REGION: Court says Wilkes can be free on bail during appeal

Poway defense contractor fighting bribery conviction in congressional corruption scandal

By TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer | Tuesday, April 1, 2008 12:32 PM PDT ∞

If he can raise the bail, former Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes can get out of jail.

A federal appeals panel has ruled that Wilkes can remain free on bail while he fights his conviction for bribing former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Justices with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the appeal for Wilkes, whom they found is not a flight risk, raises such a substantial question of law or fact that it could lead the court to overturn his conviction, force a new trial or order a punishment that would include no jail time.

His attorney, Shereen Charlick, said Monday that the court sees "substantial" reasons to release him during the appellate process.

"Obviously, he was very happy and very thankful," Charlick said of Wilkes' reaction to the finding. "It is very rare to be granted bail on appeal."

Charlick said Wilkes has raised a number of issues that may become part of the appeal, including a battle over leaks to the media by unnamed federal officials that he contends influenced a grand jury in early 2006 to indict him.

Wilkes has been behind bars since he was sentenced Feb. 19, following his conviction for bribing Cunningham, the former North County Republican lawmaker.

U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

Before that, Wilkes had been free on about $2 million bail, secured by his home and a home owned by a relative.

Charlick said it's possible that Wilkes faces the same bail amount to be free during his appeal.

In a one-page order issued Thursday, Justices Thomas G. Nelson and A. Wallace Tashima sent the case back to the trial court to set the conditions of Wilkes' release.

The order comes a few weeks after a panel of 9th Circuit judges said federal officials could move Wilkes from jail to prison while the court decides if he should be released on bail during his appeal.

Wilkes had been in Metropolitan Correctional Center, the federal jail in downtown San Diego. He was recently taken to a federal prison processing center in Arizona, Charlick said, but could be back in front of Burns for a bail hearing by next week.

Since then, Wilkes' attorneys have pointed to the media leaks as grounds for appeal. In denying him a new trial after the conviction, Burns criticized the leaks but said they were not enough to have tainted the jury.

After the trial, the defense accused prosecutors of misconduct for telling the jury that they hadn't called Cunningham to testify because they didn't want to shorten the former politician's sentence of eight years and four months.

Wilkes' attorney said that was disingenuous, because when Cunningham was sentenced, prosecutors credited him for cooperation.

Wilkes' attorneys also lost bids to postpone the trial to give them more time to pore over the boxes of documents that prosecutors seized, an issue which may also find its way into the appeal.

At the end of a monthlong trial in San Diego's federal courthouse and four days of deliberations, a jury convicted Wilkes of bribing Cunningham with $636,000 in mortgage payments for the then-congressman's home and boat, as well as with lavish vacations and encounters with prostitutes.

In return, Cunningham steered more than $80 million in taxpayer-funded defense contracts to Wilkes' now-defunct firm, ADCS Inc., according to trial testimony.

On the day he was sent to jail, Wilkes continued to maintain his innocence.

Escondido defense attorney Mark Chambers, who represents some federal clients, said getting bail on appeal doesn't happen often ---- but it's not unheard of.

"People are most likely to get bail on appeal when it is a white collar crime," Chambers said.

Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 740-5442 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com. Comment at nctimes.com.