Judge bars photos in Goodyear trial: Appeal by defense delays start of case

Mar. 23--Under a landmark decision by a Knoxville federal magistrate judge, the public will be barred from viewing and jurors from later discussing key evidence in a rare case of alleged corporate espionage.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley has inked his approval to federal prosecutors' request for an order keeping secret the contents of seven photographs two Greenback engineers are accused of snapping via a cellular phone of equipment at a Goodyear plant in Topeka, Kan., in May 2007.

Attorneys Tom Dillard and Stephen Ross Johnson, who represent Clark Alan Roberts, and Doug Trant, who represents Sean Edward Howley, are appealing, prompting a delay Monday in a trade secrets trial that was set to begin today.

Roberts, who was the director of engineering at Wyko Tire Technology in Greenback, supervised engineer Howley at the time the pair went to the Goodyear plant. Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Weddle alleges the pair tricked their way into the plant with claims of servicing Wyko-manufactured equipment and secretly snapped photographs of a Goodyear device Wyko wanted to craft for a Chinese tire maker.

The FBI later raided Wyko, and Howley allegedly confessed, although he now is maintaining his innocence.

Federal prosecutors want to bar prying eyes from using a public trial to get an inside scoop on the Goodyear device, which is used in the manufacture of massive tires used on heavy-duty construction vehicles.

The defense countered that sealing the photographs and warning jurors not to discuss them post-trial could sway jurors to conclude the photos depict trade secrets. The engineers' defense centers on the notion that they do not.

Shirley noted he was facing a legal first under the laws at play, but a review of general case law convinced him the prosecutors should prevail.

"A certain absurdity exists in requiring Goodyear to publicly disclose the trade secrets at issue in a prosecution of the alleged theft and disclosure of those same trade secrets," he wrote.

"The defendants will not be prejudiced by this limited restriction on public dissemination inasmuch as the defendants already have these photographs, the jury and the Court will be able to view them, the defendants will have a trial open to the public, and the defendants will get to contest whether these photographs contain trade secrets or proprietary information at that public trial," he concluded.

Wyko itself is not accused in the alleged espionage. Neither Roberts nor Howley remain employed there.

The trial has been delayed until Nov. 30. The defense appeal will be heard April 14.

Jamie Satterfield may be reached at 865-342-6308.

To see more of The Knoxville News-Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.knoxnews.com . Copyright (c) 2010, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com , call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.