Thread: Hazleton pre-trial costs: $70,000

Hazleton pre-trial costs: $70,000

Lead attorney’s fees more than $54,00
STEVE MOCARSKY smocarsky@timesleader.com

Apr 1, 2007


HAZLETON – The city has spent more than $70,000 defending the Illegal Immigration Relief Act – and that’s not counting fees incurred during the nine-day trial to determine the ordinance’s constitutionality.

Mayor Lou Barletta spent a few hundred dollars on visual aids to promote the ordinance during speaking engagements across the country.

Barletta set up a legal defense fund after Latino residents and organizations sued the city in August, claiming the relief act and a related tenant registration ordinance were unconstitutional.

The ordinances fine landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, suspend licenses of businesses that hire them and require all city tenants to show proof of citizenship or residency status.

As of Wednesday, the city had received $166,573 in donations.

The city check register lists several expenditures related to defending the ordinances.

City solicitor Chris Slusser was paid $15,954 in December for his work on the ordinances.

Payments for legal fees went to Kris W. Kobach, lead defense attorney in the trial: $22,777 and $32,052 on Jan. 3 and March 6, respectively.

But legal fees weren’t the only expenses paid with donations. Precision Design got a check for $375 on Jan. 3 for three posters.

“That was for poster boards I had made highlighting the headlines from local newspapers of the many crimes that have been committed by illegal aliens,” Barletta said. “I used them for speaking engagements,” Barletta said.

Panorama Magazine in Hazleton received $700 on Jan. 31 for advertisements announcing a registration schedule for city tenants.

The only other check drawn on the fund was to Councilman Joe Yannuzzi’s firm, Crossroad Computers, on Oct. 24 for more than $6,000. Barletta said the city needed data-transfer software because the plaintiffs in the case requested copies of e-mails. The city also needed programs to send automatic responses to e-mails of support from the public, and acknowledgements to those who made donations on a Web site Barletta set up.

Barletta said he hopes people continue to donate, especially because he’s unsure whether the city’s insurance company would pay the plaintiffs’ legal fees if the city were to lose the lawsuit.

The city’s insurance policy covers the city’s legal fees and damages awarded, but it’s unclear whether damages would include the opposing party’s legal fees.

“Then again, much of that could be thrown out as well, depending on the judge’s decision on what he rules. If some of the plaintiffs’ allegations are upheld, but not all of them, obviously we don’t feel that we should be responsible for work on those that were not upheld,” Barletta said.

WHAT’S NEXT?
The court stenographer is expected to have transcripts of the Illegal Immigration Relief Act trial completed by April 16. Post-trial briefs will be due from plaintiff and defense attorneys three weeks after the transcripts become available. Attorneys hope Judge James Munley will reach a decision sometime in May, but it could take him longer.

http://www.timesleader.com/news/2007040 ... a_ART.html

I'm praying!

Dixie

Originally Posted by Dixie

I'm praying!

Dixie

I think we're all praying with you Dixie.