Legal News

Another DOJ Blow?Charges Dismissed Against Blackwater Employees

By Amir Efrati

A federal judge’s ruling this week was momentous enough to require our taking a break from football, football and more football to note it on the Law Blog.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina dismissed the indictment of four former Blackwater Worldwide security officers related to a 2007 shooting in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead. Here’s the story by the WSJ and here’s the NYT account. Judge Urbina ruled that the Justice Department’s case had to be dismissed due a “reckless violation” of the defendants’ constitutional rights including their 5th Amendment right against being compelled to self-incrimination. The guards were told by the State Department that they would be fired if they did not tell their version of events and were told that what they said would not be used against them in criminal proceedings. Here’s the story by the Washington Post, which includes a copy of the opinion.

The Times, in particular, quotes extensively from the judge’s 90-page opinion:

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Nevertheless, Judge Urbina found that "in their zeal to bring charges," investigators and prosecutors had extensively used those statements, disregarding "the warning of experienced, senior prosecutors" that "the course of action threatened the viability of prosecution."

"The explanations offered by the prosecutors and investigators in an attempt to justify their actions and persuade the court that they did not use the defendants' compelled testimony were all too often contradictory, unbelievable and lacking in credibility," Judge Urbina wrote.

The judge also criticized prosecutors for withholding "substantial exculpatory evidence" from the grand jury that indicted the defendants, as well as for presenting "distorted versions" of witnesses' testimony and improperly telling the grand jury that some incriminating statements had been made by the defendants but were being withheld.

The prosecution was led by Kenneth Kohl, an assistant U.S. attorney who was not made available to the media by the DOJ.

The Washington Post in its story here points out that Urbina cited the case of Lt. Col. Oliver North’s conviction in the Iran-Contra affair was overturned on similar grounds in 1990.

The black eye to the DOJ comes of course after AG Eric Holder earlier this year tossed the conviction of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens due and a federal judge recently threw out a stock-options case against top executives at Broadcom, both over allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 03, 2010 (boomark / email).