Jeremy Johnson not allowed to represent himself in fraud case

Jeremy Johnson not allowed to represent himself in fraud case

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SALT LAKE CITY — Thinking a federal judge would send him to jail for violating a court-imposed gag order, Jeremy Johnson filed motions Wednesday to act as his own attorney and objecting to the anticipated order.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Warner said at a hearing that was the first time in his long career that someone had appealed an order he hadn't issued. Warner promptly sealed the two motions, and having done so, said there was no need for sanctions because the arguments won't be heard.

"I guess the simple answer is, you'll be going home for Thanksgiving like everybody else," he told Johnson.

Warner told Johnson that because he has lawyers to represent him, he's not allowed to file documents on his own, which is what created an issue with the judge to begin with.

Earlier this month, Johnson filed two other motions without his attorneys — one to dismiss the 86-count fraud indictment against him and another claiming prosecutors delved into newly obtained attorney-client privileged information in his computer.

He said the computer contained numerous recorded phone calls between himself and several different attorneys, emails and instant messages with various attorneys, and volumes of attorney work product materials.

Warner didn't take kindly to Johnson's filings. He sealed the two documents Tuesday, after they were publicly accessible in the court file for more than a week.

Warner determined the motions might be an attempt to circumvent the gag order he imposed in the case in May 2013. And even if they weren't, he concluded that the motions violated the gag order.

Johnson, who acts as his own lawyer in the parallel Federal Trade Commission case against him, stood several times as if to speak from the gallery at Wednesday's hearing, but Warner didn't acknowledge him and he ultimately didn't say anything.

Johnson, Scott Leavitt, Bryce Payne and Ryan Riddle face dozens of fraud charges in connection with Johnson's once-thriving Internet marketing company, iWorks. They have pleaded not guilty and a four-week trial is scheduled to start Feb. 1.

Defense attorneys told Warner the defendants can't be ready for trial in two months given prosecutors just alerted them to possible evidence on iWorks computer hard drives that are being held in the FTC case. The data could include emails Johnson has long claimed were missing.

"What they're telling us is there is another server that wasn't previously provided to the defense," said Ed Wall, who represents Payne. "That creates a substantial issue in the case."

Wall said the 240 gigabytes of data containing a million documents could cost as much as $100 a gigabyte to put into a searchable format. Electronic evidence in the case already totals some 4 million pages.

The judge said he won't delay the trial.

"If you need more help, I will give you more help," Warner said. "You don't get more time, you get more help."

Prosecutor Robert Lunnen accused the defense of "intellectual dishonesty" for saying the data is being made available at the last minute. The defendants, he said, have had access to it in the FTC case for the past five years.

"It's not something we've been hiding," he said.

Lunnen said he asked for the hearing because he wants to reach an agreement with the defense on how best to access information on the hard drives. He said he didn't want the defense to complain that the government destroyed evidence or put it at a disadvantage to delay the trial.

The case already is fraught with accusations that the government has looked at Johnson emails protected by attorney-client privilege. Prosecutors say they separated the emails from evidence they intend to use in the trial, according to court documents.

Warner advised defense attorneys to get together and agree on a method to access the new data.

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