SALT LAKE CITY -- Feb. 8 marks one year to the start of the
Salt Lake City Olympics. It's also the date of the next hearing in
the city's Olympic bribery scandal.
The Salt Lake Organizing Committee plans to note the date with a
celebration. Now organizers may have to compete for attention.
"It's disappointing, but we've got several activities planned
for Feb. 8," SLOC spokeswoman Caroline Shaw said. "We believe the
news that day will be about the cultural Olympiad and the Utah
torch relay."
At a community celebration featuring Olympic figure skater
Michelle Kwan at the Gallivan Center, SLOC will announce the
Olympic torch route through Utah.
U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky and arts boosters also will
join organizers to announce a slate of cultural events to be held
during the games.
But in midafternoon, Magistrate Ronald Boyce will hold a hearing
on a defense motion seeking the dismissal of fraud, conspiracy and
bribery charges against Olympic bid executives Tom Welch and Dave
Johnson.
The hearing originally was scheduled for Feb. 2, but Welch's
criminal lawyer, Bill Taylor, couldn't make that date and asked
Boyce to change it.
In court papers, defense lawyers argue the charges against Welch
and Johnson "are not only novel, unprecedented and unapproved by
any federal court: They are simply wrong as a matter of law."
Welch and Johnson face 15 felony counts of conspiring to bribe
International Olympic Committee members to vote for Salt Lake,
which won the games by an overwhelming margin.
The case is at the heart of the biggest corruption scandal in
IOC history, with 10 members resigning or expelled and major ethics
rules adopted.
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