A federal decide has ordered a brand new trial for a former embellished University of Southern California water polo coach convicted within the sprawling faculty admissions bribery scandal.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani discovered that some proof launched by the federal government in Jovan Vavic’s fraud and bribery case to be unreliable and that prosecutors erred of their argument to jurors about among the alleged bribe cash.
Vavic, who guided USC’s males’s and ladies’s water polo groups to 16 nationwide championships, was convicted in April after being arrested in March 2019 within the headline-grabbing “Operation Varsity Blues” investigation.
Prosecutors accused Vavic of taking greater than $200,000 in bribes to pretend athletic credentials and designate faculty candidates as water polo athletes to get them into USC.
Vavic’s legal professional, Stephen Larson, stated in an e-mail that the decide’s ruling “protects Coach Vavic from a wrongful conviction.”
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins stated her workplace is reviewing all of its choices in response to the ruling.
“We are very disappointed in this ruling, which we do not believe is grounded in the facts or the law,” she stated in an emailed assertion. “The jury convicted Mr. Vavic on every single count and we believe they got it right.”
More than 50 individuals had been convicted within the “Operation Varsity Blues” case. They embrace TV actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, and Loughlin’s dressmaker husband Mossimo Giannulli.
The final defendant linked to the investigation to go to trial was acquitted by jurors on all counts. Another defendant was pardoned by former President Donald Trump and a 3rd defendant bought a deal that’s anticipated to result in the dismissal of his case.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”