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The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame

Posted By: airforce

The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 01/17/2011 09:16 AM

Some of them are elected, such as county District Attorney's and, often, the Attorney General for the states. Others, like the U.S. Attorney General and other U.S. Attorney's are appointed by the President and ratified by Congress. All of them have a sworn duty to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and often of the state, county, or municipality over which they serve.

All of them have a duty sworn or otherwise, to serve justice. But these are political animals, and not all of them do.

Police do their work in public, where just about everyone these days has a recorder and a cell phone camera. Prosecutor's don't; they work behind closed, locked doors. Misdeeds by the police soon show up on YouTube; misdeeds by prosecutors do not. Only rarely are their unethical or criminal actions unearthed, and even then they are only rarely punished for them.

Well, we here at AWRM aim to change that. We're going to publicize their misdeeds. We're going to take their actions out of the shadows and shine the light of day on them.

To give you an example of what I'm talking about , here are a handful of actions by prosecutors just in the last year or so.

Tanya Treadway

Tried Kansas’ Dr. Stephen Schneider and his wife for over-prescribing pain medication. Tried to deny them access to a public defender, while also targeting their assets for forfeiture. During the trial, attempted to have an unconstitutional gag order imposed on pain patient advocate Siobhan Reynolds. Also tried to gag Schneider’s patients from speaking publicly in his defense. May have asked federal agents to visit the patients’ homes to intimidate them. Finally, launched a grand jury investigation of Reynolds, including a sweeping subpoena that caused her advocacy group, the Pain Relief Network, to fold. Reynolds was forbidden from sharing the contents of the subpoena or any of the briefs related to her challenge of the investigation. It was a blatant, abusive use of the grand jury to silence a critic of the government.

Kenny Hulsof

Turned a “tough on crime” record as a prosecutor into three terms in Congress, a GOP nomination for governor of Missouri, and nearly became president of the University of Missouri. Now works in a white shoe law firm as a D.C. lobbyist. Problem is, his “tough on crime” record includes at least two wrongful murder convictions due in large part to his failure to turn over exculpatory evidence. In both cases, Hulshof was excoriated by the judges who pronounced the wrongly convicted men innocent. In 2008, the A.P. found five other cases in which there is considerable evidence that Hulshof engaged in prosecutorial misconduct.

Carol Chambers

Probably not the most outrageous example on this list, but Chambers deserves strong consideration for at least giving us one of the most entertaining. When DNA testing showed that the evidence taken from a 9-year-old’s underwear didn’t match the mentally disabled man police had arrested for breaking into her room and groping her, Colorado DA Chambers insisted she still had the right guy. She based her opinion on the rather awesome legal argument that . . . little girls tend to dress kinda’ slutty these days.

Jim Hood

Mississippi’s Attorney General has been a steadfast defender of disgraced medical examiner Steven Hayne and fraudulent “bite mark expert” Michael West, and has fought any attempt to hold them accountable. In 2009, Hood gave his okay to a plan by Mississippi’s coroners to bring Hayne back to resume his autopsy business in the state. When the state legislature considered a bill in March that would have effectively barred Hayne again, Hood actively lobbied against it. Hood’s office has fought to prevent Eddie Lee Howard from getting a new trial, arguing that Howard is procedurally barred from raising Michael West as an issue in his post-conviction petitions. West’s long-discredited bite mark expertise is the only physical evidence linking Howard, who is on death row, to the scene of the crime for which he was convicted. And then there’s Hood long and cozy relationship with Mississippi’s unseemlier trial lawyers . . .

Delores Carr

Santa Clara County, California’s district attorney ran for the office in 2006 on a platform of ending what she called a “win at all costs” mentality that plagues too many prosecutors. She then spent much of her time in office fighting like hell to cover up and minimize a massive scandal in which her office failed to turn over exculpatory evidence in thousands of sex abuse cases. When the California bar disciplined a member of her staff in 2009 for misconduct in four cases, Carr fought to strip the bar of its power to discipline prosecutors. In February, when a judge released an accused sex offender because Carr’s office failed to turn over a videotape with the alleged victim that called into question whether the assault had ever happened, Carr announced that her office would be boycotting the judge.

Andy Thomas

During his time as Maricopa County Attorney, Thomas basically served as Joe “America’s Most Thuggish Sheriff” Arpaio’s enabler. Thomas used his office to intimidate political opponents, had a series of questionable convictions, and indicted or investigated county officials, officials in other counties, and even a judge who dared to question him or Arpaio. The good news from last year is that he lost his bid to become Arizona attorney general, and he may soon be disbarred.

Lynn Switzer

The Texas DA is trying execute convicted murderer Hank Skinner without first testing crime scene DNA evidence that could establish Skinner’s innocence.

Greg Zoeller

When it was brought to his attention that county prosecutors across the state were routinely and systematically abusing the state’s forfeiture laws by keeping proceeds for themselves, their offices, local police department, and private attorneys instead of sending them to a designated schools fund as required by the state’s constitution, Zoeller, Indiana’s Attorney General and hence its highest-ranking law enforcement official, said it wasn’t his problem. It took an Indiana law firm suing the county prosecutors to finally attract Zoeller’s interest. Unfortunately, he announced that his office would be defending the country prosecutors and their routine, illegal, and probably unconstitutional misuse of forfeiture funds.

Scott Southworth

After the state of Wisconsin passed the Healthy Youth Act, which instructs public school officials to teach age-appropriate sex education to students, District Attorney Southworth fired off a letter to the schools in his district warning personnel that he could possibly charge them with sex crimes if they complied with the law.

Eleanor Odom

During a highly-publicized 2007 trial of two parents accused of murdering one of their children, Odom took the occasion of the dead child’s birthday to . . . pull out a cake, dim the courtroom lights, place and light candles, and lead the prosecution in a ghoulish rendition of Happy Birthday to the dead kid’s ghost. The gimmick not only helped win a conviction, it helped Odom win a regular commentary gig on Nancy Grace’s show. Oh, and she has since thrown her hat in the ring for a judicial opening.

As always, I need your help. If you know of a prosecutor who has acted unethically or criminally, or who perverts justice by his inaction, let us know.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 01/17/2011 09:51 AM

And we have our first entry .

Quote
A state grand jury in Winkler County, Tex., has indicted the sheriff, the county attorney and a hospital administrator for their roles in orchestrating the prosecution of two whistle-blowing nurses after they had reported allegations of malpractice.

The sheriff, Robert L. Roberts Jr., and county attorney, Scott M. Tidwell, each face six counts, including misuse of official information and retaliation, which are third-degree felonies. Stan Wiley, the administrator of Winkler County Memorial Hospital, in the dusty West Texas town of Kermit, was indicted on two counts of retaliation.
Boy, that was quick.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: The Greywolf

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 01/17/2011 12:09 PM

I sure everyone feels the same way...

I want to thank you, Airforce, for your constant vigil against bad raids and bad prosecutors.

Thanks Brother,

It should make every patriot think about how easy it is to find yourself on the other end of these criminals.
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 01/17/2011 03:58 PM

Glad you like my work, Greywolf. I've been thinking about a thread like this for some time, but I figured the only one interested would be me. We'll see how popular this is.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 01/18/2011 09:05 AM

I almost have to admire the guy. I mean, he takes prosecutorial immunity to a whole new level .

Quote
The former Wisconsin district attorney who resigned amid a sexting scandal says he's immune from a lawsuit filed by a crime victim who claims she was sexually harassed by him.

Ken Kratz says he was a public official at the time of the alleged harassment and is claiming both absolute immunity and qualified immunity.

Those are legal doctrines that shield government officials in certain cases from being sued for a violation of a person's constitutional rights.


Kratz's argument was filed Friday in a response to a federal lawsuit filed by Stephanie Van Groll.

Kratz admitted sending suggestive text messages to Van Groll while he was prosecuting her ex-boyfriend. At least four other women have said Kratz made inappropriate sexual advances toward them.
I don't see how sending lewd, offensive come-ons to the girl friend of a domestic violence suspect falls under the scope of the prosecutor's official duties. But then, manufacturing evidence to convict an innocent person apparently does, so who knows.

Here are his text messages.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 01/25/2011 12:44 PM

Sherri Bevan Walsh.

A single mother, Kelley Williams-Bolar, claimed her children lived with their grandfather rather than with her, to get her children into a better school district. They could have simply transferred her kids back to the bad school. Instead, the prosecutor's office decided to charge her with two felonies , claiming she had somehow defrauded the school district of $30,000. She was sentenced to five years in prison, but Judge Cosgrove suspended all but ten days of it.

And the judge had some harsh words for the prosecutor's office, too:

Quote
Cosgrove said the county prosecutor’s office refused to consider reducing the charges to misdemeanors, and that all closed-door talks to resolve the case — outside of court — met with failure...

Cosgrove said numerous pretrial hearings were held since last summer.

”The state would not move, would not budge, and offer Ms. Williams-Bolar to plead to a misdemeanor,” the judge said in an interview Wednesday.

”Of course, I can’t put a gun to anybody’s head and force the state to offer a plea bargain.”…

Late Wednesday, Cosgrove issued a news release to area newspapers and television and radio stations, citing the need to respond to ”overwhelming public interest” in her sentencing decision.

”The Summit County Prosecutor’s Office retains complete control over whether to charge a person with a felony or a misdemeanor,” the release stated.

Cosgrove’s bailiff said the office had been bombarded by calls from angry area residents, most of whom were saying that Williams-Bolar’s punishment far exceeded her crimes.
Well, yeah.

The Judge said she would probably expunge the record once Kelley Williams-Bolar completes six months of probation.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/03/2011 09:22 AM

Spokane Preosecutor Steve Tucker. He won't prosecute a deputy in the Spokane County Sheriff's Department for killing 74-year-old church pastor and business owner Wayne Scott Creach. Why not?

Because Deputy Brian Hirzel "has more protection under the law" than some lowly average citizen.

Quote
...Hirzel shot Creach late on Aug. 25 in the parking lot of Creach’s greenhouse business in Spokane Valley. Hirzel was in an unmarked car and did not alert the business owner before parking there to watch for activity in the neighborhood in response to a neighbor’s call.

Alan Creach, the pastor’s son, said he and his brother, Ernie Creach, don’t believe investigators have taken the time to challenge key elements of the investigation regarding the few seconds in which the confrontation took place.

“I’m not surprised,” Creach said after meeting with Tucker and learning his decision. “A man is lying dead from protecting his own property. We were all under the impression that we were protected by amendments that allow us to protect ourselves and carry weapons without fear of losing our lives.” (...)
Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Lord Vader

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/03/2011 06:20 PM

Quote
Originally posted by airforce:
Spokane Preosecutor Steve Tucker. He won't prosecute a deputy in the Spokane County Sheriff's Department for killing church 74-year-old church pastor and business owner Wayne Scott Creach. Why not?

Because Deputy Brian Hirzel "has more protection under the law" than some lowly average citizen.

Quote
...Hirzel shot Creach late on Aug. 25 in the parking lot of Creach’s greenhouse business in Spokane Valley. Hirzel was in an unmarked car and did not alert the business owner before parking there to watch for activity in the neighborhood in response to a neighbor’s call.

Alan Creach, the pastor’s son, said he and his brother, Ernie Creach, don’t believe investigators have taken the time to challenge key elements of the investigation regarding the few seconds in which the confrontation took place.

“I’m not surprised,” Creach said after meeting with Tucker and learning his decision. “A man is lying dead from protecting his own property. We were all under the impression that we were protected by amendments that allow us to protect ourselves and carry weapons without fear of losing our lives.” (...)
Onward and upward,
airforce
It has been said don't take the Law into your Own Hands, take them to Court, but what happens when there is no Justice for the common Citizen in the Courts, maybe the People will just take the Law into their Own Hands.

If a loved one was Murdered I would give the Legal System a chance to dispense Justice but if the System refused to give me Justice and especially if the Murderer had immunity then I would get Justice my own way.

And eventually the People are going to get so disgusted and sick that Cops are getting away with Murder and other crimes against the People that one or more people are going to snap and when that happens Cops will start dying. And this may be the start of the revolution.

Cops are among the most stupid and ignorant people, they are the ones who are too stupid to become Doctors and Lawyers and they are so stupid that they have no idea what will happen when the Pandora's Box is fully open. But they will eventually wish that they had never pushed the People beyond the limit of endurance, but by then it will be way too late.

What I don't understand is why at least some of the People have not already crossed the Line from Law Abiding Citizen to Outlaw.
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/03/2011 06:45 PM

Quote
Originally posted by Sniper_762X51:
Cops are among the most stupid and ignorant people... But they will eventually wish that they had never pushed the People beyond the limit of endurance, but by then it will be way too late.
They're not stupid. In fact, here in Tulsa, all of the have at least a bachelor's degree. And they are smart enough to learn exactly what the prosecutors and District Attorneys have taught them.

As you know, I write a lot about mistakes police officers make. But, in most cases, I'm reluctant to assign all the blame to them. It's time for the prosecutors and judges to have the spotlight shine on them for a change.

So, Steve Tucker, welcome to my gallery.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: 5.56

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/04/2011 12:14 AM

quote:Originally posted by Sniper_762X51:

Cops are among the most stupid and ignorant people, they are the ones who are too stupid to become Doctors and Lawyers and they are so stupid that they have no idea what will happen when the Pandora's Box is fully open.


Help me out here, Are YOU a Doctor or a lawyer? Are you saying that anyone who is not a Doctor or a Lawyer is stupid? That is what it looks like to me.

But again it sounds more like a career crimenal speaking than a concerned citizen. There are alot of mistakes made by law enforcement. Most are not made with malice and for-thought. I wonder if you are able to make a split-second decision under stress and fear in a dark alley.

For all of the men and women that do serve and protect with honor and professional service to the community I find your statements to be in extreme poor taste. I have known in real life two officers that gave their lives attempting to protect the community.

I see conduct that is questionable to say the least that gets reported. However it is not the entire Law enforcement community that acts this manner. Unless you have worked in Law Enforcement do not judge all officers to be tainted. If you have had trouble with the Law, I can see how and why with the attitude you have shown here towards officers. With your "tude" I would not have cut you any slack either.

5.56
Posted By: green demon

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/04/2011 03:42 AM

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Sniper_762X51:
Cops are among the most stupid and ignorant people... But they will eventually wish that they had never pushed the People beyond the limit of endurance, but by then it will be way too late.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank You 5.56. I am a LEO in Missouri and I work for the public. The Lawyers and Judges are the corrupt ones here. My department works hard to put solid cases together, but the Prosecutors and the Judges let the suspects off.

Here in this county if you write a bad check or don't pay your child support they throw the book at you. If you are a multi offender and in front of the judge every other month with drug charges or assaults, you get probation. I was in a 14 min fight with a guy who was high on PCP and Meth, he got probation.

I know that some LEO's give us a bad name, but most of us are good people and cops. Don't bad mouth all LEO's. We are not stupid, we have to make life and death decisions in a split second. If we are wrong the public has days, months, and years to critize. Put your self in my shoes for a few hours. Lets see if you can do my job.

Green Demon
Posted By: Lord Vader

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/04/2011 11:42 AM

5.56
So you want to make this personal by calling me a Criminal do you. OK lets play.

For anyone interested I am trying to not get insulting or use any personal attack even though I have been insulted by being called a Criminal, I am trying to be nice, which is not easy for me.

Now On With The Show

You are making a lot of Assumptions that are totally incorrect and that is the type of attitude that causes a lot of these problems where Cops kill Innocent People.

Let me begin by telling you what I think you are or what you are not.

You are not a Freedom Fighter, and you are not a Patriot at least not in my view of what a Patriot is.

You Mr 5.56 are a Cop Lover who worships those Badge Wearing walking piles of Pig Excrement AKA Badge Wearing Criminals and Mobsters, commonly know as Cops and during the coming Civil War or Revolution I do not know in which direction your weapon will be aimed. My personal opinion of you is that you are a lot more likely to be on the side of the Cops then on the side of the Freedom Fighters and this also goes for Mr green demon.

Anyone who defends Cops to the extent that some of the Members here do, are not to be trusted.

Now this does not mean that every member of this board or other Patriot Board who is a Cop is not to be trusted, it is just those who want to Hang the Messengers of the Truth and seem to always defend Cops who are not to be trusted. Also I would have a very hard time trusting anyone who is a Cop unless I knew him very very very well, since I don't trust anyone with divided Loyalties, and this goes for people with duel Citizenships.

