Corruption in Politics Lands Innocent Man Behind Bars
The government engaged in multiple illegal wiretaps of phone calls to Renzi, which were thrown out of the original trial. Ironically, in one recorded call, Aries admitted that it was he — not Renzi — who had proposed the land for the swap, known as the Sandlin property. Yet, during the trial, Aries curiously changed his tune, no doubt due to the promise of reward money, and testified that it was Renzi's idea.
The hearing on Monday was full of contradictory statements — at a minimum, one or both of the two witnesses impeached themselves; at worst, they committed perjury. The primary FBI agent on the case, Dan Odom, kept denying that he offered Aries a payoff for testifying against Renzi. But Aries discussed in length during his testimony how money was offered to him — almost breaking down into tears as he discussed how he was going through a traumatic time in his life when he received the generous offer. Aries filed bankruptcy shortly afterwards, so it was pretty clear he needed the money.
Agent Odom admitted on the stand that he received promotions after his efforts persuading Aries to record phone calls with Renzi and testify against him. He also admitted that he thought Aries should be compensated for his extensive work recording conversations with Renzi and assisting with the case against him — which seemed to clearly contradict his statements that he never offered Aries any money.
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In criminal cases where the prosecution has withheld favorable evidence to the defense, a new trial has been ordered. At a minimum, the jury should have been informed of this bias by the prosecution's key witness and alleged victim. With the prosecution's star witness thoroughly discredited as motivated by money, Renzi deserves a new trial.
Judge Bury suggested at the conclusion of the hearing that Aries' credibility had already been called into question during the original trial, so it was less material now. If so, why was Aries allowed to testify to the jury at the original trial as the prosecution's key witness? Regardless, in Horton v. Mayle, a recent case in this Ninth Circuit jurisdiction, the court held that some evidence of bias does not diminish the value of other evidence describing a different source of bias.
