Even after a month, we still don’t know-and we need the truth.   It could only have been the discovery of more prosecutorial misconduct to cause the Department of Justice to abandon a four year investigation into which it had poured millions of your taxpayer dollars.  It is extremely rare for the Department to stop in its tracks. Yet that is exactly what it did several weeks ago, and we still don’t know why.  See article at:  http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/03/river_birch_probe_coming_to_an.html

See article at http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/03/river_birchs_4-year_probe_whic.html.  Federal district judge Kurt Engelhardt excoriated the prosecutors from the New Orleans United States Attorneys Office several months ago when their original misconduct was discovered only because a target of their investigation, Fred Heebe, filed a civil lawsuit and uncovered evidence that the prosecutors had lied to the court and used aliases to post public comments online about the case.  The scandal caused the prosecutors and U.S. Attorney Jim Letten to resign and the district court to order further investigation. http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/11/federal_judge_re-orders_us_att.html

The online comments were not the only problems with their conduct. The New Orleans Times Picayune reported that counsel for a potential witness was citing

 ”heavy handed tactics used by the prosecution.”

“The way the government treated Ed Garner certainly left a bad taste in our mouths,” Hessler said. “He told them the truth about the incident. They wanted to hear a different version. They began to insinuate he would become a target.”

The judge wanted their conduct investigated independently, but he  did not go as far as Judge Emmet Sullivan did in the Stevens’ case and appoint a special prosecutor.  However,

“John Horn, a federal prosecutor from Atlanta, was tapped to probe the matter. Engelhardt initially gave Horn a month to complete his work, but then granted a one-month extension.

The report was at least theoretically due Jan. 25, but it’s not clear whether Horn turned it in. The record in the case makes no mention of a report being received, or of any request for an extension. Horn has declined to comment and did not return a call Friday.”

Now, the public is entitled to know what additional misconduct or criminal conduct the government found in its own ranks that caused this dismissal?  Has their misconduct been reported to their Bar Associations?  Have any disciplinary actions been taken?

It is not a system of Justice until those in power are held accountable for their own INjustices.