Why This Blog?
This blog exists to provide both a source of current information and a forum for those who have experienced or witnessed misconduct by federal prosecutors in particular. We are especially interested in seeking reform of the legal system in the way it deals with “Brady violations” or the prosecutors’ suppression of evidence favorable to the defense. Please comment as you have points or information you want to share.
Also follow Sidney Powell’s breaking news and articles on the New York Observer.
We also address other means of government malfeasance, and disregard of the Constitution or the Rule of Law. We will blog as needed and strive to keep you informed of the most recent developments in efforts across the country to hold prosecutors accountable when they fail to produce all favorable evidence to the defense.
If you are an attorney representing a defendant or a defendant whose criminal conviction was reversed because a federal prosecutor suppressed evidence that was favorable to the defense, please upload the order or opinion reversing your case here.
If you are an attorney or a defendant who filed a grievance with a bar association against a federal or state prosecutor for the prosecutor’s suppression of evidence favorable to the defense, please upload your complaint and the response of the bar association here.
In 1963, in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87-88 (1963), the Supreme Court established the foundation of a prosecutor’s constitutional duty to disclose evidence favorable to an accused. The Court solemnly declared that: “Society wins not only when the guilty are convicted but when criminal trials are fair; our system of the administration of justice suffers when any accused is treated unfairly. […] A prosecution that withholds evidence on demand of an accused which, if made available, would tend to exculpate him or reduce the penalty helps shape a trial that bears heavily on the defendant. That casts the prosecutor in the role of an architect of a proceeding that does not comport with standards of justice.” If you would like to receive notice of updates of information from this site, please give us your email at the top right of this page. (We do not share your information at all.)
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The National Registry of Exonerations, an online database of more than 1,320 wrongful convictions in the U.S. since 1989. The Registry is a joint research project of Micigan Law School and Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions. I would invite readers to tell us of cases that we don’t know about. Please email the website.
Dear “WHY THIS BLOG”. My name is Emanuel Brown and I am a victim of egregious prosecutorial misconduct committed committed by former FBI Agents and AUSA prosecutors from Philadelphia Pa, and Greensboro N.C. I just recently completed an illegal 23 and half year federal sentence. I need someone who is not intimidated by the feds to investigate my unlawful conviction and sentence. Thank you and God Bless You.
I am Ronald Stoufflet, my son, Christopher Stoufflet is a federal inmate. Chris’ conviction is the result of a guilty plea that federal prosecutors obtained by denying his constitutional right to due process of the law.
In order for a plea to be valid, it must be knowing and voluntary. This means that the defendant must have knowledge of the true nature of the charged crimes, including the intent element. Chris did not have such knowledge when obligated by the plea acceptance deadline to render a decision. Two opposing motions relative to the intent element (and therefore the ability to use his defensive evidence) awaited judicial determination when the deadline was reached. The deadline was set at three days after Chris was notified of the prosecutors’ newfound position declaring (in a motion) that the charged crimes were “general intent”, therefore banning the use of “advice of counsel” defense -AS A MATTER OF LAW!
Prosecutors not only allowed Chris to make his plea-entry decision lacking knowledge of the true nature of the charged crimes, THEY FORCED HIM TO DO IT. Three days after plea entry, the judge issued an order proclaiming the charged crimes to be “specific intent” and thereby making the exclusion of advice of counsel defense unacceptable. No one notified us of this order in Chris’ favor, we found out on our own a year later.
There are many other transgressions inherent in Chris’ case, I will be pleased to provide to any interested parties. I am seeking support to hold these prosecutors, along with their superiors, accountable for depriving my son of his Constitutionally granted rights.
[email protected]
Thank you so much for writing this book. I took another route and believe me, no one would believe the lengths the government went through to silence me. It’s really imperative that others like yourself come forward because people of color have a much harder task when it comes to pointing out inequities of the judicial system. Unfortunately, race/religion are the dogs that wags the American’s tale.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/129995376/1361970510?token=249cbe8f
I thought your presentation on C-Span at the CATO institutute about your book:”Licensed to Lie” was outstanding. Your presentation of facts was fluid and detailed. Your concerns about governmental misconduct is: essential to protect citizens, highlight concerns about the judicial system, a much needed safeguard to enchance democracy.
Dear Ms. Powell -
Thank you for exposing corruption. I am a former attorney in Washington who exposed corruption inside the WA State Bar Office of Disciplinary Council. I resigned ( refused to renew my license) after receiving public records from a local county prosecutor which confirmed the WA State Bar is the center of the storm here in Washington State.
I never dreamed that the same Bar that creates endless boards claiming to be assisting those who have little resources and social injustices is actually assisting a small number of attorneys and political officers in prosecutorial misconduct and maintaining status quo.
