Prosecutors oppose McGrath’s request for trial delay

Prosecutors in the Roy McGrath fraud trial told a federal judge Wednesday that a defense motion seeking a delay “sweeps too broadly” in its characterization of recently turned over evidence.

The prosecutors’ filing was in response to a Tuesday motion from Joseph Murtha, McGrath’s attorney, for a postponement of the trial. Murtha said a slew of new evidence turned over to the defense by prosecutors required more time to review and would make it difficult to be prepared for trial, which has been scheduled to start next Monday.

UPDATE: Federal judge grants delay in McGrath fraud trial

Prosecutors, in a filing Wednesday, said Murtha’s letter mischaracterizes the government’s discovery … as “untimely” and misstated the type of evidence turned over.

“These characterizations sweep too broadly,” wrote Philip Selden, an assistant U.S. attorney.

The trial for McGrath, a former chief of staff to Hogan, is set to start on Oct. 24 before U.S. District Court Judge Deborah Boardman in Baltimore.

McGrath faces an eight-count federal indictment. Among the charges are wire fraud, including improperly securing a $233,648 severance payment equal to one year of salary as the head of the quasi-governmental Maryland Environmental Service. He also faces fraud and embezzlement charges connected to tens of thousands of dollars in expenses and failure to take vacation time while vacationing in Florida and on a cruise to Spain, France and Italy.

A final charge involves allegations that he falsified a memo that purports to show Hogan was informed of McGrath’s severance arrangement and signed off on the deal. Hogan has vigorously denied he approved the severance and is scheduled to be a government witness in the trial.

Murtha is seeking a postponement or, at the very least, a one-week delay.

Prosecutors told Boardman they are “not overburdening defense counsel, and that a continuance is not warranted. They said if Boardman were inclined to grant a delay it should be for no more than a week.

A telephone hearing with Boardman is scheduled for Thursday.

Murtha wrote Tuesday that prosecutors turned over two pieces of evidence on Oct. 7, four days before a motions hearing. Then, on Oct. 14, prosecutors provided an additional disclosure. Murtha did not identify the contents of either in his letter.

“The untimely production of the most recent discovery has distracted undersigned counsel from focusing on pretrial preparation, and Mr. McGrath has expressed serious and rational concerns that he is being forced to consider the most recent discovery productions just days before the trial is to commence,” Murtha wrote in the letter.

He did not offer specifics on what had been turned over.

In their filing, prosecutors offered a detailed list of documents turned over. In many cases, prosecutors said the documents turned over did not represent new material.

In one tranche, prosecutors turned over transcripts of recorded witness interviews “even though the recordings had previously been  produced to defense counsel in the state prosecution.”

Prosecutors called it “a repetition of old material” that was “intended to be helpful, not burdensome, but in any event has been in the possession of the defense in some format prior to July 22.”

Another batch of documents totaling more than 270 pages of new material was turned over to Murtha on Oct. 7. Included in that were photos, texts between McGrath and an assistant, an audit and some social media messages.

The third and largest batch of more than 8,500 pages consisted of more than 6,600 emails and attachments, plus text messages and internal documents.

But prosecutors told Boardman the number of documents was deceiving as many of the emails are duplicates from multiple recipients.

“Based on its analysis, the government believes that approximately 5% of the 6,636 page (email) production consists of new material,” Selden wrote.