PROSECUTION’S FINAL WORDS TO JURY
Goverment Prosecutor Sean O’Shea’s Rebuttal to Defense:
(“)It’s not a special rule that I get to talk to you again. It occurs in every case because we have the burden of proof. (Angrily) Some of the points they made demand an answer. Let me answer Ms. Brevetti’s question of whether you have been brought here to do something good. She talked about hypocrisy. The defendant is a corporate drug dealer. We’re asking you to find him guilty because the evidence merits you finding him guilty. Someone helped obstruct justice. Their memo is all meat, yet they’re still blaming everyone else. They blame us (the government), the blame us for the full court room, they blame us for them being public figures even though they’ve promoted themselves on TV for the last ten years.
We didn’t say ‘Be like Hulk Hogan, take his vitamins,’ all the while they were pumping him up with steroids! They’re big, rich, powerful. They’re drug dealers. Just because they’re rich doesn’t give them a free pass. The defendant told Emily Feinberg to distribute steroids to Hulk Hogan. He was involved in the memo. He ordered Sages to launder money, he ordered Feinberg to destroy evidence.
Let the judge tell you the law, not Mr. McDevitt. The judge will tell you the definition of a prescription drug. He will tell you it doesn’t allow for it to be dispensed at will. It must be authorized by a licensed practitioner and must have been pursuant to a legitimate doctor-patient relationship. The court will tell you the law. Mr. McDevitt was trying very hard to throw smoke in the air and deceive and confuse you.
They played a game with Dr. Wadler for two days. He said they took things out of context. That’s what Mr. McDevitt does. They told you all of the witnesses said what they said because they have a grudge or are suing them. The defendant is the common element in those lawsuits. If Randy Colley had such a grudge against Vince McMahon, why didn’t he say McMahon told him directly to take steroids. If you’re gonna lie, why not the big lie. Why didn’t Tom Zenk lie and say McMahon told him to take steroids? Because they were telling the truth. If I wanted to get McMahon, why didn’t I pull Zahorian aside and tell him we want McMahon so tell us on record he told you to distribute steroids to wrestlers. If we set up Zahorian, did we write this memo? If we wanted a frame, we sure did a horrible job.
They say this case is old. It takes a while to uncover illegality, especially when they use pay phones and clever check maneuvering. Where is the grudge of Anita Scales, Emily Feinberg, Margaret Sharkey? They are just regular folks who tried to do the right thing. He tells you the defendant didn’t know the law. Ignorance is no excuse, we all know that. They offered you excuses. Everyone in this courtroom knows you can’t distribute drugs.
They say we don’t care what happens to other suppliers. They ask why don’t we go after this guy and that guy. Some have been convicted. Dealers have been convicted. Because someone else is violating the law doesn’t mean you can. Blaming others, blaming users is their defense. Customers will always want drugs from these pushers, these facilitators. Rick Rude is a user, the defendant is a pusher.
They ask, why don’t you prosecute WCW? Have you heard about WCW? If we hear about it, we’ll go after them. We’ll be after them like white on rice because it’s a serious crime. They say prosecute WCW, doctors in England, the guy behind the tree, but leave us alone. They say we should do our job, while all along they were doing this (points to the Linda McMahon memo.)
They’re pretty good at rhetoric. They spoke to you for hours. We don’t have the corner on rhetoric. Ladies and gentleman, they can call witnesses. They could have brought in all these guys, but they would have danced around on the stand just like Patterson did.
They say I cooked this up, that I have nothing better to do with my time. They say that Mr. Vilente, Mr. Flag, and I just out of the blue went after them. They say we went after them because we don’t have respect for wrestling. You know who doesn’t have respect for wrestling? Vince McMahon (points to defendant). He used wrestlers like slabs of meat, pumped them up for profit. That’s an insult. We’re asking you to hold the big guys accountable. They can’t get away with saying it’s merely a personal choice.
When McMahon scolded Jim Hellwig for leaving steroids in his hotel room, he was only too happy his champion was using steroids. What he was in a tirade about was that he was caught. They say Hulk Hogan was our star witness. They said that, yet we had to immunize him to get the truth out of him. He testified he got steroids ten times for Vince.
They say it’s all hysteria? Yeah, illegal drugs are hysteria We didn’t cook this case up, ladies and gentlemen. They say it’s sizzle. They don’t like the evidence. They didn’t like Patterson’s evidence. We’re not coming in and applying a new law to them. They knew when they drafted the memo and the bank check. All the evidence shows they knew.
They say they didn’t know the law. Ignorance is no excuse. This is a rich company with all kinds of resources to get the law, to find out about the law. They want you to believe I decided to put Zahorian in shackles and chains. Jail is not a nice place. People who go there get put in solitary confinement for their own protection from other inmates.
They want you to believe they had no choice. if you’re dealing with a sleazy doctor. Tell him to get out. ‘I am the owner of the this company, get out, don’t come back.’ They say Zahorian wasn’t hired after the law changed. But he was back there selling drugs. Patterson and the defendant put him back there. So they were playing word games. This is not a contest about who can be the trickiest. This is a search for the truth.
Thanks for your patience. Your verdict of guilty will say that you can’t hide behind a doctor’s white coat. You can’t obstruct and impede justice as they did in December of ’89 right before Dr. Zahorian was indicted. You can’t blame others. If you violate the law, you’re guilty. Without sympathy of prejudice, find them guilty.