Now about my attitude toward Cops, it is the way I have been treated by Cops and my friends have been treated by Cops that is the cause of my attitude toward Cops, not the other way around.

Now as to my working in Law Enforcement, at one time I did Carry a Badge and before you make any asinine comments it was not a Rent a Cop Badge and I had full arrest powers. I gave it up since I did not like having those powers and using them so I went back to being a normal person.

It is funny that you should in effect call me a Career Criminal, since that is what Cops are. Cops are, or at least most Cops are Career Criminals that is just the truth. They are Badge Wearing Mobsters and anyone who does not have his nose and face buried up a Cops stinking Posterior knows this to be the Truth and a Fact.

I have a very very good friend who had Cops come to his Home and steal money he had in his Home while they had him in cuffs in the back of their PigMobile and when they realized they had had made a mistake and released him my friend found his home to be a freaking mess and when he opened the drawer where he had his money in there was only a Single Twenty Dollar Bill and he had Two Thousand Dollars in that Drawer. I asked a personal friend who happens to be one of the best Attorneys in my area if there was anything that could be legally done to get my friends money back and he told me, it was the Cops word against the Citizen and the System always takes the word of the Stinking Cop. My friend the Attorney also told me that Cops stealing like what happened to my friend was common knowledge among Attorneys, and my friend was not the first person this happened to and would not be the last.

And here is something else that happened to one of my very good friends.

I have a friend who owned an A&W Root Beer Restaurant in a small town near where I lived and my friend was not a Happy Camper about the Local Cops showing up at his Rear Door to get free Coffee etc. Oh and this was nice Small Town where the Cops were considered to be Good Cops.

And then there is the Case of the Cop in another nearby small town who was so bad everyone hated him.

The Regular Residents of that Town Hated Him.

The Town Politicians Hated Him.

The Chief of Police had a very strong Dislike of Him.

And even his Brother Officers did not like Him.

Oh and this was another nice Town and the Chief was Pro Gun.

This Bad Cop was once caught in a Motel Room with an Underage Girl.

This Bad Cop located a Stolen Mini-Bike and instead of turning it in to the Department, kept it for his own Son to use.

And he was fired for what he did but the State Civil Service Commission ordered him to be reinstated, go figure the logic or lack of those Commissioners.

And here is a real BAD COP.

This Cop in a small Town In Rhode Island Actually Murdered several young men who were working on a car at a Garage. Fortunately one of these young men was under a Car and had a very good view while this Murdering Bastard shot and killed several unarmed Citizens.

Now are all Cops Criminals, all meaning 100%, of course not, even Nazis were not 100% bad and there were at least two Nazis who were actually Good People. One was the one that a Movie was made about and the other one saved the lives of many Chinese from Japanese Soldiers during Japan's War with China.

No group of people, or at least very few groups of people is totally Bad or totally Good, but the difference between a Good Group with some Bad People in it and a Bad Group with some Good People in it, is the Ratio of Good to Bad in the Group.

Cop Lovers like you and Mr green demon and other fake Patriots who are Members of this board always have the attitude that you don't throw out the Barrel because of One Bad Apple, what these self serving Members never mention is exactly How Many Bad Apples does it take before the entire Barrel should be put in the trash.

What Percentage of Good Apples to Bad Apples need to be in the Barrel before the Barrel is worth saving, 1%, 10% what Percentage needs to be Good to make that barrel worth saving or what Percentage needs to be BAD before the entire barrel gets tossed into the Garbage.

And there is also this, exactly what or who is a Good Cop or a Bad Cop.

Is it only Cops who Beat Up and even Kill Innocent Citizens or is it also all the other Cops who look the other way when one of their Brother Cops violate the Rights of a Citizen.

This Question is for Mr. green demon, since Mr 5.56 did not mention at least in this Topic if he is an Officer, and any other Cops who are Members.

If you witnessed one of your Brothers in Blue or Green or whatever violating the Rights of an Innocent Citizen maybe by beating him up would you take any action against your Brother Officer in defense of the Citizen, even to include drawing your weapon and if necessary firing it. And would you also cross the so called Blue Line and Testify for a Citizen and against another Cop?

Going by my definition of Bad Cop, the Ratio of Bad Cops to Good Cops is very high maybe even greater then 90% Bad and to my way of thinking that is enough to toss out the entire barrel and rebuild Law Enforcement from the bottom, and the truth is that it should be Peace keepers instead of Law Enforcers.

Now as to my being a Doctor or Lawyer, no I am not. I do not like people enough to be a Doctor and I also don't like having my hands inside any Body so I am also not a Veterinarian. Now although I do have an interest in Law I was never into it enough to want to be an Attorney.

So maybe I should rephrase what I posted about Cops being too stupid to become Doctors or Lawyers.

Cops are too stupid to be Assembly Level Computer Programmers.

See I am not a Doctor, oh by the way that should be Medical Doctor since there is more then one type of Doctor, and I am not an Attorney, but I am or at least was a Main Frame Computer Assembly Level Programmer.

And since you most likely do not know what Assemble Level is I will explain. An Assembly Level Programmer Programs or Codes a Computer using what is referred to as an Assembler, and it is one step above Machine Language, and Machine Language is using the Binary numbering system. 000111 010101 111100 those are binary numbers. Assembly Programming uses the Hexadecimal also known as Base 16 Numbering System. 1A 4B 7E are Hexadecimal Numbers and that is how I used to Program IBM Computers. OH I also used to use Compiler Level Languages like COBOL and FORTRAN I also used to know BASIC but I never needed to use it.
Posted By: Lord Vader

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/04/2011 12:35 PM

Quote
Originally posted by airforce:
Quote
Originally posted by Sniper_762X51:
[b]Cops are among the most stupid and ignorant people... But they will eventually wish that they had never pushed the People beyond the limit of endurance, but by then it will be way too late.
They're not stupid. In fact, here in Tulsa, all of the have at least a bachelor's degree. And they are smart enough to learn exactly what the prosecutors and District Attorneys have taught them.

As you know, I write a lot about mistakes police officers make. But, in most cases, I'm reluctant to assign all the blame to them. It's time for the prosecutors and judges to have the spotlight shine on them for a change.

So, Steve Tucker, welcome to my gallery.

Onward and upward,
airforce [/b]
I think I need to define what I consider one definition of Stupidity.

By the way I don't consider a Bachelors Degree in the Liberal Arts to be any proof of Intelligence since I have known a lot of people with degrees who don't have the Intelligence of an Ape.

So what is Stupid?

Is it only people who have a low IQ who are stupid or does it include people who although they have at least an average IQ they do things that are very stupid.

I have a High IQ but I have done some very stupid things both with Motorcycles and on Horseback and on the ground with Horses. Now most of these stupid things I did, I did knowing they were stupid and dangerous but I was and in a way still am a Daredevil and risk taker, but it doesn't mean these things were any less stupid.

So now I will get to Cop Stupidity.

One reason Cops are stupid is although they have a job where their lives can be endangered they instead of wanting Citizens to be their friends, who would help them, seem to go out of their way to deliberately tick off regular people and make enemies out of them. Anyone who thinks having enemies is better then having friends has more then a few screws lose.

Cops are outnumbered on the street and to my way of thinking it is a lot better to have people who will help you then people who will laugh when you get in trouble, but Cops don't think that way and they only want to be friends with other Cops.

There was a case a while ago where a Texas Cop, or I think it was Texas, was attacked by some real Criminal or maybe it was a Mental Case and the Criminal got hold of the Cops weapon. Guess what happened, instead of the people helping the Cop or at least wanting to help the Cop, the people who were gathered all told the man with the Cops weapon to off the Cop, they wanted this Scum sucker to kill the Cop. That is now the way it should be but it is that way. Sometimes it is because the people watching are themselves Criminals and sometimes it is because they are like me and have been harmed or their friends or Loved Ones have been harmed by Cops in the past.

And then there is this.

There was a CHP Officer who got into a shootout with some real Criminals who were robbing a Gas Station and this Officer got shot and was in deep shit and a regular Citizen showed up and helped this Officer. This Citizen went in harms way to pull the Officer out of the line of fire and also grabbed the Officer's Shot Gun and fired on the Criminals.

So the way I look at it any Cop who doesn't care if he makes enemies out of people who may someday be in a position to help him and maybe even save his Life is STUPID.

And this is for 5.56 and green demon

If some Scum Sucker was about to remove you from the pool of the Living would you want me to help you or just drive away and not give a Rats Rear about you.

Just call me a Mental Case but if I were a Cop I would want someone to help me even if that person was not a Brother Officer.

And now something that you two don't expect, if I came across a Cop who was in danger of being killed by a real Criminal and I had the capability of helping I would help the Cop even if I had to go in Harms Way since if I have to chose between a Cop who may or may not be a Good Person and a Criminal who I know is a Bad Person, I will help the Cop and hope he is deserving of my help.
Posted By: Tuscarora

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/04/2011 05:24 PM

No one needs or wants your help Sniper.

You are dogshit.

To know this one only has to take a cross section of your posts over the past year.

You have advocated crimes against innocent bystanders if they don't choose to help you. As a "patriot" you have no concept of INDIVIDUAL liberty.

You deride some of the most honorable people in this country, namely law enforcement, (nearly 40% of which across the country happen to be veterans) and encourage nothing less than their murder.

You are a liar, demonstrated by the fact that you make one statement, then make a pathetic attempt to twist it when it is criticized for what it is.

Hopefully the patriot LEO's in RI are worth their salt and have weapons pointed squarely in your direction.

I doubt there is little if anything you have been sucessful at in life. You are a weak person and that is okay. Instead of directing your frustration and hatred at the LAST group of people who deserve it, how about accepting their help? You won't because you have a childish aversion to authority figures and wish to attack them.

If in the event things go wrong, a much higher percentage of former LEO's will choose the side of liberty than the gereral population.

As evidenced by your posts, it seems you fit the predatory criminal profile.

Humanity, and the cause of freedom, has no use for you.
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/04/2011 07:11 PM

Cease fire, guys. And that means all of you. Personal attacks will stop right now.

I have nothing against cops. Heck, I used to be one, and I'm still a corrections officer at the jail. I'm not anti-cop (though, in all honesty, I am against sworn police officers who are employed by, and beholden to, the state). Almost all the cops that I've ever met really wanted to serve the public. And most of them really do, although all of them wind up enforcing laws that shouldn't be laws. (I quit being a cop because I was sick and tired of fighting a a hopeless and counter-productive War on Drugs.)

When they go beyond that, well, I write about them. But this thread is not about police. This thread is about prosecutors. Want to know why so many cops are bad? Because prosecutors let them. In fact, all too often they encourage it.

Cops get the brunt of the criticism, because everyone sees them. They're out in public, wearing uniforms that identify them, and driving cars that identify them. Prosecutors don't. If you saw one of your county prosecutors outside the courtroom, I doubt you would know who he was.

But he's the fellow who enforces bad laws. He's the one who will try to send you to prison for buying too much Sudafed for your allergies, or for giving a massage without a license, or for sending your children to the wrong school. And if a police officer injures or kills an innocent person, he's the one who is going to defend the cop.

If prosecutors really did their duty, so would the police. Sort of gives you an idea about how many good prosecutors there are, doesn't it?

I started this topic because I thought it was time to put the blame where it belongs. Prosecutors aren't the only ones to shoulder the responsibility, of course--but the bad ones are more deserving of our scorn than the cops are.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/17/2011 01:46 PM

It's pretty much acknowledged that Evan Daniel Emory is a jerk . Evidently learning his sense of humor from Sasha Baron Cohen , he got permission from Beachnau Elementary School officials in Ravenna, Michigan, to record himself singing "Lunch Lady Land" to a bunch of six-year-olds, saying he wanted to use the video as part of his application to a school of education.

Actually, he was planning a comedy bit. He dubbed in sexually profane lyrics, and made it appear that he sang them to the children, and posted it to YouTube. (I failed to see much comedy in it. But then, I didn't think Borat was real funny, either.)

School officials and parents didn't see the humor, either. I think there's grounds for a civil lawsuit here. After all, he lied to school officials, and he had children appear in a YouTube video--although the kids never saw or heard the suggestive lyrics. (The video has since been taken down.) But I don't see anything criminal in it, except possibly the fraud used to get permission from school administrators. And this could be remedied in the civil suit.

Enter Muskegon County Prosecutor Tony Tague.

Quote
"The bottom line in this case is that he walked into a classroom and took advantage and victimized every single child in that classroom," Tague said.

"This case is very disturbing to law enforcement officials. We have launched a full-fledged investigation with the sheriff."

Tague said Michigan law 'provides penalty' for those who actually manufacture child sexual abusive material "but also has a provision for those who make it appear that the children were actually abused."
Emory has been arrested and charged with a felony that could get him 20 years in prison.

A little excessive, don't you think? But if it was Sasha Baron Cohen, I probably wouldn't mind.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/17/2011 02:07 PM

Wow, I feel stupid, I missed this topic somehow in the flurry of work I had in the last few weeks. Take some days off to catch up and find...this.

Good work Airforce. I think a lot of people see the cops as the problem because cops are usually the ones who are taking the action which gives people the problem, not fully realizing that the real strategies are spelled out by people in the prosecutors offices who long since did enough homework and influence peddling with senior law enforcement to make sure that "the right kinds of people" are doing the dirty work at the lower levels of law enforcement.

Ending or seriously curtailing immunity is a good goal to work for. Tell me folks, looking ten, twenty or even fifty years ahead to a Restored Republic, even if it is just a small confederacy of states, would you retain the current levels of prosecutorial immunity?
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/17/2011 03:05 PM

Quote
Originally posted by Breacher:
Tell me folks, looking ten, twenty or even fifty years ahead to a Restored Republic, even if it is just a small confederacy of states, would you retain the current levels of prosecutorial immunity?
I reckon you know my answer to that question! wink

Glad you like my work, Breacher, but I can't do this alone. If you know of a district attorney or prosecutor who deserves to be here, please let me know.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: J. Croft

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/17/2011 03:28 PM

Well, there's only two ways of handling this that WILL work:

Vote out the entire corrupt local government via emergency recall vote, then once in clean out all the dirtbags. I've covered this before but most people are content with internet bitching...

Or follow the legendary Western Rancher's Advice-shoot, shovel and SHUT UP.

Only two options anyone's got. Internet bitching isn't getting anywhere is it?
Posted By: J. Croft

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/17/2011 03:29 PM

Oh, Airforce, I'm going to put this thread up as a permanent link on my website. Maybe I'll even add a few names...
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/17/2011 03:33 PM

Quote
Originally posted by J. Croft:
Oh, Airforce, I'm going to put this thread up as a permanent link on my website. Maybe I'll even add a few names...
Thank you, sir. The more light we shine on these jerks, the better.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/01/2011 01:22 PM

Let's add Ohio's Cuyahoga County Prosecutor William Mason who, according to the Cleveland Plain...ving little or no evidence against them.

Quote
A Plain Dealer analysis of court records from the past 10 years revealed that in the 6,891 trials between 2000 and 2009, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judges acquitted 364 defendants in midtrial, [b]usually without waiting for the defense to present its case.

That means one out of every 19 people who went to trial on felony charges walked away free because prosecutors didn’t present the most basic evidence.

Ohio judges have the power to dismiss charges in criminal cases if they determine insufficient evidence was presented at trial to support a conviction. The authority comes from Rule 29 of the Ohio Rules of Criminal Procedure. Judges must view the evidence in the light most favorable to prosecutors when considering whether to grant a Rule 29 acquittal. The ruling cannot be appealed.

Judges relied on Rule 29 of the Ohio Rules of Criminal Procedure to throw out the cases. The provision allows judges to acquit if they believe the evidence, even when viewed in a light most favorable to prosecutors, is insufficient to convict.
What caught my attention was this story about a jury who not only took a mere half hour to acquit one of Mr. Mason's victims, but at least three of the jurors offered to donate their jury pay to the defendant:

Quote
Jurors are so convinced that a Cleveland teen should not have been charged with assaulting another teen that they've gone beyond acquitting him. A few are writing angry letters to police and intend to donate their jury pay to him. At least three jurors plan to give the $100 they received to sit on the jury to defendant Demrick McCloud, 19, if McCloud earns a high school equivalency degree. They took only 30 minutes to find him not guilty in their deliberations Friday.

Most of the jury could not be reached for comment, but three members complained of a "sheer lack of evidence."

They said the prosecution's case hinged on the victim identifying McCloud as an attacker. But the victim also had told police he was certain another boy -- later found to be in school at the time -- was one of the assailants.

