Steve Bachar, 57, listens as his attorney, Robert Swestka, speaks during his sentencing hearing in Denver District Court on Friday, March 10, 2023. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
A Denver judge has rejected a motion by accused thief and fraudster Steve Bachar to move his trial out of Denver due to media coverage of that judge’s monologue about Bachar.
Bachar, 57, faces one count of securities fraud and one count of felony theft. A four-day trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 26 in the downtown courtroom of Judge Eric Johnson.
On Friday, Bachar attorney Robert Swestka asked Johnson to instead move that trial to the Denver suburbs or as far away as the Eastern Plains in the interest of fairness.
“This is an unprecedented case with a unique amount” of news coverage before the trial, Swestka said. “This is far more prejudicial than the usual pretrial coverage.”
Swestka pointed to news articles from BusinessDen and The Denver Post. He took particular issue with coverage of a March 10 hearing at which Johnson rejected two guilty pleas from Bachar because he believed the plea agreement was too lenient. In a monologue from the bench that day, Johnson said Bachar’s crimes were deserving of prison time.
“The pretrial publicity says he has pleaded guilty. That is inherently prejudicial,” Swestka said.
“The court’s opinion is that the defendant is very guilty and did a very bad thing and deserves more of a punishment than what was laid out in the plea agreement,” he said.
But Swestka met a skeptical arbiter in Johnson, who noted that both news outlets are online and therefore just as easily accessible outside Denver as within city limits. He called the news coverage to date “a handful of articles in a jurisdiction that has 713,252 residents.”
“The bell can’t really be unrung with the reporting on the facts of the case,” Johnson said.
The prosecutor in the case, Deputy District Attorney Isaam Shamsid-Deen, urged Johnson to reject the motion. He said media coverage of the case has not been unprecedented.
“BusinessDen does cover quite a few financial cases. I’ve had them cover some of my cases,” said Shamsid-Deen, who also prosecuted the securities fraudster Tyler Tysdal.
Johnson sided with the prosecutor and said he has “no doubt” that the two sides “will be able to pick a jury that has never even heard of this case” or subscribed to a news outlet.
Steve Bachar, 57, listens as his attorney, Robert Swestka, speaks during his sentencing hearing in Denver District Court on Friday, March 10, 2023. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
A Denver judge has rejected a motion by accused thief and fraudster Steve Bachar to move his trial out of Denver due to media coverage of that judge’s monologue about Bachar.
Bachar, 57, faces one count of securities fraud and one count of felony theft. A four-day trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 26 in the downtown courtroom of Judge Eric Johnson.
On Friday, Bachar attorney Robert Swestka asked Johnson to instead move that trial to the Denver suburbs or as far away as the Eastern Plains in the interest of fairness.
“This is an unprecedented case with a unique amount” of news coverage before the trial, Swestka said. “This is far more prejudicial than the usual pretrial coverage.”
Swestka pointed to news articles from BusinessDen and The Denver Post. He took particular issue with coverage of a March 10 hearing at which Johnson rejected two guilty pleas from Bachar because he believed the plea agreement was too lenient. In a monologue from the bench that day, Johnson said Bachar’s crimes were deserving of prison time.
“The pretrial publicity says he has pleaded guilty. That is inherently prejudicial,” Swestka said.
“The court’s opinion is that the defendant is very guilty and did a very bad thing and deserves more of a punishment than what was laid out in the plea agreement,” he said.
But Swestka met a skeptical arbiter in Johnson, who noted that both news outlets are online and therefore just as easily accessible outside Denver as within city limits. He called the news coverage to date “a handful of articles in a jurisdiction that has 713,252 residents.”
“The bell can’t really be unrung with the reporting on the facts of the case,” Johnson said.
The prosecutor in the case, Deputy District Attorney Isaam Shamsid-Deen, urged Johnson to reject the motion. He said media coverage of the case has not been unprecedented.
“BusinessDen does cover quite a few financial cases. I’ve had them cover some of my cases,” said Shamsid-Deen, who also prosecuted the securities fraudster Tyler Tysdal.
Johnson sided with the prosecutor and said he has “no doubt” that the two sides “will be able to pick a jury that has never even heard of this case” or subscribed to a news outlet.
