Sullivan, Stevens' lawyer, countered that the lawmaker and his wife paid every invoice they received for work on the house, and that the total amount they paid was in line with the current assessed value of the property.
While acknowledging that some bills may have gone unpaid, he offered two explanations that seemed intended to distance Stevens from the transaction, and raised the possibility that Stevens' wife, Catherine, may have known more than her husband about the situation.
"The most important thing to know is that Catherine ran the financial part of the renovation," Sullivan said. "She was the person who opened the account. She was the person who viewed the bills. She was the person who wrote the check."
Sullivan also said that Allen, who oversaw the work and billed the Stevenses, withheld bills, not necessarily out of an attempt to enrich Stevens, but possibly because the bills were excessive or for work that was not done properly.
"You cannot report what you don't know," Sullivan said. "You can't fill out a form and say what's been kept from you by the deviousness of someone like Bill Allen."
Stevens paid $160,000 for the renovation, "which is exactly or close to what it should have been," Sullivan said.
Sullivan also attempted to explain away other items his client received, including a Viking gas grill, $20,000 in decorative lighting outside the Girdwood chalet, and the Land Rover, which Stevens got for his daughter in exchange for his 34-year-old Mustang and $5,000.
Sullivan said the gas grill arrived at the house for a charity function, was rarely used afterward, and was kept under padlock because it struck Stevens' wife as dangerous. "Catherine was frightened to death of it," Sullivan said. "She thought it would blow up the house, blow up the grandchildren."
When the senator asked Allen to put up his Christmas lights, Sullivan said, Stevens came home to find an elaborate and gaudy new lighting system set up.
"Catherine hated the lights. It made the house look like Joe's Bar & Grill," Sullivan said.
"I suppose Ted Stevens, the senator, should go home and get some climbing shoes on, go up and take them down, and send them back to Bill Allen?" Sullivan asked.
Sullivan also said the Mustang-Land Rover swap "was absolutely fair."
"You don't have to report a trade that you believe is fair," and Stevens "certainly had no intent to violate the law," Sullivan said.
The trial before U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan is expected to last a month. Stevens asked for a speedy trial in the hope that the proceedings would be completed by the time Alaskans vote Nov. 4 on whether to return him to the Senate for the seventh time.
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rick.schmitt@latimes.com