I have spent the last five years collecting public records and I am now writing a book from a activists position.
Your book was a disturbing read on one hand, while it also helped me understand just how corrupt our judicial system really is. . . also reminded me that I am not a lone solider in this fight to hold corrupt government officers accountable. Thanks!
Of course another would care to be in line to Thank the lovely lady for a suberb ensemble presentation on C-Span.I imparticular have a very credible unique case that should go all the way to the Supreme Court.The USA Patriot Act and”secret law”encompasses all sorts of due process and constitutional violations.I am a victim of this quandry.Is thier one lawyer that would care for a incredible look at docs I have?Thank-you.
Sidney,
I love the book and visit it evenings to enjoy pleasant moments of learning. I have maybe 200 pages left.I’d be finished if I hadn’t gone back at page 64 or so to start an Excel spreadsheet listing the characters and their claim to fame. Another speed bump is wanting to continually review to be sure and grasp the big chunks of legal lure and local flavor - been in the big cities in January chill and Houston when its at it’s most humid.
Here’s my thing today- reports are that Holder wanted to suppress the convenience store video in Ferguson. What does that tell us about DOJ’s Enron fumigation? I don’t believe it ever happened, or could ever happen. This is also somewhat of a cliff hanger in that I’m wondering if a certain stubborn judge will redeem himself. I’ve always been fed averse and the book does not change that.
I was in adversary proceeding about my student loan. During this litigation, your book titled License to Lie, has affirmed that an attorney from Department of Justice has a license to lie. My Deposition were mostly twisted and when I filed to strike it, the Court deliberately did not send me a notice of defect. Since then, this Attorney lied that I had acknowledged his allegation and used Deposition to craft a story in his own version. The judge just rubber stamped everything that this Attorney had crafted. I appealed and same thing happened with the US District Court having rubber stamped all crafted lies by this Attorney of DOJ, James M. Sullivan. It seemed that judges in the lower trial court and US District Court here in Charlotte has a network like Mafias or the good ‘ol boys network. Justice for the poor, oppressed, the needy, and the helpless is non-existent.
I loved your presentation on CSPAN this evening and am ordering your book. I have a question that doesn’t relate to Brady violations, though an element of it was introduced at my trial. Because I was charged with a white collar crime by our District Attorney, my business liability insurance refused coverage. In California if you’re “charged” by the DA they don’t have to provide coverage. Do you know if this is the same in all states or unique to California? My first thought was presumption of innocence should apply or, at least,since I was found not guilty on all counts, the insurance company should have to reimburse me for my defense to the extent of the policy limits. But, of course, they don’t and they didn’t.
Your presentation reminded me of another book that made me cringe ~ Conrad Black’s “A Matter of Principle”, which contained much of the same information you discussed. It was his personal story about a government vendetta against him.
Thanks so much for writing this book. I hope it will bring positive changes to our imperfect system.
I am a victim of prosecutorial misconduct. Your book helped me to see other issues that I was not looking at. All the tactics you speak about I can see in my case. The misconduct seems to be in every state and rubber stamped by the public defenders office up to the judges. What can victims do? Where do we turn? My case is in process there has to be someway to stop it.
In the Barger case, forgetting about Brady, witness tampering and all these other issues, I do not understand how a jury would find someone guilty without an instruction on the elements of the offenses. If I were on that jury I would have insisted that we have no choice but to find the defendant not guilty unless the judge gave us elements of the offense. They should not allow themselves to be stampeded into finding someone guilty without due process.I have been on juries where the initial vote was 11-1 for conviction but when I insisted that we follow the instructions we acquitted. Being a juror is a serious responsibility. Juries are the last thing that stands between us and tyranny and you must stand up and be counted.
Justice is a bridge too far when there is suppression of facts with technicalities of law. In a major bankruptcy fraud by a debtor fundamentalist religious congregation, for the past ten years, the actual facts and the criminal fraud have never been allowed to percolate to the surface while technical manipulations of procedure have perverted the course of justice. Currently in front of the New York State Court of Appeals, Southern Circuit on yet another technical issue, these debtors have buried their criminal activities beneath a pile of legal and judicial corruption.
My wife and I are senior citizens and I am a combat veteran. We are the sole victims of a major Bankruptcy Fraud; of Predatory Lending in Collusion with Debtor, Mortgage Fraud, Criminal Fraud, Federal Racketeering, Discrimination, and violation of constitutional guarantees to equal protection. Furthermore, after four years of intense litigation, trustee Robert Geltzer extorted from us a hard won judgment by stating that he would not agree to lift the bankruptcy stay unless we would relinquish our claim to a judgment against the debtor for $240,000.00. Trustee Geltzer falsely claimed an equitable interest in our property; a claim that he knew to be without merit and one that he could never support. However, by so tying us up, he caused us to lose our property in a subsequent foreclosure. The fact of the matter is that he made no effort to preserve the asset to which he falsely claimed an interest. (Not when it was vandalized by the debtor nor when it was threatened with foreclosure.)
