Prosecutorial misconduct in Florida
For anybody who thinks that prosecutors always play by the rules and always seek justice (rather than wins) in criminal cases, here is your weekly reminder.
FEDERAL JUDGE SANCTIONS GOVERNMENT $600,000 FOR SECRETLY TAPING DEFENSE LAWYER: "In a blistering 50-page opinion (PDF) today criticizing the 'win-at-any-cost behavior' of federal prosecutors who secretly taped a defense lawyer, a federal judge in Florida has awarded more than $600,000 in sanctions against the government.
The money, which the United States must pay to a South Florida physician it
accused of prescribing pain medication without a proper medical purpose,
will cover more than half of Dr. Ali Shaygan's defense costs, reports the
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.The 36-year-old doctor, who lives in Miami Beach, was acquitted in March of
141 counts of unlawful prescribing. As a result of his overprescribing, the
government had contended, a West Palm Beach man died of a drug overdose.The prosecutors who tried the case were Sean Cronin and Andrea Hoffman.
Midway through trial, the defense team learned that attorney David Markus,
one of three lawyers representing Shaygun, had been secretly recorded by
witnesses with approval from the government. The conversations-which the
government says were made to investigate possible witness-tampering-violated
legal ethics rules and U.S. Attorney's Office policy, according to the
newspaper, because they were not disclosed to the defense prior to trial.Alicia Valle, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, says mistakes
were unintentionally made in the case, and that it has been referred to the
U.S. Department of Justice for further investigation, apparently concerning
the conduct of the prosecution, according to the Sun-Sentinel.After a two-day hearing after the jury's March 12 not-guilty verdict, U.S.
District Judge Alan Gold awarded $601,795.88 to Shaygun. In his opinion,
which accorded the most criticism to Cronin as lead prosecutor, the judge castigated the government for pursuing an 'unfounded' witness-tampering probe based on 'personal animus against the defense team,' the newspaper
writes."
The more power some people have, the less ethically they behave. While the vast majority of prosecutors are good and decent people who play by the rules, the ethical rules exist to prevent the few from doing this type of thing.
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