Two charges dropped in corruption case

Officer Timothy Rehak defended himself against federal corruption charges Monday, and the judge dismissed two of the eight charges against Rehak and Mark Naylon, a spokesman for Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.

"We didn't hurt anybody. We played a joke. Everything was corrected by the end of my shift," Rehak said under cross-examination. He will be back on the stand today.

U.S. District Court Judge Patrick Schiltz declined to drop six other counts of the indictment against the men, who are both on paid leave from the Ramsey County special investigations unit. Both are close friends of Fletcher.

They are accused of stealing $6,000 while executing a search warrant at the Kelly Inn near the State Capitol.

The jury has seen FBI tape of Rehak handing a wad of bills to Naylon, who stuffed it into his jacket pocket during the November 2004 raid.

A search warrant receipt left in the room said $7,500 had been recovered. But the search was a set-up, an "integrity check" by the FBI, which had been investigating a report about the men interfering in drug investigations.

The FBI had planted $13,500 in the room and had an informant, drug dealer Shawn Arvin, tell Rehak that it had been left there by another dealer who had been arrested in Wisconsin. Rehak and Naylon said they were playing a prank on Sgt. Rollie Martinez, who was searching the bathroom and couldn't see them.

The judge also agreed to release the two videos today, over defense objections of unfair prejudice. Lawyers for the Star Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and KSTP-TV argued for the release in a brief hearing late Monday.

Jurors saw the videos when the trial began last week, but they had not heard from a defendant until Monday. The defense began its case with Naylon's attorney Paul Rogosheske repeating the explanation that the men took the money as a practical joke.

Then Rehak took the stand and talked about growing up in the W. 7th Street area of St. Paul as one of six children. He dreamed of becoming a patrol officer. After high school, he joined the Army and was a military police officer for three years before returning home to marry his high school sweetheart, raise two children and move to Forest Lake.

In his deep, scratchy voice, he described himself and Naylon as the hardest-working members of their unit, the only two who put in long hours even though Naylon isn't a peace officer.

His attorney Paul Engh asked Rehak why he allowed the search warrant receipt to be written for $7,500 rather than $13,500. Rehak said, "Mark hadn't played the joke yet."

Engh asked, "Did you steal anything in this case?" Rehak said no.

Under a solid hour of cross-examination from Assistant U.S. Attorney John Marti, Rehak's demeanor was pricklier.

Marty asked about the hand-off of the money.

Rehak said Naylon told him, "Give me some of that, I'm going to [expletive] with Rollie."

Marti asked, "There was no discussion about turning in that $6,000 later?"

The prosecution wrapped up in the morning with cross-examination of FBI special agent Timothy Bisswurm.

Kevin Short, another defense attorney for Rehak, referred to previous testimony about pranks that other Ramsey County officers played on one another during investigations and asked whether such things ever occurred at the FBI.

"Homicide and drug investigations and they're screwing around with evidence? No, I've never heard of that at the FBI," the agent said.

Short responded, "But the FBI is different than the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office. You guys wear suits and white shirts."