Prosecutorial Misconduct
Reflections of a wrongfully convicted victim
Late last night I received this email from my lawyer, who sent me a piece on Prosecutorial Misconduct (see below). He asked me to provide my insights on the piece. My response is below the article.
On Jan 14, 2021, at 11:11 PM, George XXXX <XXXXXXX> wrote:
Pascal, please provide me your Insights on the Article Below as I finish the letter.
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Relevant Cases: Roeling Adams, John Stoll, Michael Hanline, Jason Puracal, Grace & Matthew Huang
Prosecutorial misconduct occurs when a prosecutor breaks a law or a code of professional ethics in the course of a prosecution. In Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78 (1935), Justice Sutherland explained prosecutorial misconduct as “overstepp[ing] the bounds of that propriety and fairness which should characterize the conduct of such an officer in the prosecution of a criminal offense.”
Prosecutors are entrusted with determining who will be held accountable when a crime occurs. They hold a great deal of power. They work with the police as they gather evidence and build a case against a suspect. Then, they take that case to court and are charged with convincing a jury of the guilt of the suspect. First and foremost, it is the prosecutor’s job to seek justice and present the judge and jury with facts and legal arguments that result in the conviction of the guilty defendant.
Why Prosecutors Might Succumb to Misconduct
Sometimes, prosecutors find evidence that may exonerate the person they are trying to convict. Because prosecutors are charged with presenting the truth, the prosecution is obligated to turn over all exculpatory evidence to the defense. This can be difficult. Imagine that you are a prosecutor in the midst of a heated trial, fighting to get justice for a murder victim — a woman you believe was murdered by her husband. You are absolutely convinced that this man beat his wife to death. In a police report, you find notes taken during an interview with the murder victim’s 3-year-old child who witnessed the murder. The child told the police, “Daddy wasn’t home when Mommy got hurt. A monster with a mustache hurt Mommy.”
A prosecutor in this position must turn over this evidence to the defense, even if it will torpedo the case against the defendant. Because the criminal justice system is adversarial — the prosecution and the defense battle against each other within the framework of the law — it is very difficult to hand the opponent the tools that could very well destroy their case. Nevertheless, it is the prosecutor’s duty to do so.
How Prosecutors’ Bad Behavior Affects the Innocent
In 1987 in Texas, Michael Morton was convicted of murdering his wife based on circumstantial evidence. Morton’s defense attorney was never told about, or given access to, the police report in which Morton’s three-year-old son had told police that his father had not killed his mother. After serving 25 years for murdering his wife, Morton was exonerated after attorneys were finally given access to the police report and DNA testing of a bloody bandana found at the scene of the murder matched a man who was serving a sentence for the murder of another woman.
Ted Stevens was a longtime Republican senator from Alaska. Prosecutors concealed documents that would have helped Stevens defend himself against false-statements charges in 2008.
Prosecutorial Misconduct Statistics
In their analysis of the causes of wrongful convictions in cases where the conviction was overturned based on new DNA evidence, researchers found that prosecutorial misconduct was a factor in 36 to 42 percent of the convictions.
Prosecutorial Misconduct Cases
· In Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320 (1985), prosecutors misstated the law when arguing to the jury.
· In Mooney v. Holohan, 294 U.S. 103 (1935), prosecutors knowingly used perjured testimony.
· In Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), prosecutors suppressed evidence favorable to the defendant that might have led to a not guilty verdict.
· In United States v. Schlel, 122 F.3d 944 (11th Cir. 1997), prosecutors ignored their obligation to disclose to the defense special treatment or promises of immunity they had given to a government witness in exchange for testimony against the defendant.
· In United States v. Doyle, 121 F.3d 1078 (7th Cir. 1997), the prosecutor failed to disclose that the government had presented false evidence against the defendant.
· In United States v. Alzate, 47 F.3d 1103 (11th Cir. 1995), the prosecutor made inflammatory, racially based remarks to the jury about the accused.
· In United States v. Cannon, 88 F.3d 1495 (8th Cir. 1996), the prosecution presented perjured testimony to the grand jury.
· In United States v. Cuffie, 80 F.3d 514 (D.C. Cir. 1996), the prosecutor failed to disclose that the government’s witness lied in earlier proceedings involving the crime that was the subject of the prosecution.
· In United States v. Duke, 50 F.3d 571 (8th Cir. 1995), the prosecutor failed to disclose that a government witness had a criminal record.
· In United States v. Horn, 811 F. Supp. 739 (D.N.H. 1992), the prosecution surreptitiously acquired the defense attorney’s work product.
· In United States v. Roberts, 481 F. Supp. 1385 (C.D. Cal. 1980), the prosecutor misstated the law to the grand jury.
Thorough Reviews of Prosecutorial Misconduct
· Preventable Error: A Report on Prosecutorial Misconduct in California 1997–2009, Veritas Institute.
