Black wants e-mails kept out of court

Black wants e-mails kept out of court

	Published : Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:10 By : Agencies Print this Story

CHICAGO (AP) - Former press baron Conrad Black asked a federal judge Wednesday to bar prosecutors from using 11,000 e-mails he exchanged with his wife as evidence against him at his upcoming fraud trial.

'The law does not take kindly to in-court revelation of communications between spouses,' Black's lawyers said in a three-page brief.

They said the government plans to use the e-mails to prove that Black knew that the Hollinger International newspaper holding company he ran was paying for Barbara Amiel Black's shopping expeditions and other expenses.

Black's lawyers said the government furnished them with a computer disc in February containing communications between Black and his wife.

'In fact, the disc contains nearly 11,000 files consisting primarily of e-mail messages sent to and from and between Mr. and Mrs. Black,' the attorneys said in their motion filed with federal Judge Amy J. St. Eve.

Black and three other former Hollinger executives are charged with looting $80 million from shareholders.

Prosecutors also accuse Black, a Canadian-born member of the British House of Lords, of tapping shareholder funds for a two-week vacation in Bora Bora, refurbishing his Rolls Royce and other personal expenses.

Black formerly ran Hollinger International Inc., which owned the Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph in London and The Jerusalem Post.

The Daily Telegraph and The Jerusalem Post have been sold and the company has changed its name to Sun-Times Media Group Inc.

Black and his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty, saying that nothing they did was illegal. Jury selection is set to start March 14.

Black's lawyers conceded that the law barring prosecutors from forcing a wife to testify against her husband does not apply in this case, since the prosecution has not said it plans to subpoena Lady Black as a witness.

But they cited a 'marital communications privilege' which they said 'prevents disclosure of confidential communications that occurred between spouses during a valid marriage.'