As they were leaving the courthouse, jurors Ana de Freitas Boe, an English professor at Baldwin-Wallace College; Jeanne Knotek, an obstetrician and gynecologist; and alternate juror Richard Nagin discussed ways to help McCloud.

The three have committed to donating their jury stipend to a fund for McCloud. Boe said the amount is too small to compensate McCloud for his jail time, but the jurors intend it as a "show of support."

"He seemed like a decent kid who was falsely accused," Nagin said.
It's nice to see an indignant jury every now and then.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/04/2011 05:49 AM

Say hello to Charles County, Md. prosecutor Tiffany L. Rodenberger . I didn't think anyone was still prosecuting those "recovered memory" sex abuse cases, but she is. And, absent any evidence against Michael Rasmussen, she's pulling out all the stops.

Mr. Rasmussen is accused of sexually molesting his now-adult daughter. The prosecution has that shaky (and pretty much discredited) "recovered memory" testimony, and that's about it. No corroborating evidence, not other witnesses, nada. But Ms. Rosenberger sure can drag the case out until Mr. Rasmussen can no longer afford his own attorney, and will have to rely on a public defender, and she seems intent on doing that. But her latest tactic goes beyond even that.

She kept Mr. Rasmussen in solitary confinement (for his own protection, naturally), and [b]refused to let his shower or shave for a week prior to the start of his trial. Then she had him brought into the courtroom in his jail jumpsuit, dirty, smelly, and unshaven. (His wife had brought him clean clothes for his trial, but she would not allow him to change clothes.)

The intent, of course, was to make him look and smell like a degenerate in front of the jury, on the first day of his trial.

Fortunately, the tactic didn't work. The trial was postponed, and no jury saw Mr. Rasmussen in that unkempt condition. And apparently the judge caught on to this tactic, as well. Mr. Rasmussen is now in the Prince Georges County jail, has his own cell, is now permitted to shower, has clean clothes, and can once again have visitors.

And a lot more people are watching this trial now, too. There seems to be little doubt that, without suborning perjury, Tiffany Rodenberger has no case. I will almost certainly have more on this trial later.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/08/2011 02:18 PM

Monroe County, Tennessee, District Attorney Steven Bebb, made my eyeballs explode. But he's just one of the bad guys in this one, in which two Monroe County Sheriff\'s detectives posed as "federal" defense attorneys in order to get incriminating information from the suspect, John Edward Dawson. They even talked Mr. Dawson into refusing to cooperate with his real attorney, and into pleading guilty.

When all this finally became known, his real attorney asked for a continuance, so she could assess the damage. Incredibly, Judge Amy Reed refused the request, saying Mr. Dawson had "picked his poison."

Not surprisingly, the appeals court disagreed (15 pages, pdf format) :

Quote
[T]he conduct of the law enforcement officers in this case, and in particular Detective Henry, is so egregious that it simply cannot go unchecked. That Detective Henry would illegally pose as an attorney and arrange the circumstances of the defendant’s case to make it appear as though he had successfully undertaken legal representation of the defendant is abhorrent. That the detective would specifically instruct the defendant not to communicate the relationship to his appointed counsel, in what we can only assume was an effort to enlarge the time for the detective to gain incriminating information from the defendant, renders completely reprehensible the state action in this case. Given the unconscionable behavior of the state actors in this case and the fact that the defendant was essentially prevented from proving prejudice through no fault of his own, we have no trouble concluding that the only appropriate remedy in this case is the dismissal of all the indictments.
DA Bebb not only didn't stop it, he actually somehow persuaded Judge Reed to overlook it:

Quote
During a hearing on the issue, Sheriff Bivens testified that he was vaguely aware of Henry’s plot and did not see “a problem with it,” adding, however that “if it’s illegal, of course, I don’t want to do it.” Bivens did not order a probe of Henry’s actions or take any disciplinary action; nor did Bebb initiate charges of impersonating a lawyer.
For sure, John Edward Dawson is no angel. I find it hard to believe that he would be walking around free if they hadn't tried to pull this one off.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Tuscarora

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/08/2011 04:47 PM

Law is law. LEO's should be the last ones willing to bend it, much less conduct themselves in such a dishonorable and outright illegal manner.

So sad.
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/09/2011 03:04 PM

Here's an update to the post above featuring Prosecutor Tony Tague and YouTube prankster (and all-around jerk) Evan Daniel Emory. You may recall that Mr. Emory edited a video to amke it appear he sang a song filled with suggestive lyrics to a bunch of first graders and posted it on YouTube. Prosecutor Tague then had Emory arrested and charged with producing child pornography, a charge which could have netted him 20 years. Never mind that the video contained no "sexual intercourse, erotic fondling, sadomasochistic abuse, masturbation, passive sexual involvement, sexual excitement, or erotic nudity," which means it wasn't pornography to begin with. Even if Mr. Emory had sung that song to a bunch of first graders, he couldn't be charged under that statute.

Well now prosecutor Tague is apparently ready to cut a deal with Emory. But, incredibly, he still defends the original charge :

Quote
Mr. Tague defends his original charge but says he wants to resolve the case in a way "that will send a message that this is wrong but will not ruin the young man's life."

One path under discussion, Mr. Nolan [Emory's lawyer] said, would be for Mr. Emory to plead to a lesser charge, receiving some jail time, probation and community service. He would not have to register as a sex offender. But any deal would need approval from a judge. A hearing is set for next Monday.
He certainly committed a tort, using fraud to gain access to the students and classroom. And he used the images of the six-year-olds in a way that neither the parents or school administrators had approved. He could--and should, in my opinion--be sued for damages. There may even be a misdemeanor fraud charge in there somewhere. But I don't think that Prosecutor Tony Tague is quite able to grasp that.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Tuscarora

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/11/2011 01:44 PM

I'm not a lawyer, but I used to sleep with one.

All joking aside who does this guy think he is? This is a civil issue not a criminal one, cut and dry. I think even a misdemeanor charge is a slight stretch, not to mention the alleged child pornography.

Make the guy pay, finacially ruin him. Let the parents and their lawyers go to town. But don't call it someting it isn't it just makes you lose credibility mr. prosector.
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/18/2011 07:54 PM

It looks like Evan Daniel Emory will end up with a misdemeanor conviction , under a plea bargain:

Quote
Emory pleaded no contest Monday to a reduced felony count.

Under the plea deal, Emory will serve 60 days in jail, two years of probation and 200 hours of community service. He will not have to register as a sex offender.

If Emory successfully completes probation, he will be allowed to withdraw his plea to the felony and plead to a misdemeanor[,] ... unlawful posting of an Internet message with aggravating circumstances. That’s a potential five-year felony, but state sentencing guidelines would not lead to a sentence that strict in the case of Emory, who has no prior criminal record....

The charge to which Emory pleaded is usually applied to cases of intentional harassment over the Internet. But Emory’s lawyer, Terry J. Nolan, said Emory did not agree that he intended to harass anyone — only that harassment was the consequence of his actions.

At least one parent of a child in the video said his daughter had been teased at school over being seen in the video and had suffered emotional trauma as a result....
Here is the text of Michigan Penal Code § 750.411s:

Quote
(1) A person shall not post a message through the use of any medium of communication, including the internet or a computer, computer program, computer system, or computer network, or other electronic medium of communication, without the victim’s consent, if all of the following apply:

(a) The person knows or has reason to know that posting the message could cause 2 or more separate noncontinuous acts of unconsented contact with the victim.

(b) Posting the message is intended to cause conduct that would make the victim feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested.

(c) Conduct arising from posting the message would cause a reasonable person to suffer emotional distress and to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested.

(d) Conduct arising from posting the message causes the victim to suffer emotional distress and to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested.
I have a lot of questions about that statute but, since Emory decided to plead it out, they won't get answered anytime soon.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/23/2011 01:15 PM

The guy who prosecuted Paris Hilton for possession of cocaine has been busted for, well, you guessed it .

Quote
The Las Vegas deputy district attorney who prosecuted Paris Hilton for cocaine possession was arrested over the weekend after allegedly buying a rock of cocaine, authorities said on Monday.

Clark County Deputy District Attorney David Schubert, 47, was taken into custody in Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon and booked on one count of cocaine possession.

Schubert, who has prosecuted Hilton and pop star Bruno Mars on similar charges, was released on Sunday after posting bail and was scheduled for an initial court appearance on Monday....
David Schubert, welcome to AWRM! smile

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 04/14/2011 05:51 PM

Well, it's official. Evan Emory got two months in the county jail for his unfunny little YouTube prank.

I don't know who's worse, him or prosecutor Tony Tague. They're both pretty much abominable.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 05/03/2011 08:14 PM

Say hello to (former) Rock Island County State Attorney Jeff Terronez, who had a relationship with an underage girl. The kicker? Terronez was prosecuting another ma...ame underage girl[/b], at the same time.

Quote
The case involving former Rock Island County, Illinois State’s Attorney Jeff Terronez could open the door for a mistrial in the case that introduced Terronez to his victim.

Terronez pleaded guilty to providing alcohol to a minor. As part of the plea agreement, he resigned his position as State’s Attorney, lost his pension and agreed to never seek public office again.

The minor to whom Terronez provided alcohol was at the center of a previous case he prosecuted. In that case, United Township High School teacher Jason Van Houtte was accused of inappropriate contact with a female student who, at that time, was 15 years old.

Van Houtte was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison.

Now an attorney representing Van Houtte says his client deserves a new trial.

“If he developed a relationship with the witness he should have disqualified himself,” said attorney Gerry Schick.

Schick said it is clear the prosecutor had a conflict and crossed the line.

Schick said he plans to pursue a post-conviction motion on behalf of his client, Jason Van Houtte.
Ya think?

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 05/17/2011 05:03 PM

The lead detective, Nicole Christian, is probably the real villain in this case , but Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh deserves some of the blame, too. When the jury takes all of 47 minutes to acquit teacher Sean Lanigan of child molestation charges, it's a pretty darn good indication the charges should never have been brought.

And there\'s more. Way more.

Quote
...But when others – staff, parents – tried to tell Christian anything she didn’t want to hear, she threatened them with prosecution for obstruction of justice, the staff members and parents said. School district investigator Steve Kerr’s investigative report, written after Lanigan’s acquittal, confirmed those claims, noting that: “Because of the jury’s decision, the detective [Christian] advised that she will not pursue criminal charges against [staff member] or [staff member].” (...)
A teacher's life is turned upside down, because a student had a vendetta against him. There was ample evidence the charges were false, but prosecutors went ahead anyway. Detective Nicole Christian belongs in prison, but Raymond Morrogh made it into the AWRM Hall of Shame.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 06/20/2011 04:55 PM

A judge in Texas has sentenced a woman to probation for spanking her own child .

Quote
A judge in Corpus Christi, Texas had some harsh words for a mother charged with spanking her own child before sentencing her to probation.

"You don't spank children today," said Judge Jose Longoria. "In the old days, maybe we got spanked, but there was a different quarrel. You don't spank children."

Rosalina Gonzales had pleaded guilty to a felony charge of injury to a child for what prosecutors had described as a "pretty simple, straightforward spanking case." They noted she didn't use a belt or leave any bruises, just some red marks....
If anyone knows who the prosecutor was who brought this case to the judge, please let me know.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 06/28/2011 05:28 PM

Forrest Allgood has a, shall we say, spotty record as a prosecutor. Four people he has put in prison for murder (two of them on death row) have later been exonerated. You would think that, with a record like this, he would tend to be a little more careful with the cases he decides to prosecute.

Well, if you thought that, you would be wrong.

He isnow prosecuting for murder a teenager who suffered a miscarriage .

Quote
...Gibbs became pregnant aged 15, but lost the baby in December 2006 in a stillbirth when she was 36 weeks into the pregnancy. When prosecutors discovered that she had a cocaine habit – though there is no evidence that drug abuse had anything to do with the baby's death – they charged her with the "depraved-heart murder" of her child, which carries a mandatory life sentence.

Gibbs is the first woman in Mississippi to be charged with murder relating to the loss of her unborn baby. But her case is by no means isolated. Across the US more and more prosecutions are being brought that seek to turn pregnant women into criminals....
But, at the same time, a woman who ran over a bicyclist twice willnot be charged .

Quote
...The Starkville woman and a friend were riding their bikes on Mississippi 50 near Pheba in Clay County when a vehicle driven by Robbie Norton, 44, of Cedarbluff, struck her, carrying her 165 feet. When Norton stopped and Morgan slid off the hood of her car, officials said Norton got back in the car and apparently tried to move it out of traffic, but ran over Morgan again.

On Wednesday, District Attorney Forrest Allgood broke the news: Norton will not face felony charges.

Norton could not be reached for comment.

Members of the cycling community don't accept the situation in Morgan's case, said Jackson bicyclist Bruce Alt.

"There's an element of negligence here," said Alt. "Shouldn't there be an element of responsibility?" (...)
Sure, that makes sense.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 07/20/2011 07:12 AM

And then there is Richard Schwartz of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana . He is still on the job, even though he was arrested twice for DWI, within two weeks, back in May.

As the prosecutor for Amite City, he doesn't prosecute DWI's which are handled by the Parish District Attorney's Office. But still...

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 08/10/2011 06:27 AM

Here's something I'd like to see more of. The Virginia State Bar will publicly reprimand York-Porquoson Commonwealth Attorney Eileen Addison.

Quote
York-Poquoson Commonwealth’s Attorney Eileen Addison, who faced charges of professional misconduct.

Assistant Bar Counsel Kathryn Montgomery negotiated an agreed disposition for a public reprimand with Addison’s attorney, Rodney Leffler. An agreed disposition is comparable to a plea agreement. The disposition and the history of the case in question were explained during a conference call hearing with members of the Bar’s disciplinary board, Addison, Leffler, Montgomery and three clerks with the Bar.

Addison faced misconduct charges from her prosecution of Carlos Chapman, Marquis Edwards and Kwaume Edwards in the 2006 shooting death of Michael Tyler. Michael Morchower, the lawyer defending accused shooter Kwaume Edwards, alleged that Addison negotiated a plea agreement with Chapman’s lawyer, Doug Walter, for his testimony against his co-defendant Kwaume without notifying the defense. Morchower filed a motion for a new trial in May 2007, and Kwaume was acquitted.

In her agreed disposition, Addison acknowledged that she had violated two rules. First, she failed to make a timely disclosure to the defendant’s counsel of evidence that could negate the guilt of the accused, mitigate the degree of the offense or reduce the punishment. Second, she violated the rules of professional conduct.

During the conference call hearing, Montgomery said she was satisfied with the disposition because Addison has no prior record of misconduct.

Leffler said Addison was unaware that Chapman’s lawyer, Doug Walter, had told his client he would likely get a plea agreement after Kwaeme’s trial concluded. In letters, Walter told Chapman that if he had a plea agreement in place before Kwaeme’s trial, Morchower could argue the agreement impeached his testimony.

Leffler said Addison wished she had approached the bench in court when Chapman, under oath, testified a plea agreement offer had never been made. “She felt this is in the best interest of the Bar, the profession and the right thing to do,” he said. “She does embrace this disposition and asked the board to impose it.”

Barbara Lanier, clerk of the disciplinary system for the Virginia State Bar, said that if the board had not accepted her disposition, they could have sent her case on to a hearing date set for Sept. 23 or opted to suspend her for up to 60 days.

Addison is currently running for reelection for her position as Commonwealth’s Attorney, facing challenger Ben Hahn in the Aug. 23 Republican primary. In April, Hahn resigned from his position as an assistant commonwealth’s attorney in her office and declared his candidacy.