After forty-five years of hard work, my wife and I (Formerly of: 27 Maple Avenue, Jeffersonville, NY 12748) were robbed of our business, our home and our life’s savings. Furthermore, we were forced to pay for the mortgage, taxes and insurance while the debtor enjoyed free and exclusive use of our property for nearly four years courtesy of the trustee enforced bankruptcy stay. Jack (Yitzchok) Lefkowitz, Rabbi Abraham C Steinwurtzel and his Hasidic Jewish congregation of Brooklyn, NY (Kollel Mateh Efraim, LLC) illegally and fraudulently occupied our resort property, The Meadows in Fosterdale, NY…Seventy acres, one hundred rooms and catering for three hundred people and then filed a fraudulent bankruptcy in the name of a non-existent entity. When their fraudulent filing was disclosed to the court, these debtors simply filed a second bankruptcy, utilizing the tax ID and name of a nonprofit religious corporation, Kollel Mateh Efraim, LLC. However, they spent the next ten years denying that they are in fact the debtor, despite the fact that they are the ones who signed the documents and were the beneficiaries of those documents. It took four years of intense litigation before we successfully evicted them. By this time, while the trustee turned a blind eye, the debtors had maliciously vandalized our property and we were completely
depleted of everything that we had worked a lifetime to achieve.
http://www.legalabuse.griffinhouseproductions.com
I am curious to know your comments about the recent nomination of Loretta Lynch to replace Eric Holder? WHile it appears she is very qualified, her comments in her acceptance speech she lauded Holder and apparently agrees with EVERYTHING he has done and stands for!
SEE MY ARTICLES ON LYNCH AT OBSERVER.COM
Wow, just read Ms. Powell’s book. Gripping and well-written-but must say I feel sick. I had only been on the receiving end of the civil e/x/t/o/r/t/i/o/n enforcement end and, while I was aware of AK Senator Ted Stevens’s case, I had hoped the abuse in the criminal context was an aberration. I cannot express how disgusted I am with the bar associations’ total failure to live up to their role as the guardians of legal professionalism, which at its heart *must* at a minimum be defined as an obligation to “follow the rules”.
FYI, in many ways, the health care experience is similar to those high-profile cases. Yes, there are folks out there perpetrating fraud in health care. HOWEVER, there are also the majority of practitioners who are trying to comply with the rules-rules which are unclear or whose meaning can be “reinterpreted” on an administrative whim, and then a “settlement” extorted from the provider, since the government has the functional ability to shut down the entity by shutting down payments (whether or not the claim of “fraud” has anything more behind it than after-the-fact, convenient “reinterpretation” of billing rules) and False Claims Act penalties can rack up over-the-moon penalties very quickly, so that the choice of fighting and potentially losing is not worth the risk. Looks a lot like the “honest services” prosecutions to me . . .
Federal investigators started this trend in the mid-90’s by going after teaching hospitals and hospitals implanting the latest and greatest pacemakers (devices improved in minor ways lacking full FDA clearance). University of Florida was one of the first teaching hospitals to get hit after UPenn settled for $30M. The feds started with grand jury proceedings against not just a few opthalmologists in the UF College of Medicine, but a ludicrous array of university officials, including my boss, the GC! Our outside counsel (of national reputation and a former federal prosecutor) said that he’d never seen prosecutors and investigators so unreasonable. The government leaked information in the press while UF was forbidden from comment. When the grand jury refused to indict, the feds settled back into a civil investigation lasting 8 years (causing UF to incur defense costs of $1M a year-not trivial for an institution with razor-thin margins).
If you look at the settlements, it’s clear that going after big health care providers (universities, hospitals and health systems) for alleged violations of unclear (or post hoc revised) rules is lucrative. And, it’s a lot easier for those federal extortionists to find the money that providers who believe themselves to be honest keep in the bank, than the money the crooks hide.
Please forgive the prolixity-it’s a measure of the effectiveness of the writing, which certainly poked a sore place (as it should for any attorney who cares about legal ethics).
I am investigating prosecutorial misconduct in the famed Napa Valley, California.
After reading your book, I understand that filing complaints with the State Bar is one of the few avenues of exposing corrupt prosecutors.
Excellent work !
