Water bottler, U.S. filing as trial nears

With a criminal trial for John Stacks less than a month away, prosecutors asked a judge Wednesday to squelch the businessman's "false allegations" against federal agents who raided his Mountain Pure bottling plant in Little Rock in 2012, while Stacks again sought dismissal of his fraud charges.

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Prosecutors sought an order preventing Stacks, his attorneys or any witnesses on his behalf from airing the "false and/or misleading" allegations in front of jurors. They cited a video "re-enactment" he posted online of agents executing a search warrant at his business, along with allegations he has aired in a lawsuit over the raid.

"At the time that the lawsuit was filed, Stacks knew that a grand jury investigation was under way," the government's motion notes.

Among the allegations Stacks has leveled at agents of the Internal Revenue Service and the Small Business Administration, as well as other unidentified agents, are that they carried out a "SWAT-Team style raid" that was designed to create publicity and in the process infringed on workers' rights.

Prosecutors took issue with those allegations, saying "no long guns, flash bangs, helmets or anything other than agency standard-issue body armor and federal agency issued handguns were worn or carried" during the execution of the warrant, and that "there was no 'SWAT Team' participation.'"

They also denied assertions that agents pointed guns in employees' faces, cut telephone lines at the plant, detained employees, interrogated employees or denied requests to have an attorney present, among other things -- including an allegation that an agent called Stacks "Old Man Stacks" and spit in his face.

In response to Stacks' assertion that all the government had to do was ask for the materials, prosecutors noted, "SBA's many requests for documents had gone unheeded over a period of years. It should also be noted in this regard, that Stacks knew that he was under investigation by the grand jury well before the search warrant was executed and offered nothing to the United States Attorney's office. Instead, Stacks made multiple congressional complaints in an apparent effort to learn what evidence was in the possession of the government."

Stacks' criminal charges -- which include wire fraud, making false statements and money laundering -- are pending before U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes, who has scheduled a jury trial to begin Sept. 29 in his Little Rock courtroom.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit, filed in March 2013 by Stacks and other Mountain Pure employees, is pending before another federal judge in Little Rock.

In July, Holmes ordered prosecutors to supply a "bill of particulars" providing more detail about the criminal accusations against Stacks than what was stated in the indictment. This was in response to Stacks' claim that he couldn't figure out exactly what he was accused of doing wrong, and that when he asked for details, prosecutors handed over 80,000 un-navigable pages of documents.

In a new motion filed Wednesday, Stacks' attorneys complain that their review of the "particulars" shows that many of the allegations against Stacks don't meet the legal criteria for criminal charges and should be thrown out of court. The defense contends that the charges must be based on "affirmative acts taken to conceal, create a false impression, mislead or otherwise deceive in order to prevent the other party from acquiring material information."

They say the charges instead appear to be based, in at least in some instances, on "non-disclosure" instead. They argue, "Simple non-disclosure cannot form the basis for a fraud conviction."

The case is being prosecuted by assistant U.S. attorneys Angela Jegley and Pat Harris. Defense attorneys are Tim Dudley and Danny Crabtree of Little Rock, and John Everett of Fayetteville.

Metro on 09/04/2014

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