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The League of Women Voters is in court attacking political maps drawn by lawmakers after voters said maps should be drawn fairly.  The trials second week was marked with conspiracy and political intrigue on center stage.

“Mr. Posada, thank you for being here. You are a college student at FSU” is how Alex Posada was greeting by House Speaker designate Will Weatherford in June 2011.

Nearly three year old testimony before a legislative redistricting committee by FSU Student Alex Posada has been the subject of conspiracy theories all week long.

“You’all done a great job here today” said Posada. It was that positive comment that led many to believe the college student help the state GOP  submit party drawn maps eventually adopted by lawmakers.

On the stand Tuesday, Republican map maker Frank Terrafirma was asked how a map submitted by Posada was identical to one Terraferma drew and circulated to GOP consultants. “Certainly it was a possibility that someone would file a map. I did not put a copyright on anything I did” responded the GOP’s House map maker.

The working theory at the beginning of the was that The GOP drew the maps, passed them on to a consultant who passed them on to the college student who submitted them at the absolute moment.

The theory changed radically when Posada was deposed. Under oath, he denied submitting the map later adopted…and says the email address used to submit it wasn’t his, even though it contained his name.

Then on Thursday, the judge took the unusual step of clearing the public from the courtroom as a GOP consultant discussed “trade secrets”

By Friday, Lawmakers began their defense of the maps…calling a USF researcher who has written extensively on black voter disenfranchisement. “Simply creating compact and contiguous districts is going to have a negative ramification on the election of minorities, both blacks and hispanics. His testimony sought to bolster GOP claims that drawing long, meandering districts for Blacks was a good thing.

The trial ends next week, with a decision due by the end of June. No matter which side wins, an appeal in this first of a kind trial is likely. If the League of Women voters can prove political influence was involved in the map drafting, they would likely have to be redrawn.