Legal News

Prosecutorial Misconduct in Patrick Fitzgerald?s Office? Yes, Says Judge

By Ashby Jones

When a judge calls a lawyer to the carpet, we pay attention. When a judge calls a federal prosecutor to the carpet, we really pay attention. But when a judge orders new trials on account of alleged prosecutorial misconduct arising out of Patrick Fitzgerald’s office, we just about fall out of our chair. Then we get up and blog it.

And that’s what we’re dealing with. Indeed, on Wednesday, Chicago federal judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow ordered a new trial for four defendants accused of conspiring to run a drug-dealing operation run out of the famed Cabrini Green public-housing complex. The problem, according to Humphrey’s opinion: a prosecutor in U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office allowed a government witness to testify falsely in a trial that resulted in the convictions of four defendants in March. Click here for the Chicago Tribune article.

The backstory, with a little help from the Trib: the prosecution’s case relied in part on the testimony of a key witness named Senecca Williams, who agreed to testify as part of a plea agreement with the government. Williams testified that during late 2002 and early 2003, he witnessed drug-related activity pertaining to some of the defendants.

But — oops! — the government ran into a little snag. It ultimately conceded that one of the defendants Williams fingered was behind bars from April 2002 until September 2005, and another didn’t live in the apartment complex at issue. Therefore, Williams’s testimony had to be untrue.

But, Lefkow wrote, when defense lawyers confronted Williams with the fact that the defendant was in jail during the relevant time period, one of the prosecutors — Lefkow does not identify whom — objected and said, “That’s not true.” That said, throughout her opinion, Lefkow singled out AUSA Rachel Cannon for her conduct at the trial.

According to the opinion, Cannon argued in court that Williams was testifying about a broad period of time and, while he might be wrong about specific dates, “the facts remain true.”

When Lefkow reminded Cannon that she has an obligation to make sure the evidence she puts on is true and accurate, Cannon told Lefkow, “And we stand by everything that’s been presented, Your Honor.”

Cannon declined to comment. An office spokesman, Randall Samborn, said prosecutors received the ruling Thursday, are reviewing it and considering their options, “including asking the judge to reconsider her opinion and/or filing an appeal.” A call to Samborn by the Law Blog was not immediately returned.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 28, 2009 (boomark / email).