Timeline of Tyler Murder Trial

May 4, 2006: Michael Tyler shot as he approaches a car in York County, dying shortly after. Police arrest driver Marquis Edwards, front seat passenger Kwaume Edwards and backseat passenger Carlos Chapman. A gun is found hidden under clothing in the backseat.
May 11, 2006: Eileen Addison meets with Investigator Kevin Rowe, who says Chapman has changed his account of the shooting. He now says Kwaume, not Marquis, was the shooter. Marquis later corroborates this account.
Aug. 27, 2006: A competency and sanity report indicates Chapman has below average intellect. Based on this and his limited role in the shooting, the prosecution agrees the felony case against him is very weak.
Aug. 31, 2006: Addison discusses the possibility of a plea agreement for Chapman with his lawyer, Douglas Walter. Her notes indicate that she discussed a possible plea agreement on the condition Chapman testifies against Kwaume.
Sept. 16, 2006: The Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Case Information System for York County event page for Chapman’s case says, “Likely to be a plea agreement with Def testifying against co-Def(s).”
October 2006: In multiple letter exchanges, Chapman and Walter discuss the possibility of the defendant getting a plea agreement.
Nov. 3, 2006: Addison and Walter discuss continuing Chapman’s trial date after Kwaume’s trial. Addison indicated that, in view of Chapman’s minimal culpability and limited intellect, “we can probably resolve it with misdemeanors.” Walter advised his client of the discussion.
Nov. 14, 2006: Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Leslie Siman-Tov sends a letter disclosing information to Morchower. She said that she was unaware of the possible plea agreement and did not disclose the information.
Dec. 15, 2006: Walter writes Chapman a letter explaining that a plea agreement cannot be set until after Kwaume’s trial so that he would “honestly be able to testify that you have no set formal agreement in place.”
Dec. 15, 2006: Morchower files a motion for discovery, asking for any evidence affecting the credibility of any prosecution witness, including any information about an oral or written plea negotiation. Siman-Tov asks Addison if there is a plea agreement and she responds they’ll have to wait and see.
March 30, 2007: Addison’s co-counsel meets with Chapman and Walter to prepare his testimony. Addison is unavailable. At the meeting, Chapman is told there is no plea agreement. In April, they tell Morchower the same. Addison says she was unaware of his request for material or Siman-Tov’s response, partially because she was often out of the office from January to April while caring for a terminally ill friend.
April 24, 2007: Siman-Tov meets with Chapman and again indicates there is no plea deal. She also was unaware Addison had said his charges could be lowered to misdemeanors. Addison later admitted she should have made sure Siman-Tov asked Chapman if he expected consideration for his testimony.
April 26, 2007: Chapman testifies at Kwaume's trial that Kwaume was the shooter. He testifies he has no agreements with the prosecution and had not been offered consideration for his testimony. Addison remains silent
April 27, 2007: Jury finds Kwaume guilty of second degree murder, use of a firearm in a murder and shooting from an occupied vehicle. Addison and Walter work out a plea agreement for Chapman.
May 3, 2007: Chapman’s plea agreement is approved. He pleads guilty to two class 1 misdemeanors. He receives 12 months in jail and credit for time served.
May 11, 2007: Morchower files motion for new trial for Kwaume, alleging the Commonwealth failed to disclose its plea agreement understanding with Chapman, and alleging the Commonwealth knowingly elicited untruthful testimony regarding a plea agreement.
May 24, 2007: At a motion for a new trial, Addison learns of the correspondence between Walter and Chapman regarding a plea agreement.
Aug. 7, 2007: Court finds Kwaume was prejudiced by the non-disclosure of the plea agreement. In his retrial, Chapman does not testify and Kwaume is acquitted of both charges.
Late 2007: Addison tells a bar investigator that she was under no obligation to disclose her Nov. 3, 2006 comment to Walter because it was not an agreement. She says she was unaware Chapman had heard about this comment until May 2007 and maintains she would have offered the same thing without his testimony due to his minimal culpability and limited intellect.
Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 09/22/2011 03:42 PM

Do prosecutors have excessive immunity? A Cato Institute Daily Podcast featuring David Rittgers. About 14 1/2 minutes.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 10/16/2011 02:08 PM

A District Attorney in Waco, Texas, is opposing post-conviction DNA testing in a triple murder case. Anthony Melendez was convicted for the 1982 murders of three teenagers. McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna opposes the testing--at the defense's expense--because an exoneration would override the decision of the jury.

I'm not kidding.

Quote
The McLennan County District Attorney’s office will oppose a request for new DNA testing in the decades-old Lake Waco triple murders case.

Waco attorney Walter M. Reaves filed a motion asking for the testing Wednesday. It is part of an effort to exonerate Anthony Melendez, the only living defendant in the 1982 slayings of three teenagers.

In the motion, Reaves argues the testing is warranted because DNA analysis was not available when Melendez was convicted. He pleaded guilty but has since recanted, claiming he falsely confessed because his lawyers told him he would almost certainly get the death penalty if he went to trial.

Waco attorney Walter M. Reaves filed a motion asking for the DNA testing in the Lake Waco trople murder case Wednesday. It is part of an effort to exonerate Anthony Melendez, the only living defendant in the 1982 slayings of three teenagers

The motion does not ask the state to pay for the DNA testing. It only asks that 54th State District Judge Matt Johnson order the testing be done...

Reyna said every request for post-DNA conviction must be carefully considered.

But in general, he doesn’t support such testing because it overrides what a jury decided, he said....
Um...

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 10/16/2011 11:40 PM

Who the hell would elect someone who would argue to keep a man from being exonerated by scientific evidence?
Posted By: Texas Resistance

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 10/17/2011 12:49 PM

Juries aren't gods. Most jurors are stupid sheeple who are lead around by the nose by the prosecutor. Anthony Melendez should have never plead guilty to murdering 3 teenagers if he was innocent. Abel Reyna is a real sorry damn prosecutor not wanting to see justice served.
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 11/23/2011 06:50 AM

Lisa Riniker, District Attorney for Grant County in Wisconsin, is the latest addition to AWRM's Prosecutor's Hall of Shame. She charged a six-year-old boy with first degree sexual assault after playing "doctor" with two five-year-old friends.

You just can\'t make this stuff up.

Quote
A 6-year-old Grant County boy has been accused of first-degree sexual assault after playing "doctor" with two 5-year-old friends.

Now, a federal lawsuit has been filed against the prosecutor, who attorneys said is trying to force the boy to admit guilt.

The boy's parents had planned to speak with WISC-TV on Monday to discuss the emotional toll the prosecution has taken on their son. But the prosecutor, Grant County District Attorney Lisa Riniker, on Monday morning asked a judge for a gag order in the case and was granted it. The gag order prohibits the boy's parents from talking about the case.

But the attorneys for the parents in the federal suit, which names Riniker as a defendant, can aren't included in the gag order, and they spoke with WISC-TV from Chicago.

Attorneys for the parents of the 6-year-old, who is being referred to as "D," said that Riniker has gone too far by bringing a felony sex charge against a first-grader for touching a 5-year-old girl inappropriately while playing doctor last fall.

"That behavior by a prosecutor is outrageous," said Christopher Cooper, an attorney for the boy's parents.

Cooper and attorney David Sigale filed the federal suit last week, alleging that Riniker wants D to sign a consent decree admitting some level of guilt.

"We're certainly hoping to vindicate D in the eyes of the law," Sigale said.

"He (the boy) says he didn't do it, and the little girl says he didn't do it. The little girl says he touched the back of one of her buttocks," Cooper said.

The attorneys are also asking for about $12 million in damages from Riniker and two co-defendants.

Cooper and Sigale said they are prepared to present evidence that D has been psychologically harmed by the court proceedings and is terrified of going to jail.

"She (Riniker) bypassed the parents and sent a 6-year-old boy a summons, on which is a threat that the 6-year-old will go to jail for failure to appear," Cooper said.

The attorneys said they have sought the opinion of many experts who said that children "playing doctor" is not a sex crime.

"(The experts say) a 6-year-old child is unable to intellectually and emotionally associate sexual gratification with the act that D has been accused of committing," Cooper said.

In justification for the charge, Riniker is quoted in the lawsuit saying "the Legislature could have put an age restriction in the statute ... the legislature did no such thing."

The lawsuit also alleges the charges were brought because the 5-year-old is the daughter of a high-ranking official in Grant County.

Repeated calls to Riniker and an attorney for she and two co-defendants have gone unanswered since Friday, WISC-TV reported.

Riniker went to Judge Bill Dyke, who is handling the case from Iowa County, and he issued a gag order for the parents Monday morning. WISC-TV has not received a copy of the order nor a reason for its issue.
Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Lord Vader

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 11/23/2011 08:39 AM

I would call Riniker a bitch, except that would be very insulting to one of Gods most noble creatures, dogs which I love, so I will just say that she is total scum and is worse then what a hog leaves behind.

After we are victorious and win the soon coming Civil War or Revolution, this pile of hog excrement will join the rest of the scum that will be found guilty of Crimes against the People and will meet her end slowly and painfully on Pay per View, so that the People will see true justice.

In the meantime I hope that the boys parents win their suit and receive every single cent that they are suing for. It is just a shame that the judgment will not have to come out of that female scum's wallet.
Posted By: drjarhead

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 11/23/2011 10:32 AM

As is typical in our distorted society and criminal justice system, the male is classified as a criminal at birth. Just waiting for the opportunity to demonstrate who will excercise power and control over whom.

Everything is backasswards and upside down
The tail wags the dog

These are the death throes of deranged society
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 11/23/2011 05:18 PM

Quote
Under seven years of age indeed an infant cannot be guilty of felony; for then a felonious discretion is almost an impossibility in nature: but at eight years old he may be guilty of felony.
--William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England. Just what the heck do they teach in law school these days?

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 11/25/2011 04:51 PM

Tyranny and the Rule of Prosecutors , by William Anderson. Maybe this is starting to gain some attention.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/01/2011 04:40 PM

The New York Times, not exactly a bastion of liberty and justice, has a profile of Lake County, Illinois, District Attorney Mike Mermel . it's too long to post here in its entirety, but here's some highlights:

Quote
While some of Mermel’s tactics have drawn the ire of defense lawyers, others give him grudging respect for his skill in the courtroom. “He’s a very effective trial lawyer,” Stone said. “But his view of the world is very narrow.” In the case of Juan Rivera, Lake County prosecutors have been able to convince juries, not once but three times, that he was the murderer, despite DNA evidence in the last trial that powerfully suggested otherwise. (Mermel was the lead lawyer on the third trial and assisted in the second.)

“We don’t fold our tents and run,” Mermel told me when we spoke this spring. “We don’t quaver because somebody holds up three letters: DNA.”

When I asked him specifically about the Rivera case, Mermel said that sometimes post-conviction evidence is irrelevant. “The example I like to give people is next time you go to a motel room, bring a plastic bag, because the dirtiest thing in that room is the remote control. Everybody has sex and then rolls over and goes, ‘I wonder what’s on?’ ” he said. “O.K., so you can find DNA in the form of sperm from 10 different people in that room from that remote control or even on a person who has touched it. And that woman gets murdered in that room tonight, and you are going to have a lot of DNA. Is it all going to be forensically significant?”

His theory for why there was sperm that did not come from Juan Rivera inside 11-year-old Holly Staker on the day she was murdered is, to his mind, simple and straightforward. She and her twin sister, Heather, were sexually active, Mermel argues, and Holly must have had sex with someone else before Rivera came along and raped (but didn’t ejaculate) and murdered her. There was scant evidence to support this sexual-activity theory, but Mermel dismissed that objection. “Nobody is going to admit to having sex with an 11-year-old girl, even if the statute of limitations has run out,” he told me. “But there was a lot of evidence that came to our office that these two girls were sexually active.”
Actually, there wasn't. There was no evidence at all they were sexually active. But that's how Mike Mermel operates. In another case:

Quote
When a DNA test in 2003 showed that the semen in the underwear of a 68-year-old woman didn’t belong to Bernie Starks, a man convicted in 1986 of raping and murdering her, Mermel dismissed the results because the semen came from the victim’s clothing. Had it come from the woman’s vagina, Mermel said, “I would be standing over there advocating the side that the defense has in the case.”

Three years later, defense attorneys found the rape kit and tested semen recovered from the woman’s vagina. Again, there was no match. Mermel again wouldn’t budge, this time arguing that the woman must have had sex with someone else just before the rape.

Mermel’s biggest blunder was Jerry Hobbs, who was arrested in 2005 on charges of raping and stabbing to death his 8-year-old daughter and her 9-year-old friend. Hobbs confessed to the killings, but only after 16 straight hours of questioning that began after he’d spent the previous night looking for the girls….

When Hobbs’ attorneys revealed in court in 2008 that DNA tests showed the semen found in the mouth, rectum, and vagina of Hobbs’ daughter didn’t belong to Hobbs, Mermel postulated that the foreign semen must have found its way into the girl’s body while she was playing in a patch of woods where teenagers were known to have sex. The girl had been found fully clothed.
But back to the Rivera case. Just how was his "confession" obtained?

Quote
When Lou Tessmann retired from the Waukegan police in 2005, the Illinois House of Representatives passed a resolution praising his two decades of service. The resolution noted that Tessmann, a former Marine, is “well known for his interrogation techniques on suspects of crimes.”

Since then, Tessmann has traveled the country offering seminars to police officers on how to investigate homicides and interrogate potential suspects. “Mr. Tessmann has obtained over 80 homicide confessions during his career with only three instances where he was unable to obtain a confession from a homicide suspect” — a 96 percent success rate — according to the Web site of his employer, Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates.

It was Tessmann who was sent in to interrogate Rivera around 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 30, along with Sgt. Michael Maley of the Illinois State Police. In the hour or two before the interview began, Rivera was hitting his head against a glass window and was then on the floor with his wrists and ankles cuffed behind him. Tessmann, however, described Rivera as “very comfortable, very relaxed” during the interview.

Though Tessmann arrived at the police station roughly seven hours before the interview, he testified that he wasn’t aware of Rivera’s previous confession. (One of his colleagues testified that he gave Tessmann the statement that morning.) He said that Rivera willingly recounted the crime, which then cleared up many of the issues that prosecutors considered problematic.
Yeah, right. And how did Mermel use Tessmann at the trial?

Quote
In his closing argument in the third trial, Mermel told jurors that the case basically came down to whom they believed: the police or the DNA evidence? “Is there anything in the makeup of any of those men that would lead you to believe that they were the kind of people who had dedicated their lives to this profession, yet just decided to just frame this poor innocent Juan Rivera because they were tired of investigating and wanted to go home?” he said.

What the jury didn’t know was that Mermel had already successfully argued against the admissibility of any evidence that might cast doubt on Tessmann’s credibility. For instance, Tessmann said in a 1990 deposition and in an official biography that he earned an English degree from the University of Wisconsin. But the school’s 13 four-year colleges have no record of him ever attending. (In fact, he graduated from Northeastern Illinois University.) In 1989, Tessmann and four other police officers were sued for allegedly breaking into the wrong home during a police raid and injuring a woman who was seven months pregnant. The woman’s lawyer accused the police of writing reports to cover up their conduct and charged that Tessmann “took the lead in creative drama.”

According to documents provided by defense lawyers, a judgment was entered against Tessmann and the other officers for $48,500 in that case, and two years later, another judgment of $71,500 was entered against Tessmann in a case brought against him by a man who was wrongfully arrested for robbery.

A decade later, in 2001, a woman named Colleen Blue was charged with murder after she confessed to killing her newborn. Tessmann, then a commander, said to a reporter for The Chicago Daily Herald, “She told us she had six kids already and just did not want to deal with another one.” He added: “She said she gave birth to the baby when she was all alone, put him in the bag and walked off. She told us she could hear the baby crying until she got close enough to the street that the passing cars drowned out the sound.”

Charges against Blue were dropped when DNA testing revealed it wasn’t her baby.
So Mermel tells the jury if they acquit because of the DNA evidence, they would be insulting the reputation of an honorable officer--right after he has successfully argued to prevent the jury from learning of the officer's less-than-honorable past.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/02/2011 06:13 PM

Regarding the post above, the Sheriff of Lake County is now calling for Mike Merman to resign . I'd agree, except I think Merman should resign for what he's done, rather than what he's said to the press, but I'm not one to quibble.

Quote
Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran is calling for longtime county prosecutor Michael Mermel to be fired for making “inappropriate statements” to the media that Curran said reflect poorly on Lake County’s criminal justice system.

Curran said Thursday he voiced his concerns about Mermel during a closed-door meeting with State’s Attorney Michael Waller Thursday morning.

Though it’s unusual for an elected sheriff to call publicly for a prosecutor’s dismissal, Curran said he did so because of his “disgust” with Mermel’s comments to the media and because of Curran’s respect for the constitutional process.

He cited comments Mermel reportedly made in a recent New York Times story about murder suspects in Lake County who’ve been targeted for prosecution even after DNA evidence pointed to other possible perpetrators…

The sheriff said it’s important for the public to recognize that “Mr. Mermel’s comments are not reflective of the overall majority of law enforcement officials that have made numerous sacrifices and dedicated themselves to seeking justice.”
If that's the case, The sheriff should have called for Merman's resignation years ago.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/04/2011 01:42 PM

Well, this is a step in the right direction. Judge A. Howard Matz, a federal judge in the Central District of California, has dismissed a case due to misconduct on the part of prosecutors .

