SAN DIEGO — A hearing to determine if prosecutors in the "Fat Leonard" Navy bribery trial improperly withheld evidence has been postponed a day to give time for defense attorneys to continue to sift through hundreds of pages of discovery handed to them over the past few days.
The discovery — mostly emails and messages — included new evidence indicating investigators received authorization to pay prostitutes up to $5,000 in "reward" money to come to San Diego to testify in the case.
Five former U.S. naval officers are on trial, accused of taking bribes — including the services of prostitutes in Southeast Asian ports — from Singapore-based military contractor Leonard Glenn Francis, who is nicknamed for his immense physique. The trial, in its ninth week, is supposed to be the culmination of a sprawling investigation, spanning more than a decade, into the Navy's worst corruption scandal in modern history.
