Conrad Black has a very loyal personal assistant and some very high-powered Washington lawyers.
That much was clear after hours of combative and sometimes confusing testimony Thursday, as defense attorneys for the former chief of Chicago-based Hollinger International Inc. kicked off their case.
The star of the show was Joan Maida, Black’s longtime Toronto secretary, who conceded under cross-examination she did not want to help the prosecution and is hoping Black will be acquitted of fraud and obstruction of justice charges.
“You remember you didn’t want to talk to us?” asked Assistant U.S. Atty. Jeffrey Cramer.
“That’s right,” replied Maida. She later said she didn’t think she would have to testify at all because prosecutors didn’t believe her story.
Almost all of Maida’s testimony concerned one day in May 2005 when security cameras at the Toronto headquarters of Hollinger Inc., parent company of Hollinger International, captured Black and his driver loading boxes into his limousine in defiance of a Canadian court order forbidding the removal or destruction of documents. Because of Black’s high-profile status in Canada, the video was replayed repeatedly on television.
May 20 began as an ordinary workday, Maida testified, and she was working alone when she decided to begin packing up Black’s personal files. Black was being evicted from his Toronto headquarters and needed to vacate the premises by May 31, she said.
Maida and Black previously had decided she would set up an office in her home and work from there, Maida said.
“Did Conrad Black choose the documents you packed?” asked Black attorney Edward Genson as he perched on a stool behind a cart stacked with the 13 boxes that were removed.
“No,” Maida replied.
“Did he ever look inside the boxes?”
“No.”
Later that day, Maida said, she directed a security guard to take the boxes to her car, only to have the guard call shortly thereafter and say the boxes had to be returned to the building. Maida volunteered that Black was “irritated” when she told him over the phone what had happened. She said Black showed up later and personally removed them.
Under Cramer’s cross-examination, Maida acknowledged it was highly unusual for her boss to be lugging boxes around. She also said she didn’t remember getting any of a series of memos about Hollinger’s new “document retention policy,” including one dated May 13 that specified that “no document shall be moved, altered or destroyed” and nothing was to leave the building unless it had been approved by a corporate “inspector.”
Maida said she believed she had permission to remove the files because Hollinger Inc. President Donald Vale had given her verbal authorization earlier in the day.
At one point, Maida appeared to contradict herself about whether she was aware of a recently installed security camera. At first, she said she wasn’t. Later, Maida said she believed the box removal was captured on camera and was visible to the building’s security staff.
Black returned the boxes five days later, but prosecutors argue there is no way to know if he removed anything because there was no inventory of their contents.
In an effort to bolster Maida’s credibility on redirect examination, Genson asked if she was willing to lie to help Black be acquitted. She said no.
Earlier in the day, two white-collar criminal-defense attorneys from Black’s Washington law firm, Baker Botts, testified that they didn’t immediately inform Black about a May 19 letter they received from the Securities and Exchange Commission saying the agency would soon be seeking documents as part of its investigation into affairs at Hollinger International, now known as Sun-Times Media Group Inc.
Baker Botts attorney Jennifer Owens said she informed her boss, Alex Bourelly, a former federal prosecutor and SEC attorney, about the letter but didn’t talk to Black or send him an e-mail. Bourelly testified he didn’t inform Black about the letter on May 19 or May 20.
The actual SEC document request didn’t arrive until May 23, Owens and Bourelly testified, three days after Black removed the boxes.
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schandler@tribune.com.
