Snitching ain't easy

Lots of interesting reading on this beautiful Sunday. The Sun-Sentinel has a couple of interesting stories on snitching:

1. The first is about a state prosecutor, Sheila Alu, turned FBI informant in the Broward public corruption case:

"Sheila is for Sheila is for Sheila," said Bill Colon, who served two terms as a Sunrise commissioner in the 1980s. "A lot of people will believe that she betrayed their trust."Marvin Langendorf, a Sunrise resident and City Hall gadfly, applauded her courage."There's too much graft going on and no one ever does anything about it," Langendorf said. "People say they can't trust her. But if you don't do anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about."Those who are not involved in politics likely admire Alu for having the courage to take on an undercover role without training, said Lance deHaven-Smith, a political science professor at Florida State University."If you told your average citizen, 'Other politicians don't trust her,' that would be an endorsement," he said.Call her a snitch or a rat, and Alu has this retort: "I wear that badge with honor."

2. The second is about Operation Deep Six, a state gang case:

"Unlike any gangs I've seen before, they stick together," said the gang detective.On June 26, 2008, detectives in "Operation Deep Six" moved in to take down Top 6. Backed by a grand jury indictment that alleged 91 crimes, SWAT teams from three police agencies raided six homes simultaneously.Detectives tracked down the Top 6 leaders, arresting all 12 within a few weeks.Faced with racketeering charges that could put them in prison for up to 30 years, Top 6's leaders cracked.Jessee Thomas and Ernst Exavier were convicted but got reduced sentences for agreeing to testify against their cohorts. Top 6's leader, Futo Charles, also has agreed to cooperate."I know for me to work it down, I have to be 100% truthful about your questions and about my answers or the deal is off," Charles wrote to prosecutors. "I'm willing to do just that."After at least 20 murders, hundreds of shootings and scores of robberies, burglaries and attacks, Top 6 effectively has been silenced. Palm Beach County is safer today because of it, said police officials and prosecutors."We have seen a real drop in crime," said William Shepherd, Florida's statewide prosecutor. "Which is lives. It's not just numbers on the page."

UBS snitches

Oh, there are going to be a bunch of these. Here's one where the government is recommending a 50% reduction (via Curt Anderson):

A former Swiss banker should get a sharply reduced prison term for helping the U.S. government as a star witness in a wide-ranging tax evasion investigation of banking giant UBS AG, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
The motion filed in federal court comes a week after U.S. and Swiss governments settled out of court to end an IRS lawsuit against UBS. Under that deal, the Swiss agreed to let UBS name at least some wealthy U.S. clients behind 52,000 accounts, information that had been protected by the country's vaunted bank secrecy laws.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Neiman said in the motion that Bradley Birkenfeld, 43, had provided extensive cooperation. Because of that, he deserved no more than 2 1/2 years in federal prison, or half the five-year maximum for his guilty plea on a charge of conspiring to defraud the U.S.
Birkenfeld provided key information not only to U.S. prosecutors but also to foreign authorities investigating UBS, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Internal Revenue Service and a U.S. Senate panel.
"This substantial assistance has been timely, significant, useful, truthful, complete and reliable," Neiman said in the motion.

Totally off topic, check out this picture of Hurricane Bill. Pretty cool. (HT: A. Spellman)

Stop the presses -- Snitch's misconduct not disclosed to defense

John Pacenti has the story here about the latest transgression -- this time in a health care fraud prosecution. Orlando do Campo and Joaquin Mendez have filed a lengthy motion arguing their client deserves a new trial. Here's the intro from the DBR article:

In the Justice Department’s stout-hearted fight against health care fraud in the heart of Hialeah, Orlando Pascual Jr. was the perfect snitch.
He was an insider who ran a durable medical goods scam called Med-Source Medical Equipment, and Washington prosecutors used him in at least three trials, court documents show.
Among the five known defendants Pascual helped put behind bars was Dr. Ana Caos, a general practitioner for nearly two decades who was accused of writing fake aerosol prescriptions for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The 62-year-old is serving five years in the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex near Orlando.
But Caos’ Miami attorneys are trying to overturn her April conviction, saying in court documents that Pascual neglected to mention he ran yet another Medicare fraud with his brother-in-law at an HIV-infusion clinic called Medcore Group, billing the government for $5.5 million in fraudulent services.
Miami criminal defense lawyers Orlando do Campo of do Campo & Thornton and Joaquin Mendez, a solo practitioner, are incredulous that prosecutors informed the defense about Pascual’s second fraud after Caos’ trial, which means the jury didn’t hear the full extent of the government witness’ criminal exploits.
The lawyers said in a Jan. 15 motion for new trial that there is substantial reason to believe from documents filed in the new case that government agents with the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General knew about Medcore in 2006 — two years before Caos’ trial.
Caos’ attorneys were informed of the latest charges against Pascual in a June 25 letter, two months after their client’s conviction and a month before her sentencing. The letter said investigators didn’t link Pasqual to the HIV-infusion clinic because his last name was misspelled "Pasquale." (That's my favorite part)
"It is undisputed that Dr. Caos’ trial was severely tainted by Mr. Pascual’s perjury," Caos’ 26-page motion reads. "There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that the government knew or should have known that Mr. Pascual lied on the witness stand."

Is snitching worth it?

Apparently in the case of William Hames, it wasn't.

He lost his pension. He lost his eye. And it appears that he even lost his will to live. Very sad...

Dan Christensen explores the issue here:

After retired police officer William Hames finally came clean about the gun-planting coverup that rocked Miami this decade -- and helped federal prosecutors convict seven fellow dirty officers -- he sought to pick up the pieces of his life.
Instead, they fell apart.
Two city pension funds voted to strip Hames of retirement benefits, citing his 2004 felony convictions in a case in which his cooperation spared him from prison. They demanded Hames, 60, repay the $548,000 he had received since leaving the force in 1998 after 25 years.
Hames, stocking shelves full-time at Publix to comply with the terms of his probation, hired an attorney and tried to fight back, but the law was against him.
On Feb. 21, two weeks before a Miami appeals court upheld a city forfeiture order, the Vietnam veteran and recovering alcoholic pointed a 9mm handgun toward his face and pulled the trigger in his Orlando-area home.
The blast blew out his left eye, but Hames lived.
''Hames advised when the gunshot did not kill him, he waited a few hours before finally driving himself to the hospital,'' says a Volusia County Sheriff's Office report.