While researching other instances of prosecutorial misconduct in California I came upon your site. I am now ordering your book. If you are interested in another case of grotesque malfeasance please look into the Pinyon Pine Murders. 48hours did a piece on it on Jan 17, 2015. 48 hours showed only the DA’s side of the story with only a small glimpse into the defense. Corrupt officials covering up for their own family members, suppressing exculpatory evidence, outright lying to the Grand Jury all working together in an attempt to pin a death penalty case on absolutely innocent young men. These young men were not remotely involved. The worst offense was that Robert had dated one of the victims in their senior year in high school and she was still in love with him, even though he had moved on with his life. When the defense forced the DA office to hand over ALL the evidence, it was revealed that they knew all along the young men were not involved. Defense subpeonaed the DA and several Sheriff’s investigators to testify at the 995. They knew they would be exposed publicly and as a result suddenly dropped the charges, with no explanation to the public. The public now believes these young men are guilty and got off on a technicality. The families have mortgaged their futures and retirement to the tune of half a million dollars. This was all to facilitate the DA’s reelection campaign, while covering up the truth. I DEEPLY APPRECIATE YOUR EFFORTS ON THIS SITE. I intend to set this story straight if it takes the rest of my life.
Hello,my name is Olivene my God son 21 years of age is serving a sentence of 12 years.he spent 1,095 days in a pre-trial detention for attempted murder the shooter was sentenced too 14 years they get no parole .my god son, did not pull the trigger,the gun was never found.because of this awful law in this state of South Carolina,you are as guilty as the person who pulled the trigger.I,am happy the victim surived,before this happened they were class mates and co workers.my god son was told by his public defender he would get 17 to 35 years he took what was offered to him and they took away 12 years of his life that is not justice ,not even a measure of justice.the shooter got 14 years the gun was never found his amendment right was violated the justice system failed him. when I speak of this case no one wants too here it they act as if they are frightened, an I personally want to know why this still exist in SOUTH CAROLINA I am seeking someone who is not intimidated by this awful state law.this needs to be thoroughly investigated.this is the new South when is the prosecutorial misconduct going too end this is the only State that has this law .THE HAND OF ONE IS THE HANDS OF ALL it needs too be abolished.
I stumbled on this website while attempting to find something to help my case. I was falsely charged with 80+ felonies and misdemeanors overnight-literally overnight! None of which I did. I was ultimately convicted of 19 felonies and 5 misdemeanors.
The DA lied under oath-very provable. I was denied brady, an evidence hearing, I was denied the right to a jury trial. The judge that was sentencing me on a plea, that under I said I wasn’t interested in, didn’t even know what felonies he was sentencing me to.
My court appointed attorney, later testified that she only billed the state for four hours for my case. I blew the attorney’s phone up begging for her to look into the charges as I wasn’t guilty of any of these. I was an RN for 25 years and had zero criminal history.
All I can say is Judge Steel should be ashamed of himself and Heather Mcminn, DA of Guadalupe county, TX should be removed from her position.
Thank you for exposing the corruption in the United State Criminal Justice system.
My husband is currently in federal prison serving time for a crime he did not commit because the FBI agents and the federal persecutors did not succeed in intimidating him to tell lies. They instead charged him for conspiracy to commit fraud, struck a deal with the owner of the company who committed medicare fraud and had him testified against my husband.
Why this blog?
While one might say the use for this blog is to reveal government abuses committed against the 6th Amendment, there resides another purpose that all should know.
While government agents have the ability to hide evidence and trash the Constitution, Americans have the singular ability to dismantle the acts of the corrupted whether they number one, one hundred, one thousand, or one million. The power of Americans is vested within the ability of one juror to deliberate a “Not Guilty” verdict while maintaining that steadfast conviction thereby hanging the jury with the declaration, “… hopelessly deadlock” or turning the jury into exonerating the accused. One person knowing the accepted performances of government has cause for asking one’s self during deliberations, “What is government hiding this time?” Within that singular question reside recognition of “reasonable doubt” requiring all jurors to deliberate a “Not Guilty” verdict.
When the labors of corrupted government officers fail in achieving their dreams, goals, or aspirations, this conduct will dissolve with “good officers” pursuing the exploits of “bad officers.” While some might not wish to believe this summation, all one really needs to do is consider the results when Americans proclaim, “We have had enough…”
The present design cannot continue because eventually criminals would recognize the collapse of the justice system while targeting those employed by government who abused their rights. When judges, prosecutors, and police officers begin fearing the future for selves, their families, and their associations, this conduct will end, and our nation will return to the standard that all are innocent until proven guilty. Until jurors stand-up and demand accountability, we remain stuck with the current system of theater that renders us all guilty until we prove our innocence.
This blog serves to inform Americans of accepted practices performed within our justice system by government officers having a trust that is not earned. If one innocent person is exonerated as a result of truth being exposed, then this blog has served its purpose well. Who knows, the one innocent person spared by this blog could be reading this blog. Providence?