· The Myth of Prosecutorial Accountability After Connick v. Thompson: Why Existing Professional Responsibility Measures Cannot Protect Against Prosecutorial Misconduct, by D. Keenan, D. J. Cooper, D. LeBowitz & T. Lerer.
· The Relationship Between Prosecutorial Misconduct And Wrongful Convictions: Shaping Remedies For A Broken System, by Peter A. Joy.
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My Response to George, edited for the public.
Interesting article.
The root cause of Prosecutorial misconduct described in the foregoing article and the accompanying perjury is that prosecutors are people with ambitions. They want to move up, become the AG, and then the Governor of their state. After that, they want to be a U.S. Senator because that’s where the real money is (paid by lobby groups). If they are lucky, they become VP or even President of the United States (for example Biden and Obama). You cannot move up by losing cases. You have to win, win at any cost. I call these types, Political Prosecutors. An example is #KamalaHarris.
Not all prosecutors are political. I am sure many want to work with integrity. After reading the Police Report cited in the article, many prosecutors would move to dismiss the murder charge against the poor father! But because we live in a depraved, fallen world, many prosecutors would have a difficult time in publicly admitting (and to the Grand Jury) that they were wrong in their assessment. Wrongfully convicted individuals have been put to death in our country, I think the latest in Missouri.
The good ones, the decent human beings, would act as the piece you sent me on United States Attorney General Bill Barr. I saw his interview with Mark Levin. Mr. Barr, whose interview is on YouTube, did a great job describing the responsibilities of all prosecutors.
I believe our system is flawed. Prosecutors pick their Grand Jury. The defendant has no say, nor any representation in the secret proceedings. Thus, the prosecutor can say anything he/she pleases in order to win.
In my case, prosecutor #JamesFlaiz told the Grand Jury that I am an Iranian Muslim Royalty who owns a $150 million dollar resort called Sugar Beach in St Lucia, that I have a stable full of exotic cars, including a Porsche 911 and a Benz G-500, live in a million-dollar house with stables and horses and pay American Citizens $100 per week to pick up dog shit, and to cinch it tight, he proffered I have a Swiss Bank account with $4,078,000 in cash and that meanwhile I collected $8,300 between 2014 and 2016 for a family of five.
How do I know? I read #KarenSweet’s intentionally fraudulent Sworn Statement. When the Grand Jury heard my story proffered by the Misinformed, corrupt Prosecutor #JamesFlaiz, the Grand Jury ruled to Indict.
In reality, I am a natural American Citizen, I am a Christian, Though I built it, I do not own the resort called Sugar Beach, in 2016 we did own two cars, a 2005 Lexus and a 2004 BMW, each with 150,000 miles, though our home is worth a million dollars, we have no equity therein, though we have a stable, the two geriatric horses are not mine; they belong to my adult daughter and I am the feeder and stall cleaner (that’s my daily exercise). I never paid $100 to anyone to pick up dog shit — I do that myself, and finally, I do not have a Swiss bank account; the $4,078,000 belonged to my dad in 2006, not 2016.
Had Prosecutor #JamesFlaiz asked for an interview to check his facts prior to seeking an illegal Search Warrant, he would not have stepped in shit by inviting his next-door neighbor, #TomMyer, then the “Investigative Reporter” for WKYC-TV for his televised raid where he carried out his curbside Indictment, Arraignment, Conviction, and Sentencing, causing Boeing Aircraft to lose its contract of $16.6 Billion I had facilitated with my OFAC Permit issued me by the USDT. Never mind our losses on countless contracts.
Prosecutors get their way because they proffer the narrative without any opposition, and the members of the Grand Jury, do not want to be sequestered hours on end.
I don’t know how to fix the problem, and I don’t know which system, ours or the European one, is better! In our country, prosecutors are elected by the people. In my county, the prosecutor is king; no one, save the coroner, can attack him, not even the State AG or the Governor. Even the President of the United States cannot interfere in a case. And if the prosecutor bought off the judge, as in my case, then the defendant is screwed.
In Europe, they do it differently, at the expense of a protracted time.
I managed a criminal case in Geneva, Switzerland through my dad’s lawyer, Vincent Jeanneret at Schellenberg Wittmer, prosecuting six members of his office who had defrauded him. Between 1992 and 2011. The trial was one thirteen-hour long event with one lunch break and one dinner break. We started at 9 a.m. and finished at midnight. The triers of the criminal case were a panel of five judges! There was no jury. We got a conviction of fraud for each of the six. The seventh had died in 2000 of cancer; he was tried, postmortem, and convicted.
Those convicted were:
1. #KamranAhadpour, convicted, lived in London. I am told he has since died. His brother in MD escaped prosecution.
2. #AnoushirvanRousta, convicted. Currently living in Geneva.
