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Judge OKs briefcase as evidence By Cam Simpson Tribune staff reporter July 12, 2001
After entrusting his briefcase in 1997 to a lifelong friend, reputed jewel thief
Joseph Basinski twice believed the locked attache case, allegedly stuffed with
secrets, was out of his life.
But on Wednesday a federal judge in Chicago resurrected the briefcase, ruling
that the government could use its contents--which prosecutors called
"incriminating"--as evidence in the upcoming trial of Basinski and an
accused band of thieves headed by former Chicago police officer William Hanhardt.
U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle is putting Basinski's disputed briefcase into
evidence even though an appeals court ruled last year that the FBI illegally
pried it open after talking Basinski's longtime friend into pulling it out of a
hiding place in a rural Wisconsin barn.
The case contains intelligence information about roughly 75 jewelers, all of
whom may be called as witnesses in the trial, court records show. The trial--of
Hanhardt, a former chief of detectives and deputy superintendent of police,
Basinski and three other defendants--is set for Sept. 4.
Basinski's lawyer, Jeffrey Cole, said he was still reviewing Norgle's
opinion. But Cole said he would likely appeal the ruling to the same appellate
court that first tossed out the briefcase evidence last year.
Basinski gave the briefcase to his friend William Friedman for safekeeping in
1997 after learning that the FBI was on his trail, court records show. He never
gave Friedman, a friend for 30 years, the combination to the briefcase's lock.
Friedman stuffed the briefcase into a cluttered barn at his Grand Marsh,
Wis., farm. Friedman told grand jurors, "You can't even walk in there,
there's so much junk," records show.
In March 1998, after Basinski and Hanhardt learned the FBI had tapped their
phones, Basinski asked Friedman to burn the briefcase and its contents, records
show. Friedman assured his friend that he would burn it--and Basinski thought
the briefcase was destroyed, according to court records.
But Friedman didn't burn it, and in February 1999 he handed it over to two
FBI agents who drove to the Grand Marsh farm. The agents didn't get a warrant to
open the case, but pried its latches anyway, according to court records.
When Basinski learned what happened, he confronted Friedman. Prosecutors
called it an attack and charged Basinski with witness intimidation.
The judge in that case agreed with Basinski's lawyers that the briefcase was
opened illegally and tossed it out as evidence, a ruling upheld by a federal
appeals court in Chicago last year. Following that ruling, prosecutors in
January dismissed the intimidation charge against Basinski.
But a week later, they went to another federal judge to get a warrant
allowing them to open the briefcase again--this time, so they could use its
contents as evidence in the larger jewel-theft prosecution, which has been
pending since October.
Prosecutors argued they had enough evidence before the FBI illegally opened
the briefcase to justify a legal search today.
Citing evidence about the ring that existed before February 1999, a federal
judge issued a warrant on Jan. 24 allowing the re-opening of the briefcase. But
until Norgle's decision Wednesday it was unclear whether its contents could be
admitted into evidence at the September trial. |
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