Tobin jury continues to deliberate Bangor man on trial in phone jamming case

CONCORD, N.H. – Jury deliberations in the federal trial of a Bangor man accused of being part of a conspiracy to jam New Hampshire Democrats’ get-out-the-vote phone lines in 2002 will continue today.

The jury of 11 women and one man left the courthouse shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday without reaching a verdict in the trial of James Tobin, 45.

On Monday, jurors heard closing arguments and instructions from U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe, but did not begin deliberations until Tuesday morning.

Andrew Levchuk, the attorney from the U.S. Department of Justice who is prosecuting the case, and Dane Butswinkas, the Washington, D.C., attorney who heads Tobin’s defense team, declined Tuesday to comment on the case or the length of the deliberations.

Tobin, who last week did not take the stand during testimony, is charged with conspiring with Charles “Chuck” McGee, the former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party, and Allen Raymond, a Washington, D.C. area political consultant, to hire an Idaho firm to make repeated hang-up calls to five Democratic offices and a firefighters’ union on Nov. 5, 2002.

“Proof of [a] conscious understanding and deliberate agreement by the alleged members [of a conspiracy] … should be central to your consideration of the charge of conspiracy,” McAuliffe told the jury Monday.

The judge also said that to convict Tobin, “the government must prove that the defendant and at least one other person knowingly and deliberately arrived at some type of agreement or understanding that they … would engage in a scheme to commit the substantive crime … by means of some common plan or course of action, as alleged in the indictment.”

He countered that with a caution to jurors, essentially telling them what a conspiracy is not.

“It is, however,” McAuliffe continued, “important that you understand that merely associating with others and discussing common goals, mere similarity of conduct between or among such persons, merely being present at the place where a crime takes place or is discussed, or even knowing about criminal conduct does not, without more, make someone a member of the conspiracy or conspirator.”

Whether Tobin knowingly entered into a criminal conspiracy or simply referred one political operative to another could come down to which witness jurors believe.

Raymond testified that Tobin was aware from the beginning that the plan was to prevent Democrats from getting to the polls on Nov. 5, 2002, when a hotly contested U.S. Senate race was on the ballot.

McGee testified that a few days before the election, he outlined a vague idea to disrupt the Democrats’ communications on Election Day and asked Tobin to refer him to someone who was knowledgeable about phone systems and the telemarketing business.

If convicted, Tobin faces up to 10 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to deny residents the right to vote.