savage said that remains to be seen. “We’ll take it one step at a time,” he said. “The first step is getting him out on bail.” << Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>