Quote
So it is with deep regret that this Court is compelled to find that the Government team allowed a key FBI agent to testify untruthfully before the grand jury, inserted material falsehoods into affidavits submitted to magistrate judges in support of applications for search warrants and seizure warrants, improperly reviewed e-mail communications between one Defendant and her lawyer, recklessly failed to comply with its discovery obligations, posed questions to certain witnesses in violation of the Court’s rulings, engaged in questionable behavior during closing argument and even made misrepresentations to the Court....

...The Government has acknowledged making many “mistakes,” as it characterizes them. “Many” indeed. So many in fact, and so varied, and occurring over so lengthy a period (between 2008 and 2011) that they add up to an unusual and extreme picture of a prosecution gone badly awry. To paraphrase what former Senator Everett Dirksen supposedly said, “a few mistakes here and a few mistakes there and pretty soon you’re talking misconduct.” (...)
Is it true that federal prosecutors would have to murder babies before any judge will hold them accountable? Not quite, and maybe the tide is finally turning.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/04/2011 03:49 PM

Everyone wants to hate the California legal system, but as states go, the sheer size of the state and its legal system is such that it becomes nearly impossible for any single group to totally control every court and every judge all of the time, so no single "club" has a handle on the entire court system there and if one club steps on the turf of another club in the wrong way, this sort of thing happens. Even among the judges, there are so many judges in California that if they start banding together on something, they are a force of their own.

What they tend not to like is getting lied to, but they tolerate it much more from the government side since that is considered "part of the club" until it reaches the point that it is so blatant and so obvious that the judges decisions will obviously not outlast their time on the bench and no judge like to be the one whose rulings and convictions are constantly overturned then get embroiled in some controversy over lying cops and witnesses. We don't even know the names of the judges involved, but among the judges in the cases that arose out of the LAPD Rampart Division cases where hundreds of prisoners were let go, there were several judges involved with those cases whose credibility was shot to hell when they continued to try and maintain the credibility of the system, and eventually they had no choice (it was self preservation0 but to throw it back on the police.

Lawyers in federal practice are always looking for reasons to disqualify a judge and toss a judge off the bench, so if a federal judge sees that coming, he or she will toss an FBI agent and prosecutor under the bus of illegitimacy any day of the week rather than face not just a hearing on removal from the bench but the disbarrment that can go along with it.

As much as a lot of people want to cry about Jewish conspiracies in the court systems, one element of it is true, Jewish people are overrepresented in the courts as lawyers and judges, but that also puts traditionally conservative Jewish religious law standards as an implied standard in the courts so there is a backdoor standard of religious legitimacy that goes hand in hand with legal actions that Jews participate in if they want to have any standing in the Jewish legal community. A judge habitually allowing that sort of thing and with a name like Matz would likely see not just him, but his entire family shunned from the local Jewish community if some lawyers started complaining loudly to the Rabbis about how the judge was allowing Nazi style court proceedings.

I have met people where that sort of thing started happening, they were seen at some pro-Palestinian rally in the SF bay area, and whammo, the lady's kids were denied visas to enter Israel, which meant they got booted from some special school for being unable to complete one of the programs that required part of the study to be done there, which meant that the entire family suffered a level of shunning from the Jewish community.

In that court case, it looks to me like a situation of skilled corporate lawyers getting things done for their client, while a group of shifty feds were trying to squeeze some rich folks running a corporation on some nuances of foreign trade law which few people are fully versed in or make sense of.

I hate to sound racist about it, but I am seeing that sort of thing with the socially promoted shall we say, affirmative action appointment, types who got into the legal profession and were given positions in the government where they think any prosecution can be run "ghetto style" in order to "get the bad guys" but there is a difference between enforcing some fairly plain and clear rape, robbery, and dope dealing laws on ghetto thugs and corporate law on people who are trying to get things done legally but run into government red tape and political reality which blocks progress unless effectively dealt with.

Only some fairly wealthy people are going to be able to press the level of defense that happened in that case, but the level of government thuggery in using the prison system to financially squeeze folks and still cheat the game is telling on how the FBI and their cohorts expect to be allowed to act when it is just a financial matter. That's why I pretty much refuse to believe it when they claim they "can't do anything" on those terrorism cases without new laws and powers. There is very little not already being done in regular cases.
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/08/2011 04:17 PM

Well, I won't have Mike Mermel to kick around anymore. Under fire from freedom lovers everywhere, he\'s decided to retire.

Quote
Longtime Lake County prosecutor Michael Mermel, under fire for "inappropriate" comments he made to news media about the prosecution of cases in which DNA evidence did not match the defendant, will retire in January.

Wednesday's announcement by State's Attorney Michael Waller came days after Sheriff Mark Curran called for Mermel's dismissal over statements dating to 1995 that Curran said reflect poorly on the county's criminal justice system.

In his statement, Waller sought to distance himself from Mermel, whom he praised in a 2009 newsletter as a "prosecutor's prosecutor."

"The comments attributed to Mike Mermel do not reflect my views on the role of the Lake County State's Attorney's Office," the statement said, "nor do they reflect the manner in which my staff has conducted themselves over the last 21 years. The sole duty of my office is to seek justice. That duty will continue to be the exclusive mission of the Lake County State's Attorney's Office."

Waukegan defense attorney Jed Stone questioned Waller's sincerity and timing, since Mermel has made controversial statements for years under Waller's watch.

In October 2010, Mermel was quoted in the Tribune as saying: "The taxpayers don't pay us for intellectual curiosity. They pay us to get convictions."

The job of a prosecutor is not to obtain a conviction, but to do the right thing, Stone argued....
I would rather that he spend his retirement in federal prison, but this will do.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/13/2011 06:18 PM

An Illinois appellate court has just reversed the conviction of Juan Rivera , who was actually the subject of the original article that led to Mike Mermel's resignation. After 19 years in prison, he's finally free.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/26/2011 06:32 PM

Harris County, Texas, Assistant District Attorney Rachel Palmer joins our not-so-coveted Hall of Shame today. She just pleaded the Fifth, saying that testifying before the grand jury could implicate her in a crime. What was the crime, presumably involving misconduct in the District Attorney's office? We don't know, because no one's talking.

Quote
An assistant district attorney is still on the job despite admitting she may have committed a crime. Last week, Harris County Asst. DA Rachel Palmer pleaded the Fifth, claiming that testifying before a grand jury could incriminate her. And on Tuesday, a judge agreed.

It's all part of a grand jury investigation into possible misconduct within the DA's Office.

The Fifth Amendment is absolutely Rachel Palmer's constitutional right and it applies to her no matter what job she has in all of America. But by pleading the Fifth, it means grand jurors won't get answers from one of their last witnesses.

It's unclear exactly what this means to the grand jury investigation, but maybe more importantly, what does it do to the image and public trust in the Harris County District Attorney?

Palmer said the fix was in, that the system was stacked against her, and that she was scared of a judge who might make her testify in front of a grand jury.

When we tried to ask Palmer why she was or continued to be scared of the judge, Palmer's attorney said, "She's not answering questions. Please get out of my way."

But on Tuesday, Palmer won. That judge she is so scared of ruled Palmer won't be forced to talk to a grand jury investigating possible criminal activity inside the DA's Office.


"We're just gratified that the court ruled our way," said Palmer's attorney, Clay Rawlings.

But she only keeps her silence by pleading the Fifth, insisting that her answers to the grand jury may implicate her in a crime. Think about that -- a prosecutor fighting for three days in two courts to avoid the possibility of implicating herself in a crime.

"I didn't ever think I would ever live to see this day... that a DA feels like they have to take the Fifth on an investigation by their office. It's kind of disturbing," said Jim Mount, special prosecutor to the grand jury.


"All this has been tough to deal with for everybody," said Jim Leitner, 1st Asst. District Attorney.

For the third day, the elected District Attorney Pat Lykos has refused to even respond in writing to the situation. She was at work on Tuesday, but instead we heard from her top assistant Leitner, who in a lengthy interview, insisted nothing has been done wrong inside the DA's Office, and even defended keeping Palmer on the job.

When we asked him if he saw a cloud over Rachel Palmer at all, Leitner told us, "That's not for me to even talk about at this point. My issue right now is I want to get before the grand jury, answer their questions and get this over with."

But allowing Palmer to prosecute before her possible criminal activity is cleared up is a move our legal analyst says could lead to trouble.

"You want to put the politics aside and say I am looking into this matter and the people that are involved, if they're not prosecuted, they will be disciplined," said KTRK Legal Analyst Joel Androphy.

Jim Leitner will testify on Thursday in front of the grand jury. He is expected to be the last witness, unless the special prosecutors are willing to give Rachel Palmer immunity to testify. They've said she's not the target of this investigation and they may just consider giving her immunity to get her answers. We'll should find out on Thursday morning.
Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Leo

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/27/2011 04:34 AM

You know the rules. Nobody talks, everybody walks! Thats a two way street.

Leo out
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/27/2011 08:56 PM

Thing is, when they rudely plea the fifth and brush the inquiries aside, they go back to their government paychecks and still maintain various police powers to retaliate. Even regular patrol officers who screwed up somehow are almost always immediately terminated upon any refusal to submit to questioning about anything they did. In fact in most of their employment contracts, a refusal to answer questions is considered a defacto notice of resignation. Apparently not so with prosecutors who consider themselves even several steps above those laws.

An ordinary citizen even asks for a lawyer to be present during questioning usually involves a trip to jail, strip searching, restricted food and water for a few days, then maybe a beating or two, a meeting with a disinterested public defender, and then a couple of nice detectives show up to "discuss your options".

Yeah, save the names for a revolutionary tribunal. Mr blowtorch will be able to extract the truth, guaranteed.
Posted By: J. Croft

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/28/2011 11:32 AM

Someone showed me this from a local rag. Apparently this same department provoked a elderly man on medication into a standoff and then shot him. The elderly man had never been in trouble with the law.

The shooter involved got a medal in a big ceremony. His widow basically got shafted by the District Court.

Now they're targeting homeless people who leave luggage about:

Quote
Mentor Police Release Name Of Man Who Caused Bomb Scare At Mall (Updated)

Kevin Striley is charged with inducing panic, obstructing official business and littering

* By Jason Lea
* Email the author
* December 27, 2011

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Updated at 10:45 a.m.

Mentor Police have released the name of the person whose suitcase triggered a 3-hour long bomb scare outside of Barnes & Noble Saturday morning.

Kevin Striley, 43, was arrested Saturday and charged with inducing panic, obstructing official business and littering. Judge John Trebets arraigned him Tuesday morning in Mentor Municipal Court.

Trebets set Striley's bond at $102,000, which was not posted. His next court hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

Striley used to live in Mason, OH, but he is now homeless, Mentor Police Lt. Ken Zbiegien said.

He left his suitcase outside of the bookstore Friday night. When asked why he left the suitcase, he told police, "(I) was tired of carrying it," Zbiegien said.

A passerby saw the suitcase, thought it was suspicious and called the police.

When police asked Striley what was inside of the suitcase, he refused to tell them. Consequently, police called in the Lake County Bomb Squad in case the suitcase contained explosives.

For three hours, authorities cordoned the area around Barnes & Noble and Max & Erma's while they assessed the situation. The bomb squad ultimately decided to have its bomb robot fire two shotgun shells into the suitcase while everyone was a safe distance away from it.

After ascertaining it wasn't a bomb, authorities found the suitcase only contained personal affects, including a silk tie, a few rare coins, a Kodak camera and some other trinkets.

Striley was charged with inducing panic once before in 2009. However, Zbiegien did not know the circumstances surrounding that previous arrest.
http://mentor.patch.com/articles/mentor-police-release-name-of-man-who-caused-bomb-scare-at-mall
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/28/2011 02:03 PM

You can't fault that. Crazy person leaves piece of luggage with personal junk in it in a public place like that and well, you can't guarantee what it is one way or another.

If I remember correctly, Eric Rudolf did a similar act when emplacing the Olympic Park bomb. A security guard spotted it, saw something off kilter about the act (I think the backpack was newer and cleaner than what a homeless person would have) and saved lives by acting before it blew.

Bunch of well worn but higher quality backpacks at the curb with a raggedy pit bull tied up near them = homeless people are shopping nearby.

Newer piece of cheap luggage set in a spot with maximum human traffic nearby, heck, I would call that one in and start clearing people from the area myself.

Sometimes a dose of reality cures people who want to be stupid and crazy and push other peoples limits of tolerance, sometimes they just plain decided to violate a whole lot of common sense and still push other people's buttons. It seems that Mr Striley found someone elses buttons he decided to screw around with by profiling a bombing attack, did not get reasonable and take a few honest steps to prove the suitcase did not contain any bombs and is going to spend some time in jail. His own fault entirely.
Posted By: J. Croft

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/28/2011 03:02 PM

God I'm going to sound like a copjocker but on the surface your argument makes sense.

With that out of the way, you have to figure who the individual is, where it happened, what kind of police department responded, here's another report: http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2011/12/28/news/doc4ef9eeb6ae471830321507.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Homeless man whose suitcase raised concerns of a bomb threat fails to post bond (video)
Published: Wednesday, December 28, 2011

0diggsdigg ShareThis79By Rachel Jackson
RJackson@News-Herald.com
@nh_rachel

A Mason man had his first court appearance Monday in connection with Saturday’s bomb scare in Mentor.

Kevin Striley, 43, is charged in Mentor Municipal Court with inducing panic, obstructing official business and littering.

Striley is accused of leaving behind a suitcase containing personal items near the entrance of the Mentor Barnes & Noble on Saturday morning.


Judge John Trebets set bond at $102,000 cash and $1,000 personal, which was not posted.

Striley did not have an attorney at the time of his hearing.

According to a Mentor Police report, at 8:06 a.m. Saturday, someone approached a patrolling officer to report a suspicious package that was left unattended near the store.

The Lake County Bomb Unit used a robot to remove the suitcase to a safe location, Mentor Police said at the time. The robot then fired two shots into the package, at which point officials were able to determine its contents, police said.

Officials then located a man, later identified as Striley, near the west side of Great Lakes Mall on Saturday morning.

The previous night, mall security had reported the man as suspicious and noted he was carrying a blue suitcase similar to the one found outside the bookstore Saturday. Continued...


12See Full Story
Officials said Striley, who is homeless, left his suitcase there because he was tired of carrying it.

The store and a nearby restaurant were evacuated for about three hours during the incident.

--------------------------------------------

Maybe he did want to but what I've seen so far doesn't fly with that. I don't know Striley, I don't know what Striley's motives were beyond being homeless in that town, but perhaps the most logical conclusion is whoever worked at that bookstore overreacted and certainly the cops did, but overreaction seems to be standard operating procedure these days.

At any rate, I'd never give 'public servants' the benefit of the doubt.
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/28/2011 06:12 PM

Quote
Originally posted by J. Croft:
The bomb squad ultimately decided to have its bomb robot fire two shotgun shells into the suitcase while everyone was a safe distance away from it.
Um, I'm no expert on EOD, but that sounds pretty retarded to me.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/28/2011 06:48 PM

The shotgun on a robot thing is a bit dated, but is valid EOD practice. I dabbled in EOD duties as a Combat Engineer in the NG, the modern methods which we did not get to play with involve an explosive formed water projectile that blasts the item with such a volume of water that it will usually neutralize the explosive.
Posted By: J. Croft

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 01/30/2012 03:17 PM

If you drink and drive... we'll lock you in solitary confinement for 2 years! No court date, no doctor.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...ecame-two-years-in-solitary-6295937.html

Night in the cells accidentally became two years in solitary

Suspected drunk driver wins $22m after he was forgotten, isolated – and terribly neglected
Guy Adams Author Biography

Los Angeles

Saturday 28 January 2012
[Linked Image]
Stephen Slevin at the time of his arrest for drink driving in August 2005, left, and when he was released in May 2007, right

Stephen Slevin was driving along a rural highway in southern New Mexico in August 2005 when traffic police pulled him over and arrested him on suspicion of drink-driving, along with a string of other motoring offences.

By the time all of the charges against him were dismissed and Mr Slevin was released from custody, it was 2007. For reasons that remain unclear, officials had forced him to spend the intervening two years in solitary confinement.

During the ordeal, he claims to have been denied access to basic washing facilities for months at a time. He'd lost a third of his body weight, grown a beard down to his chest and was suffering from bed sores. Prison officials had also ignored his pleas to see a dentist, forcing him to pull out his own tooth. They declined other requests for attention, including an audience with a mental health professional. He duly became delirious and says that by the time of his release he'd "been driven mad".

