Coca-Cola espionage case to go to trial

updated 4:55 p.m. ET Sept. 28, 2006

ATLANTA - A federal magistrate judge has declared a case involving three people charged with conspiring to steal trade secrets from The Coca-Cola Co. ready for trial. No date was immediately set.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Gerrilyn Brill signed an order dated Wednesday and entered into the docket Thursday deeming the remaining defense motions filed in the case abandoned or withdrawn.

As such, she said the case is ready for trial. It will be up to a federal district court judge to set a trial date, after meeting with defense lawyers.

One of the defense lawyers in the case, Don Samuel, said a pretrial conference will likely be scheduled to discuss any remaining matters before trial.

Former Coca-Cola employee Joya Williams along with Ibrahim Dimson and Edmund Duhaney were indicted July 11 on a federal conspiracy charge that accuses them of stealing new product samples and confidential documents from Coke and trying to sell them to PepsiCo Inc.

The alleged crime was foiled after Pepsi warned Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, the world’s largest beverage maker. The three defendants have pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution says a box containing two undisclosed Coca-Cola product samples and other confidential company documents was found in Duhaney’s home during a search on July 5, the day all three were arrested and the same day a $1.5 million transaction was to occur.

Coke has declined to say what product or products the samples relate to.

Williams, who has since been fired as an administrative assistant for Coke’s global brand director at its Atlanta headquarters, allegedly took the information from the company and gave it to Dimson and Duhaney.

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