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Jan 16, 2009 5:15 pm US/Central
1st Hearing In Minn. Senate Lawsuit Set For Wed.
ST. PAUL (AP) ―
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Norm Coleman (R) and Al Franken (D).
CBS
Three Minnesota judges presiding over Republican Norm Coleman's election lawsuit put the case in motion Friday, setting up a hearing next week to consider Democrat Al Franken's bid to throw it out.
The judges met in private with attorneys for both Senate campaigns. The lawyers emerged to announce the Wednesday dismissal hearing. Should Franken's motion fail, the trial would start on Jan. 26, the judges said in an order. Proceedings will be held in the state's main court building near the Capitol.
The case is an extension of the razor-thin U.S. Senate race, which currently has Franken ahead by 225 votes after a recount of 2.9 million votes. Coleman's lawsuit raises issues about how the statewide recount was conducted.
The timing of the case is important because Minnesota could be short a senator until it is resolved. The state's top officials won't issue an election certificate until then, although Franken has sued separately to force the issuance of one.
Coleman's campaign has pushed to conduct a trial in stages, taking disputed matters one step at a time. Franken wants it done more quickly.
The order doesn't lay out precisely how the trial will proceed, but it requires the campaigns to disclose the identity of their expert witnesses and their supporting case law almost a week before trial. That's closer to the outline Franken laid out than the one put forward by Coleman.
Franken lawyer David Lillehaug said the campaign stressed to the judges that an expeditious schedule is essential because "Minnesota has an empty seat in the United States Senate."
Coleman's lawyers wanted the process split up so the judges could concentrate more fully on each issue being raised: how to handle rejected absentee ballots; what to do about allegations of double-counted votes in some precincts; and how to handle cases where ballots not counted on Nov. 4 turned up later or went missing during the recount.
"Since there are multiple issues in this case, you pretty much have to know what issue you're going to try first," said Joe Friedberg, who is the newest face on the Republican's legal team.
Friedberg is involved in another legal matter linked to Coleman. He is a local defense attorney for businessman Nasser Kazeminy, who is being sued over an alleged scheme to funnel money from a Texas company to a Minnesota insurance company that employs Coleman's wife Laurie. The lawsuit claims that Kazeminy was attempting to direct money to the Colemans, an allegation the couple and the businessman strongly deny.
Meanwhile Friday, a lawsuit filed by dozens of voters who had their absentee ballots denied was assigned to the three-judge panel rather than the Minnesota Supreme Court, where the suit started.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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