RIP Janet Reno, Guest Post by John Kozyak

RIP Janet Reno, Guest Post by John Kozyak

Janet Reno passed away this morning after living with Parkinson’s Disease for more twenty years.  I had the privilege of being Janet’s friend and I am so grateful that I had a chance to say good-bye several times over the weekend.  Some said that she was enjoying all the love in her house, which had been built by her Mother. Others said she was waiting until Hilary was elected the first woman President and others acknowledged that this brave woman had never given in easily to anything in her 78 years.

The NY Times  already has an obituary online, which provides a glimpse into the public part of Janet’s life.  I particularly like “Ms. Reno was never a natural fit in Washington’s backslapping, backstabbing culture.”  In this ugly election, this might be one of the best compliments for a strong, brave woman, who approached each day of her life wanting to do the right thing. She did  so much better  than the rest of us and  that is why she is legend to me and many.

I had no familiarity to Parkinson’s Disease when I first met Janet 40 years ago or when she was diagnosed in 1995, but I sure did after my Mother found out she had it about 14 years ago and my Father received the same news 3 years later. I will never forget telling Janet and having her comfort me. She gave her phone number for my Mother to call her. My Mother loved the photograph that Janet signed and loved her visits with her. Janet lived gracefully with Parkinson’s until fairly recently. She continued as the Attorney General and tried to beat Jeb Bush as Governor. She set an example for people living with Parkinson’s and she set an example for so many more to live life to the fullest , to be humble and to do the “right thing”.

She certainly set an example for women. After graduating from Harvard Law, she had difficulty even obtaining a legal job because of her gender and she went on to become the longest serving Attorney General in the United States. When she came to the Minority Mentoring Picnic, young women law students and everyone else loved being with her. She spoke often with encouragement and sincerity. I never heard her complain about the gender discrimination or her Parkinson’s.  

For the past 3-4 years, Janet has been the Honorary Chair of the National Parkinson Foundation’s Moving Day in Miami. She and her family joined with mine to form Team Kozyak & Reno, which usually had the most walkers. Moving Day will take place in Miami this Sunday, November 13^th in Museum Park in Miami. Janet’s health did not permit her to attend last year, but I am positive her niece, Hunter and her daughters and other friends will join Janny in spirit.   I’d be honored if you’d walk with Team Kozyak& Reno this coming Sunday morning. This is not  a solicitation for donations, but more of a request for a group hug in honor of a wonderful woman. I am sharing two photos of Janet at Moving Day two years ago. I love the first one with her sister, Maggy.  Sorry that it doesn’t include Hunter’s face, but she is behind Janet.

I could not be more proud that the Reno family has been so supportive and welcoming.  I will never, ever forget sitting in Janet’s bedroom on Friday night while her sister, Maggy, her nephew , Doug, niece , Hunter, and several others recited long poems with such enthusiasm. I had learned that this was a family tradition when Janet’s brother, Mark, passed away 2 years ago. It was amazing. Yesterday, I barely missed a small group holding hands around Janet’s bed and singing “God Bless America”. It was not easy saying good-bye yesterday, but the love in the Reno home helped so much.

I don’t want to tell my Mother that Janet Reno has passed and think it is best to wait until I see her next week in St. Louis.

Love,

John

Your Thursday afternoon moment of zen

"I don't know what's happening at the U.S. Attorney's Office. This is the latest of a series of incidents that is affecting the credibility of this office ... Someone has got to look at this thing … There's a problem here that needs to be rectified in some way."

That was Judge Darrin Gayles in a strong rebuke of his former office.  We wrote about this latest in a string of prosecutorial misconduct cases on the blog here.  Paula McMahon covers the judge's decision, which was delivered orally (there is no written order) in this article:

