Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is an honorable, trusting man who was taken advantage of by a corrupt friend who provided expensive gifts, not the architect of a "master cover-up by a sinister senator," as portrayed by prosecutors at his corruption trial, his lawyer argued Tuesday.

The Justice Department is trying to twist skimpy evidence to make it seem that Stevens is a "mastermind of a conspiracy," instead of a respected World War II veteran whose Senate work kept him so busy he trusted others to renovate his remote Alaska cabin, famed defense lawyer Brendan Sullivan said.

"We're trying to convict an innocent man in this courtroom on an interpretation of evidence so far from real life it should make you sick," he told jurors.

The 84-year-old Stevens, the Senate's longest-serving Republican senator, is charged with lying on Senate financial disclosure forms about $250,000 in home renovations and other gifts he received from his friend, millionaire Bill Allen, who runs oil services company VECO Corp.

Stevens testified for three days and said he never asked for the rope lighting, furniture, gas grill, fully stocked tool chest or other items that kept appearing at his house.

He said he repeatedly pressed Allen to remove the unwanted items, and asked him frequently for bills for the renovation work that changed the modest A-frame cabin into a two-story home with wraparound decks, new electricity and plumbing, a sauna and a master-bedroom balcony.

"He's a very simple guy," Sullivan said. "He asked for no gifts, and he's got some guy foisting things" on him.

Prosecutors ridiculed Stevens' explanation as "nonsense" in their closing statements.

Prosecutor Joseph Bottini told jurors that Stevens surrounded himself with wealthy, generous friends who could be counted on to give gifts and who could be trusted to keep it quiet.

"Does anybody really believe that the defendant really can't get Bill Allen to stop giving him all this free stuff?" Bottini asked.

A New Orleans judge on Wednesday threw out indictments against the so-called "Danziger Seven", police officers accused of murder in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. District Judge Raymond Bigelow ruled that prosecutors had violated state law by revealing grand jury testimony to a witness in the case and had also issued incorrect instructions to the grand jury. The "Danziger Seven" were so named because of allegations that they shot mentally handicapped Ronald Madison as he crossed the Danziger Bridge in New Orleans to escape gunfire. Police say that Madison moved as if to pull out a gun just before they opened fire, but these statements were contradicted by autopsy results showing Madison had been shot in the back. Parish District Attorney Robert L. Freeman, Jr. said that prosecutors might appeal the decision.

New Orleans police faced intense criticism for their behavior after Katrina. Many have been accused of both brutality and deserting their posts. US federal prosecutions and convictions of law enforcement officers for alleged brutality have significantly increased in recent years, it was reported last year. Unspecified Department of Justice statistics indicated that prosecutions for the use of excessive force or other violations of victims' civil rights had risen 25 percent from 224 to 281 in 2001-2007 compared to the previous seven-year period. In a 1998 report Human Rights Watch called police brutality "one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States." HRW maintains an archive of letters and press releases from advocacy groups on the subject, and in 2006 raised concerns over prisons affected by Hurricane Katrina.

The attorney representing a Santa Clara County sheriff's deputy who struck and killed two competitive bicyclists in Cupertino said Wednesday that the officer had worked a lengthy shift the day before and that fatigue may have been a factor in the crash.

She would not confirm witness reports that the deputy, 27-year-old James Council, told people at the crash scene Sunday morning that he had fallen asleep at the wheel. Council "doesn't know what happened" when he veered across the center line of winding, two-lane Stevens Canyon Road, killing the two cyclists and injuring a third, attorney Mary Sansen said.

"The possibility exists," she said, "that we're never going to know what happened."

Two men who came upon the accident scene a short time after the crash said Council had said he thought he fell asleep. Since then, Council has not spoken, publicly or to investigators.

Sansen said in a lengthy interview in her Pleasant Hill office that prosecutors who must decide what charges, if any, to file in the case may need to look at Council's work schedule before the crash.

Council was 4 1/2 hours into a 12 1/2-hour shift when the accident occurred at 10:25 a.m. Sunday. He worked a 6 a.m.-to-6:30 p.m. shift on Saturday, the sheriff's office said, meaning that with the switch to daylight-saving time Sunday, Council had 10 1/2 hours off between shifts.

"A 12 1/2-hour shift is brutal," said Sansen, who specializes in representing law enforcement officers. "You're not sitting behind a desk. Even if you don't work in a high-crime area, you're always on alert for 12 1/2 hours. It is exhausting."

She added, "Nobody goes home at the end of a 12 1/2-hour shift and goes right to bed."