“Flagrant Violations” by Shaygan Prosecutors
“Flagrant Violations” in Dr. Shaygan Govt. Misconduct Case; Alex DeLuca; Addiction, Pain and Public Health website; 2009-03-19. (Fixed errant link to the Southern District of Florida blog – I apologize, my bad; 2009-03-26.)
Permalink: http://doctordeluca.com/wordpress/archive/flagrant-violations/
The stunning acquittal of Dr. Ali Shaygan is causing even weathered legal bloggers to scratch their heads and say, “Wow.” 1 Dr. Shaygan faced 141 charges that carried a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years had he been convicted.
Now the shoe is on the other foot. During the trial, Shaygan’s lead attorney David O. Markus (of the Southern District of Florida Blog) discovered that government prosecutors authorized two witnesses to surreptitiously record conversations with the defense team, had them attempt to bribe counselor Markus, and never disclosed that these two witnesses just happened to be paid, confidential informants for the DEA.
In a March 18th Miami Herald article with a slightly misleading title, US Prosecutors Accused of Misconduct in Case, AP Legal Affairs writer Curt Anderson writes:
“U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold, who held two days of hearings this week on the matter, said there were “flagrant violations” of basic rules by prosecutors and indicated he would likely order the U.S. government to pay the defense lawyers thousands of dollars in fees and costs… Judge Gold is expected to issue an order in several weeks.”
I’m not a lawyer, but isn’t this grounds for disbarment? Outside the bounds of legitimate legal practice, maybe? And it’s not as if the Government is going out of its way to express sincere remorse – the AP reports U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta termed the misconduct “regrettable.”
I say we make it “regrettable” enough that drug warrior prosecutors nationwide, and defense counsel and judges who face them, get an important message.
War on Docs prosecutions routinely make a travesty of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and any sense of common decency, fairness, and good judgment. The enforcement and legal communities have a long way to go in reining in their own.
And please spare us another round of self-righteous, flak-catching, and grossly hypocritical documents like the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) letters to DEA, “Comment[s] on Dispensing of Controlled Substances for the Treatment of Pain” 2 in 2005, signed by the likes of AG Lockyer, the vindictive persecutor of Dr. Frank Fisher.
Spare us the beautiful, vapid, prose. Actually rein in your own, instead.
Footnotes
-
Troubling Prosecutorial Misconduct Shows its Hand in South Florida, Broward Law Blog, 2009-03-18. Norm Kemp writes, “… To boot, the government failed to disclose the bias of these witnesses, since they were paid informants. As a defense lawyer, you say, Wow! … Few government agencies have at their disposal the power, the reach, the capacity, the legal talent and skills as that of a US attorney. Few offices would ever need to compromise a case or claim by misguided directives. You have at your disposal the FBI, the DEA, the Justice Department, local law enforcement teams, multi jurisdictional task forces, Homeland Security, ICE, and legal rules which favor the government and limit the defendant, from grand juries to diminished discovery. You have time and money and so much more on your side already, why would you ever sell out to win a single case. Why? Is winning so important? Sadly, we know the answer to that question…” ↩
-
NAAG sent DEA two letters in 2005. The first, dated Jan. 19, 2005 NAAG to Tandy, is short and was addressed to DEA Administrator Karen Tandy. “We… write to express our concern about recent DEA actions (the Amazing Vanishing DEA Pain FAQ) with respect to pain medication policy… [We] were surprised to learn that DEA has apparently shifted its policy regarding the balancing of legitimate prescriptions… with enforcement… without telling us…”
The second, dated March 21, 2005 NAAG to Leonhart, to DEA Deputy Administrator Leonhart, is an amazing document which I urge you all to read. The emphasis is in the original, btw. Over 10 pages in length, it was probably written by AG Edmondson. It is a quite good analysis of the pain crisis. And it sounds tough and no-nonsense. Alas, it is all just words. As far as I know, NAAG never followed up after the March letter. Just another sad senseless footnote in the failed strategy known as the Central Principle of Balance. ↩
3 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
If you want to leave a feedback to this post or to some other user´s comment, simply fill out the form below.
What, I find interesting, is the other agency involved in the misconduct. The lady, whose name was used as the reason to tap the lines, in the first place, had another story to tell. She as convinced that the DEA was trying to get her to change her “story”. She questions their motivation, in asking her to tell anything, other than the truth! I think that is the real story. It exposes , even more, the blatant actions of the DEA to get a conviction, by manipulating the evidence and the witnesses. That is where the investigation needs to go, next!
Like I have said elsewhere, any-means-which-justify-the end is the modus operandi of government tactics. Truth, honesty and integrity be damned. Anything goes when it comes to getting a conviction. And this doesn’t just apply to a prosecution of a doctor in a “criminal case.” Any US citizen can be watched. Our phone conversations are taped. Our property stolen. Email and internet activities are recorded. In our post-9/11 world the scope of attention has turned from the outside to within.
One wonders what this country will turn into after more unrestrained powers of the DEA, FBI and IRS. Their authorities are unrestrained and unchallenged. We currently have a police state enforced by reptilian creatures who have no ethics. Their thinking has degenerated into the base instincts of animals. Reason and civility have ceased to be important considerations. Lying is the norm. It’s sad to say, but we’re at a point where government has become a monster whose insatiable appetite for power and control has bred corruption, lies and immorality. No one fuckin’ cares. And the public will suffer. Isn’t the protection of the public’s health and welfare supposed to be the guiding principle for these enforcement agencies? Not anymore. Their interests are paramount, not the public’s. The size of their operating budgets are of primary importance. We aren’t protected, we’re molested by this monster.
George Washinton wrote that whenever the powers of the administrative, legislative and judicial branches are consolidated into one agency or individual, that is the very definition of tyranny. Well, it works the same in this: the DEA and DOJ have both arrogated to themselves the authority of judge and jury as well as investigation and prosecution, and this is tyranny of the worst sort! They conclude that a given person is guilty for their own reasons, bypassing the time and trouble of a trial to reach that conclusion, and then go after that person or agency with a personal animus that disregards their primary responsibilities entirely: discovery of the truth and justice. They jump straight to “guilty because charged” and then arrange evidence in whatever way they find necessary in order to convict. That’s how they get their something like 98% conviction rate: they lie, intimidate, blackmail, manufacture evidence, and break the law repeatedly, many times per conviction, in order to WIN AT ALL COSTS. They are no longer deserving of the title “Department of Justice”, and the People know it. It is now routinely referred to as the “Department of inJustice”, with accurate folk wisdom. It never seems to occur to these agencies that if they have to break the law in order to win, perhaps the accused is innocent and they should NOT win! It doesn’t help, either, that too many Federal judges identify with the Drug Warriors and do all they can from the bench to HELP them win. It leaves the innocent wit h nowhere to go – except prison for the crime of being accused!
Ian