This week, a jury in Albuquerque ordered Dona Ana County, which was responsible for incarcerating Slevin without trial, to pay $22m (£14m) in compensation. It was the largest award ever granted to a US prisoner whose civil rights have been violated.

"Prison officials were walking by me every day, watching me deteriorate," Mr Slevin, who still from suffers post traumatic stress disorder, told reporters. The court heard how he was originally arrested on suspicion of drink-driving and "receiving a stolen vehicle". He was thrown into solitary confinement after officers learned that he suffered from depression and decided he might be suicidal.

Matthew Coyte, a civil-rights lawyer who represented Mr Slevin, now 58, during the six-day trial, said he was then "forgotten" and left to "decay".

In letters to staff at Dona Ana County Jail, Mr Slevin claimed to be depressed and unable to sleep in the solitary "pod" there. As time went on, he told them he'd begun hallucinating. No doctor was called, but at the behest of a prison nurse, who had a bachelor's degree in psychology but no medical qualifications, he was given some sedatives. It wasn't until June 2007 that Mr Slevin went before a judge, at which point he was immediately released into the mental health system on the grounds that he was by then incapable of participating in his own defence.

The case throws an uncomfortable light on the use of solitary confinement in the US justice system. At present, an estimated 50,000 inmates are housed in such circumstances, sometimes for years at a time. Dona Ana County had previously offered Mr Slevin $2m to drop his compensation case. It pledged to appeal the $22m award, saying: "we believe we have strong legal issues to raise."
Posted By: Sisu

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 01/30/2012 04:22 PM

bad mojo. If i take it out i still did murder...
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/14/2012 04:02 PM

The courts are beginning to take notice of prosecutorial misconduct. And chinks are beginning to appear in their armor of immunity. From the opinion:

Quote
On the second day of trial in this drug trafficking prosecution, during the cross-examination of Defendant–Appellant Aurora Lopez–Avila, the prosecutor read back supposed testimony of Lopez–Avila from her earlier change of plea hearing. What he read back seemed to contradict Lopez–Avila’s earlier statements on direct examination. Using this supposed prior testimony, the prosecutor—Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) Jerry R. Albert, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona—accused Lopez–Avila of having lied to the federal magistrate presiding at an earlier hearing.

But the prosecutor’s quotation was only part of what he represented was a question asked the defendant under oath by the magistrate judge. It was a half-truth. Without telling the court or defense counsel, the prosecutor presented to court and counsel an altered version of the prior hearing’s question and answer, and the altered version of such dialogue made it appear as though Lopez–Avila had contradicted herself on a material point, when she plainly had not.
The district court naturally assumed the prosecutor had read the question and answer whole, and allowed the questioning to proceed. When the prosecutor’s misrepresentation was discovered by defense counsel, he moved for a mistrial, which the court swiftly granted. The defense then moved to dismiss the indictment with prejudice, on double jeopardy grounds, but the district court denied that motion. Lopez–Avila’s appeal from the denial of that motion is the legal issue before us.

We affirm the district court’s denial of the motion to dismiss the indictment on double jeopardy grounds. In addition, we take several steps to ensure that AUSA Jerry Albert’s actions are properly investigated, and that he is disciplined if the relevant authorities deem it proper. In so doing, we bear in mind that AUSA Albert’s conduct is not directly before us, and we express no judgment as to what sanctions, if any, are proper.
And from an addendum issued today:

Quote
Upon initial release of this opinion, the government filed a motion requesting that we remove Albert’s name and replace it with references to “the prosecutor.” The motion contended that naming Albert publicly is inappropriate given that we do not yet know the outcome of any potential investigations or disciplinary proceedings. We declined to adopt the government’s suggestion and denied its motion. We have noticed that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona regularly makes public the names of prosecutors who do good work and win important victories. E.g., Press Release, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, “Northern Arizona Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Arson,” (January 31, 2012) (“The prosecution was handled by Christina J. Reid-Moore, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Phoenix”), available at http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/press_releases/2012/PR_01312012_Nez.html. If federal prosecutors receive public credit for their good works — as they should — they should not be able to hide behind the shield of anonymity when they make serious mistakes.
So put that in your pipe and smoke it, Jerry Albright.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/14/2012 09:52 PM

Quote
Originally posted by airforce:
your pipe and smoke it, Jerry Albright.

Onward and upward,
airforce [/QB]
I think that is Jerry Albert AF wink
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/15/2012 04:15 AM

I think you're right. That's what happens when you try to do three things at once. wink

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/23/2012 04:44 PM

Who would have thunk it? The Jerry Albert case didn't get much media coverage, but the government's effort to cover it up has. Don't believe me? Do a Google search for "U.S. Attorney Jerry Albert."

It\'s nice that a rotten prosecutor is finally getting some attention. It's why I started this topic in the first place.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/09/2012 07:16 AM

Prosecutor disbarred for "egregious misconduct" in a murder case. Believe it or not, this is the first time in at least ten years this has happened.

Quote
Former assistant U.S. attorney G. Paul Howes was disbarred today by the Washington, D.C., Court of Appeals.

It is the first time in at least 10 years that a lawyer anywhere in the country has been disbarred by judges over conduct as a federal prosecutor, USA Today reports.

Howes misused $42,000 in vouchers he was supposed to give to witnesses for expenses related to their testimony in court, instead providing them as payments to informants' relatives and girlfriends in high-profile murder and gang cases. Once this came to light, sentences were substantially reduced in at least nine cases, says a three-judge panel in the court's written opinion.

In addition to giving vouchers to individuals who weren't supposed to receive them, Howes "compounded this initial misconduct by failing to disclose the voucher payments to either the court or opposing counsel, pursuant to District of Columbia Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 3.8 (e), Brady v. Maryland, and Giglio v. United States, even though such payments were relevant to the jurors’ credibility determinations of key government witnesses’ testimony," the opinion continues. "Finally, respondent intentionally misrepresented to the court that such disclosures had been made."

The Board on Professional Responsibility recommended, by a 5-4 vote, that Howes be suspended rather than disbarred, and Howes, who sought a one-year suspension, pointed to his lack of prior discipline, lack of any financial gain, cooperation with bar authorities and what the court described as his "altruistic motivation."

However, calling Howes' misconduct "decidedly egregious" and saying that it was "significantly compounded by the protracted and extensive nature of the dishonesty involved," the court decided to disbar him.

"Respondent exhibited a consistent, aggressive disdain for statutes, rules and procedures as a prosecutor, which resulted in his use of the voucher system as a discretionary fund to be distributed at his will. Respondent’s steadfast determination to achieve convictions led him to circumvent federal laws and ethical rules, displaying 'a continuing and pervasive indifference to the obligations of honesty in the judicial system,' " the opinion states, quoting from an earlier case.

"The severity of this conduct is amplified when misconduct as subtle and undetectable as voucher distribution is actively concealed from both the courts and criminal defense counsel," the panel continues. "Additionally, failure to sanction respondent with our most extreme sanction would endorse respondent’s reasoning that honorable ends justify unlawful means, failing to deter others from adopting similar attitudes. Not only does this type of conduct impugn a prosecutor’s moral fitness to practice law, but prosecutorial actions such as these can place another’s liberty interests in the balance. The appropriate sanction should reflect this gravity."
For those interested, the court's 48-page opinion is here .

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/13/2012 04:24 PM

Another prosecutor resigns after his trial misconduct comes to light. Has Hell really frozen over? Radley Balko theorizes that its citizens are being fitted for ice skates.

Quote
Culpeper County Commonwealth's Attorney Gary Close hand-delivered a letter to the Star-Exponent Monday afternoon announcing his resignation effective Tuesday.

"It is not an easy decision," the letter says. "My inclination is to fight back. But in the final analysis, I do not think a protracted battle is good for the office of commonwealth's attorney or for Culpeper County."

Close's resignation comes about a week after a federal judge overturned his 2001 capital murder conviction of Michael Wayne Hash. The judge in his lengthy opinion cited extreme prosecutorial and police misconduct in how the case was handled.

Lead investigator on the case was Scott Jenkins, current Culpeper County Sheriff.

U.S. District Judge James C. Turk gave local authorities six months to retry Hash or set him free.

On Friday, Hash was transferred to the regional jail in Albemarle so he could be closer to his family in Crozet. His attorneys are requesting he be let out of jail while a special prosecutor decides whether to release him for good.

A bond hearing for Hash will be held Wednesday at 1:30 in Culpeper County Circuit Court.
Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/19/2012 05:50 PM

The Justice Department (er,taxpayers) will pay a man $140,000 for the three years he spent in jail. He was there even because AUSA Bruce Hinshelwood concealed exculpatory evidence. A federal judge took the unusual step of bypassing a retrial, and declared Lyons innocent.

And what happened to Bruce Hinshelwood? He was ordered to attend a one-day ethics workshop. I'm not kidding.

He is now in private practice.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/20/2012 05:21 PM

Criminal defendant identifies anonymous news site commenter as one of his prosecutors. Encouragingly, the DOJ is investigating Sal Parricone for "possible violations of Department policy."

Quote
A federal investigation involving New Orleans landfill magnate Fred Heebe took a surprising turn this week. Heebe filed a court petition (PDF) claiming a frequent commenter on local-news site NOLA.com was in fact Sal Parricone, one of the prosecutors assigned to his case. Heebe turned out to be right.

The commenter took regular shots at Heebe and his family, seeming to know more about the case than an average reader of the site might....

So Heebe hired a former FBI forensic linguist, James R. Fitzgerald, to analyze 598 comments made over the course of 6 months by a commenter using the handle “Henry L. Mencken1951″. Fitzgerald, who also worked on the arrest and prosecution of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, compared the comments made by “Mencken1951″ to the language in a 9-page proceeding filed by three Assistant U.S. Attorneys, including Parricone, against the CEO of Heebe’s company, River Birch Landfill. The language was strikingly similar. Given that Parricone was born in 1951, Heebe singled him out in the court petition. On Thursday afternoon, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten confirmed Perricone had used the “Henry L. Mencken1951″ handle....
Now if the DOJ would go after all of its employees who violate "Department policy" or, ahem, the law, we might be getting somewhere. (Are you reading this, Eric Holder?)

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 05/25/2012 08:03 AM

District atorney is indicted for running his office as a criminal RICO enterprise. The 34-page indictment outlines how he took in more that $100,000 in bribes.

Quote
A sitting district attorney in South Texas has been federally indicted, accused of working with his former law partner and others to operate the local justice system as a criminal racketeering enterprise.

Cameron County District Attorney Armando R. Villalobos, who is currently running for election to a seat in the U.S. Congress, is accused with his former law partner, Eduardo "Eddie" Lucio, and others of participating in a criminal scheme to deprive the public of the honest services of their public officials and derive a profit from the operations of the judicial system, according to the Brownsville Herald.

The indictment (PDF) says the DA took more than $100,000 in bribes to minimize and settle criminal cases, the Associated Press reports. Among other claimed misconduct, he is accused of obtaining an $80,000 payoff in exchange for arranging for a convicted murderer to be given 60 days to get his affairs in order before reporting to prison, during which time he fled.

The judge who granted the 60-day delay, state District Judge Abel Limas, has already taken a plea in a federal racketeering case and admitted taking bribes in exchange for favorable treatment of defendants. At last report, he was awaiting sentencing.

Villalobos acknowledged in a press conference earlier Monday that he is under federal investigation in connection with an alleged state-court judicial bribery scheme in which the judge and several lawyers have already been charged, according to another Brownsville Herald article.

He said he will neither step down from his job as DA nor give up his run for Congress. “I have never used this office for financial gain,” Villalobos said.

The DA also urged attendees at the press conference to "have faith in the system and have faith in me. I have served this community for 14 years, and I believe I've earned the people's trust and I've earned the legal community's trust, and I don't think that's going to be erased in one day."

He and Lucio pleaded not guilty Monday afternoon and were each released on $50,000 unsecured bond. Before that, the DA's counsel filed an emergency motion with the federal court in Brownsville. It sought a plan to allow the DA to turn himself in, and thus prevent his safety from being jeopardized by his potential arrest and incarceration in the same county in which he serves.

The indictment states that "the office of the District and County Attorney of Cameron County, Texas, constituted an enterprise as the term is defined by Title 18, United States Code, Section 1961(4), which was engaged in and the activities of which affected interstate and foreign commerce." The cited statutory provision is part of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 05/26/2012 07:00 PM

To me that is relatively standard corruption, but not in any way true police state abuse.
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 05/26/2012 08:02 PM

True, but it's still a perversion of the justice system, so it earns these guys a place in the Hall of Shame.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 05/28/2012 11:26 AM

Atlanta prosecutor Randy Csehy has been caught in a drug sting operation . You may remember him as one of the attorneys who defended the police after they shot and killed 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston several years ago.

Quote
Atlanta attorney Rand Csehy made his mark prosecuting drug dealers; somewhere along the way, police say, he joined the enemy.
Channel 2 Action News, Channel 2 Action News Rand Csehy, 40, was charged Thursday with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and ecstasy.

Before he was arrested on drug charges Thursday, Csehy specialized in high-profile cases. Working for the county, he helped put members of the drug cartel Black Mafia Family behind bars. On the defense side he represented an Atlanta cop charged in the drug raid death of 92-year-old Atlanta resident Kathryn Johnston....

On Thursday Csehy, caught in a sting operation, was arrested and charged with drug and firearms violations, including possession with intent to distribute Ecstasy and methamphetamine.

It was rock bottom for a trajectory that started out strong.

Working for Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, Csehy once prosecuted drug dealers. Now his arrest could call into question the validity of drug cases that he brought when he was senior assistant district attorney from 2002 until 2006.

Questioned whether Fulton County plans any review of cases brought by Csehy, a spokesperson said, “We have no reason to conduct an internal review … However, should circumstances warrant a different course of action, we will respond appropriately.”

But Lester Tate, immediate past president of the State Bar of Georgia, and a trial attorney, said “there should be some kind of review.” In the past, said Tate, when prosecutors fell from grace, their crimes triggered a re-examination of several cases. Tate said the Fulton prosecutor’s office should look to see if someone was wrongfully incarcerated, if evidence was suppressed that could have led to a not-guilty verdict or might have pointed at another person.

Yet there are many admirers of Csehy’s abilities. “I have never been in a courtroom with anyone who had a better skill set than him,” said Cumming defense attorney James Hardy II.

Ash Joshi, a former Fulton County prosecutor, worked with Csehy during his years in Fulton County. As a county prosecutor, Csehy was among a handful of attorneys in the narcotics unit who handled higher level drug trafficking offenses, meaning the sale of more than an ounce of cocaine or methamphetamine.

“He was very hard-working, very committed,” Joshi said.

Joshi worked closely with Abramson during the rape prosecution of Nichols, before the defendant went on a shooting spree. He believes he and Abramson were also targets of the shooter.

He also watched Abramson and Csehy fall in love and later marry. Abramson and Joshi left the Fulton office in 2005, shortly after the shootings. Joshi is now in private practice, and he has drifted apart from Csehy.

In recent years, Joshi said he has seen signs that have worried him about Csehy. When he’s seen him in court, Csehy didn’t have the neat sharp appearance of the past.

“He acted a little erratic,” Joshi said. “He would have a 5 o’clock shadow. He had a lot of earrings. He didn’t look sharp.”

He added, “I had a suspicion that something negative was occurring in his life.”

The upheaval in Csehy’s life and career began as far back as 2004. A wiretap he was operating during an undercover investigation caught a person alleging Abramson used drugs. The accusation later disrupted the high-profile Nichols trial and was a black eye for the Fulton County prosecutor’s office. Lawyers defending Nichols in his murder case accused Abramson of criminal misconduct, and asked that certain evidence in the case against Nichols be discounted.

Nichols was convicted on every count, and sentenced to multiple life sentences.

Abramson resigned from the district attorney’s office in 2005 to take a job in private practice. Csehy left the following year.

Csehy has also experienced money problems. Fulton County filed a $1,938 lien against Csehy and his then-wife Abramson for taxes unpaid in the 2007 calendar year, a lien that was still outstanding as of last September, records show.

On Friday Csehy was granted a $5,000 signature bond on each of five charges, including two firearms charges, and two charges of possession with intent to distribute.

Attempts to reach Csehy on Friday were unsuccessful.
Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 10/04/2012 01:18 PM

New Orleans police make easiest drug arrest in the history of law enforcement. New Orleans prosecutor Jason Cantrell was arrested after a joint fell out of his pocket in open court, in front of two police officers.

