Holder to District Judges: DOJ Will Confront Misconduct

Addressing a group of chief judges of federal district courts last week, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. vowed the Justice Department will take seriously failures of prosecutors to perform their duties, according to a judge who participated in the conference.

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf of Massachusetts, who has pressed the Justice Department to be more aggressive in confronting allegations of attorney misconduct, wrote Holder on April 23 “with a renewed hope” that he will tackle misbehavior. Wolf’s letter was disclosed today in a mob racketeering case in Boston in which Wolf cited a prosecutor for misconduct.

Wolf wrote that former Attorneys General Alberto Gonzales and Michael Mukasey did not respond to letters in recent years concerning allegations of misconduct in criminal cases in Massachusetts. In his letter to Holder, Wolf thanked him for his remarks to the chief judges.

“We appreciate your determination to assure that Department of Justice attorneys perform their duties honorably and ably, and to take seriously any failure to do so,” Wolf wrote in the five-page letter. Holder had asked the judges, Wolf said in the letter, to report to him directly when the judges encounter a problem.

Wolf noted the recent decision of U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of misconduct in the Ted Stevens case in the District of Columbia. The special counsel is investigating whether six prosecutors deliberately violated court orders and rules in the Stevens case. At Holder’s request, the judge tossed Stevens’ conviction earlier this month.

Sullivan’s action in the Stevens case, Wolf wrote in the letter, “confirms that other judges share my concern” about prosecution misconduct. “As the Stevens case also indicates, prosecutorial misconduct is neither a rare nor merely historical problem,” Wolf wrote.

Comments

[Samuel Lipari]

We have a swamp of Misconduct in Kansas City, MO & KS left over from USA Bradley Schlozomon and John Wood.

Eight years of Contract, Anti-trust $ RICO litigation and not one ruling ever based on fact or law. Appeal after Appeal upholding Fraud after Fraud, Sanction after Sanction, Dismissal after Dismissal and not one prosecution or disbarment.

Our Public Officials Talk Constitution and Law but "The Record Proves Otherwise."

[Betty]

Additionally, Attorney General Holder should review the conduct of senior management officials and attorney supervisors (District of Columbia) who abuse their authority outside of the courtroom through employee intimidation, favortism, malfeasance, etc.

[Scott Hawkings]

The problem is that in Massachusetts failed or marginal lawyers who are in with a politician get judicial appointments. In fact, when the press exposed that the spouse of a recent appointee to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court had given 3 times the legal campaign contribution to the politician who nominated her, that was perfectly acceptable to the Massachusetts legal community. (Article: What price robe & gavel? Herald, August 27, 2007) Not only was the SJC appointee a lawyer, but her husband and the politician who accepted the illegal contribution were as well. Despite public outrage, that states legal community didnt raise an eyebrow, - or even hold their noses from the stench.

[S. Shore]

Amen, brother. AMEN.

[Stefano Picciotto]

I can personally attest under oath that if certain insiders of the Massachusetts court want court records changed for self gain, that is no problem! If insiders want to have trial tapes lost or tampered with in order to ruin the oppositions appealable issues? Done!! Want to withhold records that the opposition is entitled to in order to ruin their case? Done!!! Want to bar the litigants from having copies of their own trial tapes to expose the tampering . . . even when requested under the Public record Law? DONE!!! The result is the transfer of millions in property to insiders of the court. Justice in the Massachusetts courts have become such a joke they allow jurors to come to court dressed in Halloween costumes and attorneys get to pass out candy and joke memorabelia to the jurors during the proceedings. (See Boston Herald Oct. 31, 2004; Judges trick no treat for litigants) OVERSIGHT??? Well, that is this state's BIGGEST JOKE OF ALL.