Legal News

Koz Not Done Fighting; Files Cert Petiton to the U.S. Supreme Court

By Ashby Jones

Frankly, after his appeal was shot down by the New York’s highest court back in October, we thought we’d heard the last of Dennis Kozlowski, at least for a while.

But we’ve been proved wrong. The former Tyco chief, found guilty on a handful of charges in 2005 and currently doing time at an upstate New York prison, has appealed his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court. Click here for the story, from the NYT’s Dealbook blog; here from the Fox Business News video in which Kozlowski’s new lawyer, Carter Ledyard’s Alan Lewis, discusses the appeal; here for the petition itself.

In the Fox Business interview, Lewis explains that the appeal is largely based on an assertion that a lower-court judge improperly denied Kozlowski’s request for interview notes taken during Tyco’s internal investigation.

"Because the subpoena was quashed, my client's right to compulsory process was denied," Lewis told Bloomberg back in February. The Sixth Amendment protects a defendant's right to use court processes to compel disclosure of evidence.

Kozlowski was convicted of fraud and grand larceny for misappropriating more than $400 million of Tyco's money for his personal use, including buying a $6,000 shower curtain and throwing a lavish birthday party for his wife on the island of Sardinia.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 14, 2009 (boomark / email).