Quote
...Flot said Cantrell was talking to an officer when the joint flew.

Sources painted a comical picture of the incident, saying a pair of cops glanced at the joint on the ground, then at each other before making arguably the easiest collar in the annals of policework.

Officers were seen chuckling as their colleagues led Cantrell out of the courtroom about 4:15 p.m. to write him up....
Cantrell is on the record as favoring mandatory Drug Court for all first-time drug offenders. I wonder if he'll choose that for himself, or just pay the $500 fine. I suspect the latter.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 11/17/2012 08:32 PM

Have I ever told you that Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is a jerk? No? Well, he\'s a jerk .

Jonathan Montgomery has been exonerated of a rape for whech he was convicted and sent to prison, after the "victim" admitted she had lied. But Ken Cuccinelli is keeping the man in prison, because the judge didn't have the proper jurisdiction to free him.

Quote
A man exonerated last week but kept imprisoned per the Virginia attorney general's orders spoke exclusively to 10 On Your Side.

Jonathan Montgomery was sentenced by Hampton judge Randolph West to 7.5 years in prison in 2008 for the 2000 sexual assault of Elizabeth Coast. Last week, West tossed Montgomery's conviction on the grounds that Coast had fabricated the assault story.

It was learned that Coast, who worked with the Hampton Police Division, confessed to a detective 'that she lied about a sexual assault... lied at the trial... and sent an innocent man to jail."

Coast has been charged with perjury.

"I am not angry," Montgomery told WAVY.com. "I am disappointed that she didn't come out with this sooner."

Montgomery was asked by WAVY.com if he resents West for originally finding him guilty of a crime he did not commit.

"After hearing him apologize openly in court Friday, and on the record, I can't hold him personally responsible," Montgomery said. "We screamed it out every day that someone was lying, and something was going on."

Although Montgomery's conviction was thrown out, he was not freed because Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli blocked the decision, saying the Hampton judge did not have proper jurisdiction to make the decision that falls under the Virginia Court of Appeals.

"Virginia law will not allow the immediate release of Mr. Montgomery, and the attorney general is obligated to follow the law," said Brian Gottstein, the attorney general's director of communication. "Our research shows that the order from the trial court to vacate the three and a half year-old conviction appears void on its face, as the trial court does not have jurisdiction to enter the order according to Virginia's 21-day rule. Authority to get around the rule -- to pardon or commute the sentence -- does not rest with the attorney general."

Montgomery told WAVY.com he is disappointed with Cuccinelli's approach and hopes Cuccinelli will do everything he can to expedite his release.

"I actually have in my hand a Department of Corrections legal update that I am not serving time and says I should be released as of Nov. 9, 2012," Montgomery said. "I am upset that they wanted to take this to the next level of long form imprisonment and it is very disheartening that they would stoop to this level."


WAVY.com visited Coast's home in Newport News to ask her about the incident, but no one answered the door.

"I haven't had a paying job for four and half years because of this," Montgomery said. "She's taken away the Christmases, the Thanksgivings, the visits with family, my liberty, going fishing... it's the simple things that you don't have anymore."

In the four years of imprisonment, Montgomery lost 134 pounds. He has learned how to be a plumber.

During the trial that put him in prison, Montgomery tried to not look at Coast because of the anger he had. He kept his composure as tough as that was.

"I can't tell you how tough it is to get letters of events you have not been to because you are stuck in jail," Montgomery said.

The Montgomery family has not put up regular Christmas decorations for the length of the time their son has been in jail but instead have hung a star of hope.

"In the worst of times... times you always have with family you can count on. That's what the star in the tree at home means to me. Doing father-son activities means everything to me," Montgomery said.

In an email Tuesday, Cuccinelli said he is dedicated to expediting a Court of Appeals process.
Remember, following proper procedure is only required when you're trying to exonerate someone. If you're trying to convict him, straying from the rules is just a "harmless error."

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: safetalker

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 11/18/2012 05:34 AM

The best way to expedite the release is to begin to charge the state for his loss of freedom in monetary amounts equal to what the attorneys charge to defend you. To itemize the losses of revenue due to your incarceration. To do the same for your family and to serve the Affidavit of notice on the Governor and the Attorney general so they can see what it is costing. Remember to include the possible cost of your death in case they don;t want to release you and opt for a kill so they can receive you insurance the purchased on your incarceration.
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 11/18/2012 07:34 PM

They can totally vacate and delete a criminal record if they really want to and enter a notation in the NCIC the same way is done on someone's credit bureau reports.

A court order entered into NCIC vacting prior convictions is functionally a cleared record because that's what will pop up whenever a background check is done, even if the person had a ton of articles about the arrest and incarceration in local newspapers and on the Internet.

Resistance to any removal of the negative consequences of an arrest or wrongful prosecution when the person is found to be innocent is an attack on everyone's freedom and it should be taken seriously and seriously retaliated against.

It's like that Dyer case. No polygraph examination, no cross examination. Nothing, we have to wait several years for the kid to come clean about how the big bald guy came and told momma how to tell the story right so the police would believe it and Charles would have to go stay at another place.

The trick is to make sure someone somewhere is keeping track of these cases.
Posted By: J. Croft

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 11/19/2012 07:57 AM

These types are satanic, I'm convinced of it. Outright fucking evil. I watched a Nightline broadcast several years ago on DNA evidence acquitting prisoners, the spokes'person' for the South Carolina bureau of prisons blanket disputed the evidence; asked if that meant that even innocent people are incarcerated he looked into the camera with cold snake eyes and said "yes".

These subhuman creatures got into those positions in this system because they want to. They obviously want the maximum amount of people incarcerated and suffering because they get paid, it's power, and it fulfills them. The courts, cops, and prison staff and admininstration are of this type. They only understand one form of persuasion and we all know what that is.

I'm going to make a statement about the Dyer case since Breacher mercifully closed that thread: I have never seen such a clusterfuck of infighting, pettiness, intrigue, incompetence-the ball didn't get dropped, it got took and smacked on our collective head like we were the 90lb weakling on the playground. Which we collectively pretty much are. COINTELPRO, a cunt ex-wife... I was thinking the primary thrust was to free Charles Dyer, not the epic FUCKING ridiculousness the drooling, plate spinning shit starters has turned the Dyer defense into.

The feds LTFAO. I would.

So, what do you do with a system whose closest comparison is when Calvin and Hobbes play 'Calvinball'? Hold them personally responsible because these types own the system. They only understand power.
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/01/2012 03:38 AM

Well, this is a first for this topic. Usually I just cite a single prosecutor in this topic. But this time, the U.S. District Court from the Eastern District of Louisiana has named Assistant U.S. Attorney Jan Mann and the entire federal prosecutor\'s office in Louisiana , accusing them of running amok, posting anonymous comments at the website of a local newspaper in advance of a high-profile trial - and then lying to a federal district judge about it. As a result, the convictions of several police officers for crimes committed during Hurricane Katrina are now in jeopardy.

And just where was the Washington D.C. Office of Professional Responsibility during all of this?

Quote
It is difficult to imagine how this could have possibly been missed by OPR. . .
The judge is saying that Attorney general Eric Holder's ethics office is incompetent. But I have another theory - they're just corrupt.

I know that reading legal papers is not considered fun by anyone, but pass this one along. Eric Holder should be held accountable for this, and a number of other things as well.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/01/2012 03:31 PM

This is related to the Danziger Bride incident and they all want to be pointing the finger at each other.

I have from an extremely reliable source that BATF SWAT from Oregon, Washington and Nevada deployed to Katrina also, 100% on that one but I don't think it hit the news. Their main SWAT is apparently out of Reno, and my source got it directly from one of their team leaders as they were packing up and getting on the busses to go to the airport; next stop: Louisiana to "help out". Yeah, BATF SWAT, handing out MREs and bottled water...

Don't forget, one of our founders was a New Orleans cop. Far as I know he quit AW and AWRM years ago, but not before most of the rest of us got the inside scoop on NOPD corruption.

Let them bitch and cry at each other. The feds went to get a conviction because they rightly saw that if NOPD got rightfully labeled with "uniform of the enemy status" by just about anyone in this country with any sense of right and wrong, the virus of rebellion would spread, so they decided to sacrifice some NOPD cops over this.

They can't even cry racism foul on it because the dickheads who started shooting were all black, the people throwing the sympathetic fire downrange were white, but there was some incidents of up close and personal execution of the wounded.

The thing to look out carefully on this for is whether or not any of this sophisticated legal wrangling results in those cops getting off on some sort of appeals. Notice how we are seeing a pretty carefully laid out appeals plan on this, and what did our guy get? A hell of a lot less than that.
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/01/2012 04:19 PM

This is the same office that prosecuted James O'Keefe (of ACORN and Breitbart fame) for attempting to make recordings at Sen. Mary Landrieu's office. O'Keefe eventually pled guilty to a single misdemeanor, for "entering a federal building under false pretenses." I'm wondering if prosecutors pulled that same stunt with him?

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/06/2012 03:09 PM

The Louisiana prosecutor's scandal has claimed its first victim . U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, who had previously won acclaim for prosecuting corrupt government officials (which, after all, is his job), is resigning. He had previously said that he had no idea what his colleagues were up to.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/07/2012 03:19 AM

I think it just proves that they have a bunch of infighting going on. Something tells me that none of those people are actually motivated by a desire to protect the public from abuse or forward the causes of liberty.

The fact that there were no news reports of US Marshals stomping the living shit out of those NOPD cops on national television and hauling them to Gitmo or one of those federal brick hole lockdown brigs where they occasionally take some wayward Marines who get pissed and massacre some hadjis tells me they all had a gentleman's agreement sort of prosecution anyway. I don't think any of them got tortured into signing a confession statement and "plea agreement".

Not too often does someone under indictment for homicide get to keep weapons and police powers while having their buddies conduct a massive retaliatory investigation against anyone and everyone involved with the prosecution.

What they will do is play dirty against each other in the name of maintaining the perception of being the "good guys" among their respective constituencies. I am not fooled by either side claiming moral superiority on that one except that I put a bit more integrity points on the US Attorney side of that conflict, only because the state level people there are so blatantly dirty that their style of government would even soil the integrity of a lot of third world dictatorships.

The employees at the prosecutors office were simply stating their informed opinions about the guilt of the officers involved in the Danziger bridge massacre. Maybe they bent some rules which restrict their free speech as part of the job, but lets face it, they are people, and they are apparently just trying to absolve themselves of their past association with the state level filth that call themselves functionaries in the regular Louisiana "justice system".
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 12/07/2012 04:34 AM

If they wanted to state their "informed opinions," they should have identified themselves. And they shouldn't have lied to the judge about it.

The judge has yet to rule on the defense motions for new trials. I think it's unlikely the defense will prevail, but it's taking the judge a long time to write his opinion.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/04/2013 10:10 AM

Texas judge faces "court of inquiry" in wrongful conviction.

Back in 1986, Michael Morton was convicted of beating his wife to death, and he spent 25 years in prison until DNA evidence finally freed him. Now Mr. Morton is going after Judge Ken Anderson, who prosecuted him at the time, for withholding evidence that should have been turned over to his attorney. Amazingly, Texas has now convened a "court of inquiry" to determine to determine of Judge Anderson should be punished, and perhaps even prosecuted.

Quote
...

A “court of inquiry,” part of Texas law since 1965, has usually been used to examine allegations against elected officials, never to address suspected misconduct by a prosecutor. Some hope this week’s hearings lead to a greater examination of alleged prosecutorial misconduct that has led to wrongful convictions not just in Texas, but nationwide.

“There is no doubt that the eyes of Texas are going to be on this proceeding,” said Kathryn Kase, executive director of Texas Defender Service, a nonprofit that trains and assists lawyers who represent death row inmates. “Bad forensic science is not the only reason people get wrongfully imprisoned, and we have to be dedicated to trying to stop that.” (...)
The State Bar of Texas has also begun proceedings that could end with Anderson being disbarred. It's good to see prosecutors finally being held responsible for their misbehavior.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/11/2013 11:34 AM

Somebody has taken this ball and run with it. The Open File , made up of a loose collection of lawyers, law professors, law students, and others, is dedicated to uncovering prosecutorial misconduct, and they're off to an impressive start. Some of the cases they've talked about have already been highlighted here, but many more haven't. This is a blog you will want to bookmark!

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/18/2013 01:08 PM

Texas may end prosecutorial immunity.

Quote
With more than 300 exonerations across the nation of people convicted and imprisoned for crimes they did not commit, we all have witnessed the limits of a criminal justice system flawed by human error — be that unintentional or intentional.

Nowhere more than in Texas has the weight of those imperfections been felt in cases that have tested public confidence in the criminal justice system and spurred big changes at the Legislature. That was true in the Timothy Cole case and is proving true in the Michael Morton case.

Morton’s testimony last week before the Texas Senate helped steer Senate Bill 825, prompted by his case, over a crucial hurdle. The bill aims to hold prosecutors accountable if they hide or suppress evidence from defendants. Morton’s lawyers claim prosecutors failed to turn over key evidence supporting Morton’s claim of innocence. Clearly, current laws are too lenient in punishing such practices, which not only are unethical, but illegal. The Legislature should pass the bill.

No one can give back freedoms, dignity or time stolen from people wrongfully convicted and imprisoned. But the Legislature can improve an imperfect system. It took action in the Cole case after the tragic details of Cole’s case went public. Cole, who died in prison in 1999 while serving a 25-year sentence for a rape he didn’t commit, was posthumously pardoned in 2010 by Gov. Rick Perry after DNA evidence cleared him and implicated another man who confessed to the crime....
Red the whole thing. And if you're a Texan, pressure your state lawmakers to pass this bill.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 04/12/2013 01:00 PM

District attorney should be disbarred for prosecutorial misconduct, state bar court recommends. I'd like to see more of this. A lot more.

Quote
The State Bar Court of California has recommended that Del Norte County District Attorney Jon Michael Alexander, who already had been disciplined three times in the past, be disbarred, the Los Angeles Times reports.

In its opinion (PDF), the bar court found that Alexander, reportedly the state’s first sitting prosecutor to face disciplinary charges, abused his prosecutorial power by speaking with a criminal defendant about her case without her lawyer present; and after learning from her that she, not her co-defendant, owned the illegal drugs found during their arrest, failed to give that exculpatory evidence to the other defendant’s lawyer; then lied to an assistant DA by saying he had not spoken with the defendant (who had recorded the conversation).

Alexander has been widely respected for once beating his own addiction to methamphetamines and later working extensively in helping other addicts—he started the first 12-step program in Del Norte County for juveniles.

At an eight-day bar hearing in October, witnesses—including judges, lawyers, mayors, community leaders, politicians, law enforcement officers, social workers and others—testified to Alexander’s good character.

Noting that some of them traveled a long way to do so, the bar court Judge Lucy Armendariz wrote that “they invariably dismissed respondent’s misconduct as either insignificant or not at all unethical. Many did not comprehend its egregiousness.”

The bar court dismissed charges against Alexander concerning loans he made and received before taking the position: $14,000 to a probation officer who sometimes worked cases he had as a public defender; $6,000 from a criminal defense lawyer who once Alexander took the DA position, would be dunning him to dismiss a case and represented Alexander in an earlier bar discipline case. The bar court found bad judgment but no moral turpitude in those matters.

Armendariz not only found the earlier discipline matters aggravating, she noted that in the most recent one Alexander “demonstrated lack of insight into his wrongdoing. He blames others for his ethical and professional lapses, including outside political forces and the State Bar.”

The California Supreme Court will review the judge's recommendation, but Alexander has for now, as of April 7, been deemed "not eligible to practice law" by the state bar.
Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 04/20/2013 06:38 AM

Former Texas district attorney Ken Anderson will face criminal charges for his prosecution of Michael Morton, an innocent man who spent almost 25 years in prison.

Quote
A former district attorney acted improperly when he prosecuted an innocent man who spent nearly 25 years in prison, a Texas judge ruled Friday as he ordered the former prosecutor's arrest on criminal contempt and tampering charges.

Ken Anderson was in the courtroom as Judge Louis Sturns issued his ruling and turned himself in afterward. Sturns said there was sufficient evidence that Anderson was guilty on all three charges brought against him for his handling of the case against Michael Morton: criminal contempt of court, tampering with evidence and tampering with government records.

"Mr. Anderson consciously chose to conceal the availability of the exculpatory evidence so he could convict Mr. Morton for murder," Sturns said. "This court cannot think of a more intrinsically harmful act than a prosecutor's intentional choice to hide evidence so as to convict a defendant facing a murder charge and a life sentence."

