PALATKA (Florida) DAILY NEWS August 19, 2006 Attorney tells judge Evans Sr. to testify on his own behalf By Wes Wolfe JACKSONVILLE – Attorney William Kent told U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan Friday that his client, Ronald Evans, Sr., will take the stand in his own defense next week. Evans Sr. and his wife Jequita are on trial for multiple criminal offenses, including facilitating a continuing criminal enterprise, in relation to their operation of the Evans Labor Camp in East Palatka and another camp in North Carolina. If convicted, they could face life in prison. Evans Sr.’s son, Ronald Evans Jr., pled to conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Sciortino told Corrigan the prosecution would most likely rest its case Tuesday, setting up Evans Sr. to testify Wednesday when the defense begins its part of the trial. Kent said direct examination of Evans Sr. will most likely take half the day and Mrs. Evans may or may not testify afterward. Richard Kuritz, co-counsel with Kent and Mrs. Evans’ attorney, was not asked and did not offer whether Mrs. Evans will testify.
The trial is progressing faster than originally estimated and could go to the jury for deliberation as early as the end of next week.
The prosecution continued Friday on its two tracks laid out earlier in the week, receiving testimony on the Evanses allegedly deliberately avoiding federal reporting requirements on checks of more than $10,000 and issues involving sales of crack cocaine at the camps. The parade of checks from Tater Farms in Hastings to Evans Sr. occurred again, but with Capital City Bank records custodian Suzy Andrews testifying when the checks were cashed and where. All of the checks were cashed at the Hastings branch. According to time stamps on the checks confirmed by Andrews, checks given to Evans Sr. on the same day with consecutive numbers, adding to a total more than $10,000, were cashed on different days. Only one pair of checks with consecutive numbers and a $10,000 sum was cashed on the same day. However, the first one was before 2 p.m., posting that day, and the second was cashed after 2 p.m., posting in the next day’s records.
Many of the checks had both Evans Sr.’s and Mrs. Evans’ names on them, allowing Mrs. Evans to receive the cashed amount. Others only had Evans Sr.’s name on them.
Former camp worker Miguel Pressley also testified, saying he believed Evans Sr. arranged for him to receive crack in his pay. Pressley said when he received two crack rocks in his pay after performing work on a Saturday, he asked Evans Sr. whether he needed to pay for the rocks or they were courtesy of the company. According to Pressley, Evans Sr. said they were courtesy of the company.
On cross-examination, Pressley admitted that before he testified in front of the grand jury he met with U.S. Department of Justice representatives, who promised him his pending drug charges would be dropped if he testified.
Sciortino said he planned on calling several people to the stand Monday, including an IRS agent, three employees of Turner Farms and a co-operating codefendant in the trial, Eddie Johnson. The trial is set to resume Monday at 9 a.m. |