Photo: The defense in the trial of former House Speaker Glen Casada, pictured on his way to court, and ex-aide Cade Cothren may request a mistrial. Photo Credit: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout
By Sam Stockard [The Tennessee Lookout -CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] –
The defense teams for a former House speaker and former staffer requested a mistrial Tuesday in Tennessee’s political corruption trial, claiming “prejudicial” evidence was introduced to the jury, even if inadvertently.
U.S. District Court Judge Eli Richardson is expected to rule on the request Wednesday morning after defense attorneys for former aide Cade Cothren and ex-House Speaker Glen Casada made their arguments for a mistrial, claiming audio played Monday was supposed to be redacted. Richardson sent the jury home earlier Tuesday before it could be seated.
In the audiotape portion that jurors weren’t supposed to hear, Casada told FBI agents who raided his Franklin home in January 2021 that Speaker Cameron Sexton didn’t like Cothren and wouldn’t have approved him as a constituent mail vendor if he knew Cothren was running Phoenix Solutions.
Sherwood argued that playing the statement for the jury made it more likely Cothren would be convicted. She claimed that Casada’s words could be taken as if he were testifying against his co-defendant, a violation of Cothren’s constitutional rights.
Casada’s legal team joined in the mistrial request, saying the audio was prejudicial to their case as well.
Richardson shied away from saying a motion for a mistrial would fail. But he said such errors have to be avoided.
Federal prosecutors played a tape of the FBI’s interview of Casada from 2021 in which he reversed course and said he knew Cothren was behind Phoenix Solutions before a federal agent told him it is against federal law to lie to the FBI.
Casada’s defense attorney, Ed Yarbrough, requested the audiotape be played in its entirety. That included Casada’s reference to Sexton and a racist and sexist scandal that led to Cothren’s resignation in the spring of 2019.
Casada and Cothren are charged with 20 counts of fraud, bribery and kickbacks in connection with a plan to tap into the state’s constituent mailer program through House members and then get into campaign and Republican Caucus business.
Former Rep. Robin Smith, the third player in the plan, testified against Casada and Cothren last week, saying they wanted to start with the mail program because it was “low-hanging fruit” at a time no elections were being held.