Morton, 58, was released from prison in October 2011 after new DNA tests showed he did not fatally beat his wife, Christine, in their north Austin home in 1986. Another man has been arrested for the killing. Anderson, who has been a judge in Williamson County since 2002, has apologized to Morton for what he called failures in the system but said he believes there was no misconduct in the case.

Anderson sat motionless as Sturns' issued his ruling, leaning forward on his elbows. He then surrendered at the courthouse, where he now serves as an elected district court judge. Anderson's lawyer, Eric Nichols, said he plans to appeal the decision and said he believes the judge overstepped his authority.

Morton, dressed in a gray sport jacket, listened intently to the proceedings.

"I don't want Ken Anderson's head on a stick, and that's true, but the system is going to do what it's going to do," he said. "We can't change the past, but we can prevent this from happening again." (...)
Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 11/09/2013 08:32 AM

A few posts above, I brought up the case of Ken Anderson , who both falsified and withheld evidence, sending an innocent man to prison for 25 years for a murder he didn't commit. He could have gotten ten years in prison for tampering with evidence and sending Michael Morton to prison for a huge chunk of his life.

So what did he get?

Ten days in jail, a $500 fine, and 500 hours of community service. I'm not kidding. Ten days, versus ten years. I can only hope his fellow inmates treat him well during those ten days.

Quote
...Morton was released in 2011 after DNA evidence showed he didn't beat his wife to death. He watched from the front row of the gallery Friday as the man who helped convict him now sat at the defense table, just as he once did. Morton smiled and was hugged by family members after the judge adjourned.

"In a case like this, sometimes it's hard to say what meets the ends of justice and what doesn't. There is no way that anything we can do here today can resolve the tragedy that occurred in these matters," Judge Kelly G. Moore said Friday. "I'd like to say to Mr. Morton, the world is a better place because of you."

Anderson has previously apologized to Morton for what he called failures in the system but has said he believes there was no misconduct.

Anderson accepted the plea deal in the same Williamson County courthouse where he later spent 11 years as a state judge. He resigned in September....
Mr. Anderson also agreed to be disbarred as a part of the plea deal. I guess us taxpayers will now be paying for his damn food stamps. mad

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 01/20/2014 09:58 AM

Government lawyers committed "egregious misconduct" in their handling of discovery in a lawsuit about how the Federal Bureau of Prisons treats inmates classified as "terrorists."

Quote
Lawyers in the U.S. attorney's office in Washington committed "egregious misconduct" in their handling of discovery in a lawsuit that challenges how the Federal Bureau of Prisons treats inmates classified as terrorists, a judge said this week.

Randall Todd Royer, also known as Ismail Royer, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after he admitted helping individuals gain access to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. He was housed in the general prison population for the first three-and-a-half years of his confinement, but claims he was subjected to more restrictive conditions after prison officials designated him as a "terrorist inmate" in late 2006.

Royer, a U.S. citizen born in Missouri, filed two lawsuits against the Bureau of Prisons in 2010 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He accused the bureau of failing to follow rulemaking processes required by federal law in adopting the "terrorist inmate" program. He also alleged the prison system wrongfully classified him as a "terrorist inmate" based on false information and denied him the opportunity to challenge the designation.

Senior Judge Royce Lamberth denied the government's efforts to dismiss both cases in March 2013. Royer's attorneys made requests for discovery in June 2013. In the months that followed, Lamberth, in a Jan. 15 order, said the bureau's lawyers in the U.S. attorney's office committed a series of "egregious" errors. The judge cited missed deadlines, the production of discovery on a rolling basis and the submission of information without the proper signature.

"Even novices to litigation know that answers to interrogatories must be signed under oath," the judge wrote. Lamberth ordered the government to produce outstanding information to Royer's lawyers and to pay attorney fees.
...

"The whole point of this litigation is whether defendant can continue to single out plaintiff for special treatment as a terrorist during his continued period of incarceration," Lamberth wrote. "Did any supervising attorney ever read this nonsense that is being argued to this Court?"...

Kirkpatrick said Lamberth "appropriately recognized that there's some real urgency to produce the discovery."

"There's a real risk in a case like this that the government can simply run out the clock," Kirkpatrick said. "[Royer] could ultimately be released and his claims would be moot if the government was able to drag this out for a very long time."...

He claimed his "terrorist inmate" designation was based on information prosecutors in the criminal case acknowledged was false linking Royer to Al Qaeda. Although the trial judge ordered the government to delete the information from Royer's pre-sentencing report, Royer claimed the Bureau of Prisons kept the inaccurate information in its records and used it to make the "terrorist inmate" classification.

Royer also accused the Bureau of Prisons of adopting the "terrorist inmate" program without going through the processes laid out in the federal Administrative Procedure Act....
Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 01/20/2014 07:58 PM

Federal BOP and abuse, one in the same.

They regularly do secret trials, with secret witnesses, secret administrative punishments, up to and including executions with little or no outside oversight.

I know of other cases where they simply reintroduced evidence previously proven false in court and then used it to take administrative action against people under a pretty broad interpretation of how sovereign immunity works.

If you really want to see some crazy stuff in the abuse spectrum, take a look at how they do pretrial reports, which can and do lead to years of pretrial incarceration of people based on evidence and reports which are kept entirely secret from the defendant. People can and are locked up in horrible pretrial conditions as an incentive to get them to plead guilty to just about anything, which in turn is used as the justification for brutal and abusive pretrial treatment as defacto punishment for allegations for which there was never even an opportunity to dispute in open court.
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 01/21/2014 08:40 AM

Another favorite trick federal prosecutors use, it seems, is freezing a defendant\'s assets , so that they can't hire a lawyer and mount a defense.

Quote
Although the federal government accuses Kerri and Brian Kaley of trafficking in stolen medical devices, it has been unable to identify any victims of this alleged criminal scheme. That has not stopped the Justice Department from freezing the assets they need to defend themselves. The Supreme Court is now considering whether the Kaleys have a constitutional right to challenge the order blocking access to their money before it's too late to mount an effective defense.

For people facing criminal charges, freedom not only is not free; it is dauntingly expensive. The Kaleys' lawyers estimate that a trial will cost $500,000 in legal fees and other expenses. The Kaleys had planned to cover the cost with money drawn from a home equity line of credit-until the government took it.

Technically, the government has not taken the money yet; it has merely "restrained" it, along with the rest of the home's value, in anticipation of a post-conviction forfeiture. But the result is the same for the Kaleys: They can no longer afford to pay the lawyers they chose and trust, the people who have been representing them for eight years and are familiar with the details of their case.

Those details are puzzling. Kerri Kaley, who had a job with Ethicon selling medical devices to hospitals in the New York area, knew that hospital employees periodically would ask the company's sales representatives to take overstocked or outmoded devices off their hands. Seeing an opportunity to make some extra money, she and some of her colleagues began selling the devices, which no one else seemed to want, to a distributor in Miami.

Neither Ethicon nor any hospital has come forward to complain that its property was stolen. Yet the federal government brought criminal charges against Kaley, her colleagues, and her husband, who had helped ship the devices and deposited some of the revenue in his business account.

Prosecutors sought a forfeiture of more than $2 million, claiming it was proceeds from the Kaleys' crimes. A few days after admitting to a magistrate judge that only $140,000 could be traced to the medical device sales, they obtained a new indictment that included a money laundering charge. This allowed them to claim that any assets with which the proceeds had been mingled were subject to forfeiture because they had "facilitated" the concealment of ill-gotten gains.

The money laundering charge seemed implausible, given the clear and detailed financial records kept by the Miami medical device distributor and the Kaleys' accountant. The Kaleys are accused of laundering money they made no attempt to hide after stealing merchandise from owners who evidently were happy to be rid of it.

The only Ethicon sales representative who has been tried so far- who was able to hire the lawyers she wanted, since her assets were not frozen-was acquitted after less than three hours of deliberation. Two other sales representatives pleaded guilty and received sentences of five and six months, respectively, although the judges in both cases wondered aloud who the victims were.

The Kaleys are not ready to surrender. They want their day in court with the counsel of their choice. Toward that end, they argue that the Sixth Amendment, which guarantees the right to counsel, and the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the taking of property without due process, require that they have an opportunity to challenge the legal basis of the proposed forfeiture before they go to trial.

An adversarial hearing is especially important in this situation because prosecutors have a financial stake in forfeitures, which help fund their budgets. Given the weakness of the case against the Kaleys, it's not clear who is guilty of theft here: the defendants or the government.
Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/21/2014 10:23 AM

Pinal County, Arizona, prosecutor Richard Wintory has agreed to a 90-day suspension of his license to practice law due to his conduct in a 2011 murder case .

In 2007, he was Arizona Prosecutor of the Year. Now he's in the Prosecutor's Hall of Shame. His mother must be very proud.

Quote
Deputy Pinal County Attorney Richard Wintory has agreed to a 90-day suspension from practicing law because of his conduct during a capital- murder case in 2011 while he was an assistant Arizona attorney general.

In that case, Wintory had several inappropriate telephone communications with a confidential intermediary hired by defense attorneys, according to a signed consent agreement between Wintory and the State Bar of Arizona that was filed Friday with the presiding disciplinary judge of the Arizona Supreme Court.

Wintory also did not reveal to the court, the defense attorney or his own supervisors the number of conversations he had with the intermediary.

Wintory, who was Arizona Prosecutor of the Year in 2007, is now chief deputy to Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles.

In the consent agreement, Wintory “conditionally admits” that he violated the state’s Rules of Professional Conduct for attorneys, specifically a rule under the heading of “misconduct” that he engaged “in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice.”

Prosecutors are rarely disciplined for misconduct. Wintory entered the agreement rather than face a disciplinary hearing.

The consent agreement notes that “had this matter proceeded to hearing rather than being resolved by consent agreement, the State Bar would have contended that (Wintory) knowingly engaged in dishonest conduct. (Wintory) would have contended that, while negligent, he acted in good faith and had no intention to be dishonest or to deceive the court of his colleagues.”

The agreement needs to be approved by the judge.

Wintory was a prosecutor for 20 years in Oklahoma and had a history of allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in death-penalty cases there before he moved to the Pima County Attorney’s Office.

In 2010, he took a case against Darren Goldin, who was accused of hiring a hit man to kill a rival drug dealer 10 years earlier. Goldin had already been convicted of second-degree murder for a similar killing in Maricopa County.

Wintory was going for the death penalty against Goldin in the Pima County case. Wintory took the case with him when he moved to the Tucson office of the Arizona attorney general.

Goldin was adopted, and in order to find information about Goldin’s family history that might mitigate a potential death sentence, his defense attorney hired a confidential intermediary to locate Goldin’s mother.

The intermediary had a falling out with the defense attorney and, in August 2011, contacted Wintory to help her get legal representation so that she could sue the defense attorney.

Wintory spoke to the intermediary several times over the next few weeks, and in an Aug. 22, 2011, hearing, he admitted as much. The defense attorney and judge both noted that the contact was inappropriate.

But the intermediary called Wintory again, and he appeared to be evasive when his supervisors questioned him about how many times he had talked to her.

He was taken off the case, which was subsequently pleaded to second-degree murder.

Goldin was sentenced to 11 years in prison, a light sentence the judge noted was due in part to “the apparent misconduct allegedly engaged in by the prior prosecutor in this matter.”

Wintory and the intermediary denied that anything confidential had been exchanged.

Wintory moved on to serve under Voyles in Pinal County.

In a statement on Tuesday, Voyles said, “I hold sacred the ethical obligations of attorneys. In fact, the entire criminal justice system depends on the public trust of the institution and our responsibilities as attorneys to abide by the laws and professional rules governing our work. ...

“Richard fully cooperated with the Bar throughout their investigation, and we look forward to the conclusion of this matter.”
Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/23/2014 01:22 AM

Prosecutor misconduct, but I am not sure if I see this as worthy of major consideration. Looked like maneuverings among a bunch of seedy people to begin with, not the victimization of a relatively innocent person.
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/23/2014 06:56 AM

By all accounts, Darrin Goldin was no angel. The defense must have been pretty desperate to find some mitigating evidence, to try to track down his natural parents to see if these might be something biologically wrong with him.

If Wintory had been straight up and honest about the contacts with the intermediary, nothing would have happened and he might well have gotten the death penalty against Goldin. Instead, Goldin received an 11-year sentence - for hiring a contract murderer to eliminate a rival.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 02/23/2014 05:08 PM

I would not put the guy on any list for that. He was just trying to be discreet in handling a situation which looks like it jumped in his lap.
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 04/08/2014 11:22 AM

Our latest entry goes to Bronx Assistant District Attorney Megan Teesdale, who failed to reveal exculpatory evidence that would have freed a man being held in Rikers Island on rape charges. For a prosecutor to fail to hand over exculpatory evidence is, sadly, nothing new. But her actions were so blatant that the judge not only verbally dressed her down, but banished her from his courtroom .

I have actually never heard of this being done before.

Quote
... “To my mind, this is an utter and complete disgrace — not just for you, but for your office in general,” Bronx Criminal Court Judge John Wilson told Bronx assistant district attorney Megan Teesdale before dismissing the case on March 21.

The defendant, Segundo Marquez, had been held at Rikers Island for more than eight months awaiting trial on reduced misdemeanor rape charges stemming from a 2010 incident.

Teesdale, who has worked for Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson since 2012, failed to inform the court that Marquez’s accuser, who testified at trial that she had been raped, initially told an NYPD sergeant that the sex was consensual.

The act of withholding evidence favorable to the defense is known as a Brady violation after a 1963 Supreme Court ruling.

The two week-long trial had reached closing arguments when one of Teesdale’s supervisors informed the judge about a note on the case file referring to the contradictory testimony.
Critics claim Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson's office fosters an atmosphere that rewards convictions, leading to misconduct by prosecutors.

“The excuse you offer, passing the file back and forth, no one looking and no one knowing what anything is, saddens me on one level and makes me sick on another,” Wilson said as he chastised Teesdale before the court. “You’re going to leave this room, and you’re never going to come back.”

Wilson, who worked as a prosecutor for Johnson’s office before becoming a judge, added that he had, “always been very proud of that association, until today.”

A Bronx District Attorney spokesman did not say whether Teesdale would be reprimanded for the misstep. Judge Wilson, however, does have the authority to bar Teesdale from entering his court or trying cases before him....
Onward and upward,
airoforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 05/27/2014 01:23 PM

The Open File has details on...prosecutors sat on exculpatory evidence. Too long to post here, but follow the link for details.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 07/26/2014 11:20 AM

What's the penalty for sending an innocent man to prison for 25 years, when you know he's innocent? Three days in jail.

Ken Anderson will also be disbarred, spend 500 hours doing community service, and pay a $500 fine.

You're right, that ain't enough.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 07/26/2014 08:31 PM

The disbarred part is one thing, and I think that opens the door to a shitload of civil liability. He should not be collecting any fat retirement from an ill-earned career of privilege like that.
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 11/17/2014 08:15 AM

Today is an historic day. Today, for the first time, a former prosecutor will go to jail for sending an innocent man to prison for 25 years .

Ken Anderson will spend 10 days in jail. Michael Morton, his victim, spent 25 years. There really isn't much more to say.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: airforce

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/27/2017 01:48 PM

It's been a while since I bothered to post in this topic, but today I found not one, but two things that managed to take my breath away.

The United States Attorney's Office in Kansas has been caught with hundreds of audio and video recording of defense attorney\'s and their clients .

And in Brooklyn, a prosecutor has been charged with forging the signatures of judges to set up unlawful wiretaps .

Quote
A supervising prosecutor from the Brooklyn district attorney's office forged judges' signatures in order to obtain illegal wiretaps and then used those wiretaps to illegally monitor cell phone calls and text messages, federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment Monday.

Tara Lenich, 41, who was an assistant district attorney with the Kings County District Attorney's Office, allegedly created those fake judicial orders for more than a year -- from June 2015 to November 2016 -- in order to get the wiretaps.

She then, prosecutors allege, used equipment from the DA's office to "intercept, monitor and record the communications to and from the two cellular telephones."

Lenich will be arraigned Monday. Her attorney was not immediately available for comment.
What's wrong with our criminal justice system? A lot.

Onward and upward,
airforce
Posted By: Breacher

Re: The Prosecutor's Hall of Shame - 03/28/2017 09:47 AM

The next question then is in those cases, when and where were they prioritizing the difference between dropping a bad case vs scrubbing out defense witnesses or putting on alternative pressure in order to gain a guilty plea.
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