DEVELOPMENTS
LITIGATION
Prosecutors Behaving Badly
JUSTICE CONFRONTS A SPATE OF HIGH-PROFILE MISCONDUCT INCIDENTS.
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If The Y GAve AwARdS fOR
bad conduct by federal prosecu-
tors, picking a winner these days
would be a challenging task.
The most likely frontrunners:
the U.S. department of Justice
prosecutors who took former
U.S. senator Ted Stevens to trial
on corruption charges. The case
collapsed in early 2009, when the
prosecutors were caught deliber-
ately withholding exculpatory evi-
dence and presenting testimony
they knew was fabricated, among
other ethics violations. The feder-
al district court judge in the case,
emmet Sullivan, was aghast. “In
25 years on the bench,” he said in
rebuking the prosecutors, “I have
never seen anything approaching
the mishandling and misconduct
that I have seen in this case.”
There are other fresh instances
of bad behavior: in the govern-
ment’s asbestos contamination
suit against w. R. Grace & Co. (the
judge did not find misconduct, but
told jurors that prosecutors had
performed an “inexcusable der-
eliction of duty” for not turning
over exculpatory evidence soon-
er), the stock options backdating
case against Broad-
com Corporation,
and the manslaugh-
ter case against five
ex-Blackwater work-
ers. Then there was
the prosecution of
Miami doctor Ali
Shaygan, accused of
illegally selling prescription drugs.
According to the judge’s sanctions
order, the local U.S. attorney’s
office secretly taped the defense
team’s phone calls, tampered with
witnesses, and engaged in other
ethical and discovery violations.
“If they’re
going to end
the problem,
there has
to be some real
teeth to this.”
JON BERKELEY
Cover
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