Tobin disputes jamming verdict Three motions filed to overturn ruling

CONCORD, N.H. – Attorneys for a Bangor, Maine, man have filed three motions in federal court seeking to overturn his conviction last month in a phone-jamming scheme.

James Tobin, 45, of Bangor is asking U.S. District Judge Steven McAuliffe to grant him a new trial, enter a judgment of acquittal, and to arrest or nullify the judgment in his case. The U.S. attorneys prosecuting the case have 10 working days to reply to the motions.

Tobin is scheduled to be sentenced on March 21 in U.S. District Court in Concord. McAuliffe is expected to rule on the motions before then.

In one of the motions, filed Tuesday, Tobin’s Washington, D.C., attorneys argue that the allegations in the indictment don’t fit the alleged crime because the phone-jamming plan did not intend to threaten, frighten or cause serious emotional distress on the recipient.

“A criminal prosecution, where an individual’s liberty is at stake, is not the place to experiment with novel applications of a vague law,” the motion states. “Because the statute does not plainly and unmistakably [prohibit] the alleged conduct … the indictment violate[s] the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.”

A jury of 11 women and one man on Dec. 16 found Tobin guilty of conspiring to jam the Democrats’ get-out-the-vote phone lines in 2002, and guilty of aiding and abetting the jamming of those phone lines.

The jury acquitted him of the more serious charge of conspiring to deprive New Hampshire residents of their right to vote on Election Day more than three years ago

The Bangor man didn’t take the witness stand during the six-day trial.

Tobin faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Prosecutors have said that he is facing “nowhere near” the maximum sentence under the federal sentencing guidelines.

Charles “Chuck” McGee of Manchester, N.H., the former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party who came up with the phone-jamming idea, served seven months in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to jam phone lines.

Allen Raymond, who found the Idaho firm that made the repeated hang-up calls to five Democratic offices and a firefighters union, is scheduled to be resentenced on Feb. 2 in federal court in Concord. Raymond testified at Tobin’s trial that he was hoping his five-month sentence would be reduced with Tobin’s conviction.

On the witness stand, McGee and Raymond gave conflicting stories of what they knew about the plan and when it was hatched.

Raymond testified that Tobin was aware 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. He said that Tobin told him to expect a call from McGee two to three weeks before the election.

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

Both men testified in December that if Tobin had discouraged them from pursuing the plan, they would not have gone forward.

Tobin’s attorneys argue in a motion filed Tuesday that the judge should overturn the jury verdict because:

. The agreement to proceed with the plan was made by McGee and Raymond after Tobin’s interaction with them.

. Tobin did not enter into an agreement to make the phones ring repeatedly.

. No agreement to proceed was reached before McGee got approval from his boss and Raymond consulted an attorney.

. The evidence is insufficient to support the verdict because Tobin simply referred McGee to Raymond.

In state court, New Hampshire Democrats are pursuing a civil lawsuit, which they hope will expose knowledge or approval of the scheme by GOP officials higher than Tobin. Republicans have insisted it was conceived and executed at the state level.

In August, the Republican National Committee acknowledged it had spent more than $722,000 to provide Tobin with lawyers from a high-powered Washington law firm. Party officials, who said they ordinarily would not discuss such matters, said they underwrote Tobin’s defense because he was a longtime supporter and assured them he had committed no crimes.

A Windham, Maine, native, Tobin worked in Maine and Washington for former U.S. Sen. William Cohen in the 1980s. He also worked on the election campaigns of U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. In 1996, he ran the national presidential campaign of millionaire businessman Steve Forbes.

He stepped down as the regional campaign chairman of President Bush’s re-election campaign in October 2004, when Democrats filed their lawsuit, which alleged that he took part in the scheme. Tobin was indicted by a federal grand jury later that year.

Tobin now works for a lobbying firm in Washington, D.C., but continues to live in Bangor.