3. #MahmoudGhadiri, convicted. Currently living in Geneva.
4. #DarioushAalam, (aka #Alam), convicted. Currently living in Geneva. His brother in London escaped prosecution.
5. #MichelWoodtli, Esq, convicted. Currently living in Geneva.
6. #MohamadTagi Razagxxxx, convicted postmortem.
7. #EunnisCannon, Esq., escaped prosecution. Currently living in London.
8. #ArdeshireArzarpey, in Tehran, escaped prosecution.
Between 1992 and 2011 the single Investigating Prosecutor, Tappolet, interviewed each of the first five defendants once per month for 3–4 hours — It took that long because the questions and answers had to be transcribed, live. At the end of each session, each defendant was provided a copy of the transcript to read and sign. The defendants were not sworn-in and thus free to lie. It was up to us (me and the Plaintiff’s lawyers) and Investigating Prosecutor Tappolet to catch the lie.
As I had filed a Constructive Trust against Kamran Ahadpour in Maryland and so I used that Court transcript to catch him in his lies. My Lawyer, Stephen Truitt, then at Pepper Hamilton helped me with that task.
Here at home, defendants are Mirandized. Should defendants elect to speak, this without legal representation, it better be the truth, and even then, as defendants generally do not know our complex laws, speaking is a huge risk. Generally, they would be well advised to seek counsel.
As I knew I had not committed any crime, I took that risk without legal representation. I even allowed my wife to be interviewed for the same reason. Logic and experience say the guilty defendants ask for a lawyer! Our 8–10 hours of live interviews are taped and not a single segment of the audio made it to trial! More, not a single page of the sized files ever made it to trial!
Quite an astonishing feat for a raid lasting six hours, yielding a felony five and misdemeanor one. Especially when they had seized 5 computers, 6 drives, 6 years of joint tax returns, 6 years of Exquisite Caribbean Tax Returns, and 10 boxes of paper files, including my father’s papers which were not part of the order, and my kids’ papers.
After this very stressful experience, costing me and Boeing Aircraft enormous damages, I hired a new counsel to seek my exoneration. The grounds for Exoneration that we are currently verifying, and validating are as follows:
1. Suggestive Identification: Although I am a Natural American Citizen (I was born in New York after my parents immigrated to the United States, legally), the Media was misused before trial to establish a false impression. It was broadcast that I am a Muslim Royalty from Iran, using the perception that all Iranians are an enemy of the United States, and Iran is a nation that sows discord, threats, and violence that has threatens the peace and stability in the Middle East with its malign behavior that supports Terrorism, including threats against the United States;
2. Fabricating Evidence: Manipulated, pretrial evidence substantiates efforts to show a fake crime and to show evidence of Income earned by me by doing the following:
i) Filing of a False FinCEN Report on 8/12/2016;
ii) Establishing a racial profile on the FinCEN Report in support of item 1 above;
iii) Filing False Reports and a Prosecutorial Sworn Affidavit to create a false impression that I was underreporting a substantial, unreported Income to defraud the Ohio Food Stamp Program administered by the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services, the Plaintiff in his case;
iv) Making false allegations of food stamp fraud leading to Indictment, Arraignment, Verdict, and Sentencing;
v) My Inadequate Legal Defense who pretended to be a “criminal defense attorney” assured I would not receive a fair trial. The attorney made grave and fatal errors, including withholding exculpatory evidence, and not listing my fifteen (15) witnesses for the Court Transcript, thus assuring that my Appeal before the 11th District would certainly fail. In this regard, what is unknown is whether the attorney’s qualifications were found out by the court prior to trial and thus extorted to cooperate with the prosecutor to assure a conviction.
3. Withholding of Exculpatory Evidence: As discussed in 2.v. above, by not presenting accurate income records, filed Tax Returns, the actual FBAR report I file with my yearly, joint Tax Returns and not insisting that the Court hear my 15 witnesses;
4. Misconduct at Trial with Perjury or False Accusations: It is clear the Prosecutor made false statements to the Global Public about my citizenship and level of income prior to my trial;
5. No Crime: I was convicted of a crime that did not occur because I was accused of a fabricated crime that never occurred; More, as I would not accept the 3 pleas to avoid a trial, I was threatened by the Prosecutor that the prosecution would be enlarged to include my wife and eldest son unless I accepted his offered plea. When I refused for a third time on March 8, 2017, the prosecutor backed off and did not go after the whole family.
6. Official Misconduct of the Prosecutor and his Investigator: The foregoing points show to any layman that the Prosecutorial Team significantly abused their authority or the judicial process in a manner that contributed to a wrongful conviction. As it enjoys Absolute Immunity from prosecution, they had zero risks in doing so.
The issue becomes “why they done it”! The answer is suggested in the foregoing.
