Kathleen Kane's defense rests without calling a single witness

NORRISTOWN — Kathleen Kane took the stand Friday, but only so the judge could ask her necessary questions — did she speak English, was her body free of drugs — that proved she was choosing to not testify on her own will.

“As I sit here and listen to the Commonwealth’s case,” Kane told Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy, “I don’t believe it’s necessary for me to testify in my own defense.”

And that was it. That was the end of Kane’s entire defense. It rested just before noon without calling a single witness. Kane’s perjury and obstruction case will resume Monday, with attorneys expected to give their closing arguments and Demchick-Alloy to charge the jury.

Before resting, Kane attorney Seth Rosenblum motioned for all the charges to be acquitted. Demchick-Alloy dismissed the motion, with Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele bringing up key parts of evidence and testimony the Commowealth had put forth this week.

Much of that evidence came Thursday. Former Kane consultant Joshua Morrow testified Kane asked him to the leak secret grand jury documents that were used in a June 6, 2014 Daily News article as a means of exacting revenge on former Office of the Attorney General employee Frank Fina. The prosecution provided text messages and a recorded phone call of a conversation between Morrow and John Lisko from April 22, 2014 in which Morrow told Lisko Kane had documents for him to leak.

The prosecution wrapped up its case Friday morning, calling Chris Brennan, who authored the allegedly leaked story, and Katherine Hicks, who was J. Whyatt Mondesire’s fiancé. Brennan, using his rights under Pennsylvania’s Shield Laws, declined to reveal his source for the Daily News story.

Kane’s defense’s decision to not call any witnesses was yet another bombshell in a trial that’s seen many the last two days. But then again, in the realm of Pennsylvania politics, how shocking was it?

On cross-examination, one of Kane’s attorneys asked if as a someone who covered politics in this area he was surprised to learn Mondesire had allegedly diverted checks to the NAACP to the other charity he was involved with.

“Almost nothing,” Brennan said, “surprises me.”