Lawyers say prosecutors used veiled threats to discourage witness in conspiracy case

By: North County Times wire services | Monday, January 7, 2008 8:06 PM PST ∞

SANTA ANA - Lawyers for a Downey man convicted of trying to pass defense technology to China alleged today that prosecutors used veiled threats to discourage a potential defense witness from testifying.

The allegation was made in federal court in Santa Ana as part of an effort to get a new trial for Chi Mak, 66, who faces up to 45 years in prison for conviction on five charges, including conspiracy to send information to China.

Authorities said that Mak, who worked on submarine technology at Anaheim- based Power Paragon, tried to export information that would aid in detecting U.S. submarines.

In arguing for a new trial, the defense called to the witness stand Dr. Yuri Khersonsky, who holds a patent on a quiet electric-drive power system and who invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination during Mak's trial.

Defense attorney Ronald Kaye alleged that prosecutors told Khersonsky -- the subject of a separate investigation -- and his lawyer that Khersonsky would not get immunity if he testified on Mak's behalf.

Khersonsky's testimony was vital to Mak because Khersonsky had given a presentation on the electric-drive technology at a conference in Switzerland, Kaye said. Such testimony would have shown that this technology -- which Mak allegedly sought to give the Chinese -- already was in the public domain.

Prosecutors alleged during the trial that the technology described in documents Mak tried to encrypt and send to China were labeled NOFORN, or barred from the view of foreign nationals.

Khersonsky testified today that he hired an attorney when he got a subpoena to testify in Mak's trial. He said he was aware of another investigation but "didn't fear it."

His attorney, Benjamin Williams, testified prosecutors told him they wanted to have an informal discussion with Khersonsky about his potential testimony. According to Williams, Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Staples said he "considered Mr. Khersonsky as a subject in a separate investigation, (but) more of a subject than a target."

Asked his interpretation of "subject," Williams replied the word indicated "not yet a target of an investigation but ... could be."

But when Staples asked Williams, "Did I ever threaten your client?" Williams said, "Never."

In cross-examination, Staples said he may have called Khersonsky a subject, but that he never said Khersonsky was the subject "of an investigation."

Williams agreed that was the case.

Kaye said outside court that the technology in question was unworkable, that it already was in the public domain, and that Mak was just trying to get information from the Chinese in exchange.

U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney said he will issue a tentative ruling on the new trial request this afternoon.

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