Those who practice in this District know that in large fraud cases, the government stores its documents at a facility in Miramar. If you want to see or copy the documents, you need to go there. The Schapiro defense alleges that it flagged documents for copying from the warehouse. The copy service scanned those documents and gave the defense a CD, which included the documents, titles the defense assigned to those documents, and post-it notes on the documents. Unbeknownst to the defense, the copy service would also give that CD with this material to government agents. And the copy service has been doing this for 10 years. From the motion:
Mr. Montero [the copy service guy] then stated that he had been providing to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the past 10 years duplicate copies of the discovery documents selected by defense counsel in other cases. On that day, Mr. Montero forwarded to Ms. Arteaga-Gomez his April 21, 2016 email to Cori Weiss [the government paralegal] (discussed above). In the forwarded email, Mr. Montero writes:
Here is the email I sent the FBI and this practice has been one that has been going on since 2006 that both Xpediacopy my old company and Imaging Universe have provided the U.S.D.O.J. in the majority of the cases where the government was not paying for the discovery services or were paying for half of the services.
To the prosecutor's credit, he informed the defense of this when he found out about in this case. But query why it took 10 years for any prosecutor or agent to speak up.
Judge Cooke remarked at the initial status conference on the motion that if true, the conduct was "repulsive." In fact, she issued an order asking the parties to address the following issue: "What remedies, if any, are available to the court were the court to find that the described conduct in Defendant Shapiro’s motion is a systemic, consistent and/or pervasive practice of or on behalf of the United States Attorney’s Office?"
The Government filed a 49-page response here in which it claims, no harm no foul and that this isn't really work-product. It also makes the surprising claim that the defense has waived any claim because it either knew or should have known about this procedure. Wow.
An evidentiary hearing has been scheduled for next week. This is worth following.
Kudos to Dan Christensen from Broward Bulldog as the first to report on the story here, which will soon be national news. From the intro:
In a stunning twist in a long-running Medicare fraud case, both the Miami U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI stand accused of spying on a defendant’s lawyer by illegally and secretly obtaining copies of confidential defense documents.
Court papers filed last week by attorneys for Dr. Salo Schapiro contend the secret practice was not the action of “just one rogue agent or prosecutor.” Rather, it was apparently an “office-wide policy” of both the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI that’s gone on for “at least 10 years.”
The unwritten policy involves “surreptitiously copying defense counsel’s work product through the government-contracted copy service that the government requires defense counsel to use to obtain the discovery documents’’ needed to properly prepare for trial, according to court papers that seek either the dismissal of Schapiro’s indictment or the disqualification of the entire prosecution team.
5 comments:
"What remedies, if any"?? I would recommend one very large hammer.
Years ago, during a trial before Judge Eaton, I ordered portions of government witness testimony to use for closing argument. The court reporter told me that the government ordered a copy. Judge Eaton ruled that was my work product- what I thought was important to the defense -and told the court reporter not to provide the copiews.
In the civil context, it is common on large document cases for each side to go to the other's office and tab those docs or files they want to have copied. If opposing counsel handled it in house, wouldn't opposing counsel "know" what documents were requested to be copied. Couldn't opposing counsel instruct its in house copier to make an extra set of copies or write down what you copied. I cant imagine the defense left substantive comments about the documents with the government. That is why the instruction is usually copy everything and then look through it at your own office on your own time.
anyone surprised by this? The government plays dirtier than most, and most judges look the other way because the see themselves as being on the same team as the US Attorney. Judge Cooke, however, actually expects the feds to play fair.
A Father, a daughter and a son sit in Federal prison after having already served five years of their 30, 22 and 25 years illegally imposed sentences.
In July 2012, The Maclis, Antonio (78), Sandra (52) and Jorge (45) were convicted of healthcare fraud during the first wave of the Biscayne Milieu trials (US v. Macli 11-20587-Cr-Scola).
Five years later, during the second wave of trials (US v. Shapiro 14-20715-Cr-Cooke) it was discovered that the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida engaged in prosecutorial misconduct that gave them an illegal advantage in the trial and helped them secure convictions.
The Miami US Attorney Office and the FBI were spying on a defendant's lawyer by secretly obtaining copies of confidential defense documents. This illicit practice was not the action of just one rogue agent or prosecutor (James V. Hayes) but rather it has been an office wide policy of both the US Attorney Office and the FBI for at least ten years.
The US Attorney Office has admitted that FBI Agent Deanne Lindsey has been receiving copies of CDs containing protected discovery materials selected by the defense team. Lindsey confessed to keeping the duplicate CDs, opening them, looking for documents and copying files that ultimately were provided to the government's expert witnesses for trial preparation.
Despite a statement issued by the US Attorney Wilfredo Ferrer in which he promises openness and transparency in this matter, the scandal was resolved privately in the Shapiro case resulting in no prison time for Shapiro, Galimore and Cesar. But the Miami US Attorney Office has made no attempt to rectify the injustice with regard to the other parties affected by the deceptive practice.
The government confirmed in an August 5th, 2016 letter to The Maclis, that the same misconduct took place five years ago during their 2012 trial without the knowledge of the court, the jury, the defense counsel or the defendants, yet The Maclis remain unjustly imprisoned.
Covertly cloning defense counsel work product to obtain a tactical advantage subverts the universal standard of justice and violates the 5th and 6th Amendments of the US Constitution.
It makes one wonder: if the government is allowed to break the law without any repercussions, how many innocent families are illegally imprisoned? We know of one.
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