Salt Lake Tribune
October 2, 2003

Possible witness conversation prompts hearing

By Pamela Manson
The Salt Lake Tribune

A federal judge Wednesday ordered a hearing on whether a key witness in the trial of a Deseret Chemical Depot supervisor found guilty of falsifying air quality results spoke to other witnesses before they took the stand.
    
Defense attorneys said the conversation, if it took place, could have influenced testimony in the trial of David James Yarbrough, who was convicted July 30 by a jury of seven counts of making false statements to a government agency. They are seeking an acquittal or a new trial.
    
Judge Tena Campbell of U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City set a hearing date for Nov. 21. Defense lawyers also will present their claim that a prosecutor misstated Yarbrough's actions in his closing argument.
    
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Hirata told the judge at a Wednesday hearing that he believes his colleague did not misstate anything to the jury, but argued that even if he did, jurors had been told that closing arguments were not evidence and the verdict should stand.
    
And, he said, there's no evidence to prove that the witness talked about her testimony to co-workers.
    
Yarbrough, 58, was accused of omitting data or misreporting test numbers so monitoring units, which determine whether any toxic gases at the weapons destruction facility are being released, falsely appeared to be working, allegations that he adamantly denies.
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In a statement he released after his conviction, Yarbrough wrote, "I am still innocent, safety was paramount in every decision that I made regarding the Chemical Agent Safety Monitoring System."
    
Yarbrough, a worker at the Oquirrh Mountain Facility Plant at the depot, had been a civilian employee there for more than 20 years. Under an international treaty, workers are destroying the nation's stockpile of chemical weapons at the depot, which is about 40 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.