A bizarre South Florida case involving an indicted fraud suspect who spied on his co-defendants — and their lawyers — after secretly making a plea deal led a federal judge to blast the U.S. Attorney's Office for letting it happen.
After two days of hearings on the allegations against the "mole," his lawyer and the prosecution, U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles issued a blistering ruling in court in Miami late Tuesday. He barred the man from testifying against his co-defendants when they go to trial in May and strongly criticized federal prosecutors' "extraordinary" handling of the matter.
***
The defense asked the judge to punish the prosecution by throwing out the charges against Pisoni, Pradel and Ramirez. The judge said prosecutors previously had so much evidence that it was impossible for him to rule that Leon's actions affected the case enough to dismiss the charges against the other three.
But the judge expressed shock that the prosecution was still considering letting Leon testify, in some limited way, in trial against the other three men.
"If the government isn't willing to bar him, I will," Judge Gayles said, ruling Leon was prohibited from testifying.
Prosecutors told the judge they regretted not running the decision about how to handle Leon up the chain of command at their office but said they thought what they did was allowed by law. The judge said they should have, at a minimum, consulted their bosses and sought the judge's explicit approval.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer declined to comment because the case is pending. Officials also declined to say if any disciplinary investigation is underway or anticipated.

Supreme Cubs fan

In other news, this guy is presenting a tough issue for the magistrate judge:

Every criminal suspect has the right to remain silent, but one South Florida man may be taking that advice very literally.
Since federal charges were filed against him in May, Gerald Petion hasn't uttered a single word during any of his eight or so court appearances. He has also declined to speak to his defense lawyer.
Petion, aka Gangsta, won't even say "not guilty" in response to federal drug and weapons charges. He is accused of selling heroin linked to a man's near-fatal overdose in March in Delray Beach.
Petion, 32, of Pompano Beach and Delray Beach, doesn't misbehave in court. He complies when the deputy marshals tell him where to go and what to do. He stands up straight and doesn't look around the courtroom.
But he also doesn't answer questions from any of the judges. He doesn't make eye contact. And he seems totally unfazed by the uncomfortably long silences when people try to communicate with him.
***
The judge told Petion he could detect occasional "flickers" so he knew Petion could hear him.
"This is the United States of America vs. you," the judge told Petion in a polite and friendly tone. "They're not just going to go away. They're not going to fold their tents. … They'll just wait you out."
Brannon told Petion he understood it was possible that Petion's silence may not be a ploy and that perhaps he has just mentally shut down because "the situation is so awful."
But he urged Petion to listen to the doctors who will be evaluating him during the next few months and issuing another report. The judge told him to think hard about his situation before he next returns to court in late January for the next hearing on his competency.
Petion didn't respond.

Former Prosecutors UNITE against the FBI director

Former federal prosecutor Bruce Udolf wrote this op-ed in the Miami Herald this weekend, saying James Comey "screwed up big time."  From the conclusion:

Sad to say, in this regard, whether by design or inadvertence, Comey failed, and he should take immediate steps to correct his blunder. If that means calling all hands on deck to comb through these new documents, he should do so with all dispatch. He has demonstrated in the past that he is a person big enough to admit his error, and I hope he will do what he can to clean up this mess immediately.
To do otherwise, I fear, could result in history calling into question this most critical election of our lifetime.

And a bunch of former prosecutors signed this letter, railing on Comey:

Director Comey's letter is inconsistent with prevailing Department policy, and it breaks with longstanding practices followed by officials of both parties during past elections.  Moreover, setting aside whether Director Comey's original statements in July were warranted, by failing to responsibly supplement the public record with any substantive, explanatory information, his letter begs the question that further commentary was necessary.  For example, the letter provides no details regarding the content, source or recipient of the material; whether the newly-discovered evidence contains any classified or confidential information; whether the information duplicates material previously reviewed by the FBI; or even “whether or not [the] material may be significant.”

Perhaps most troubling to us is the precedent set by this departure from the Department’s widely-respected, non-partisan traditions.  The admonitions that warn officials against making public statements during election periods have helped to maintain the independence and integrity of both the Department’s important work and public confidence in the hardworking men and women who conduct themselves in a nonpartisan manner.

We believe that adherence to longstanding Justice Department guidelines is the best practice when considering public statements on investigative matters.  We do not question Director Comey’s motives. However, the fact remains that the Director’s disclosure has invited considerable, uninformed public speculation about the significance of newly-discovered material just days before a national election.  For this reason, we believe the American people deserve all the facts, and fairness dictates releasing information that provides a full and complete picture regarding the material at issue.

Some of the local guys who signed: Jeff Marcus, Jerry Greenberg, Dan Rashbaum, Curt Miner, David Buckner, Seth Miles.

Hope everyone has a great Halloween.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article111398437.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

Third case of spying on the defense alleged

After Monday's post, I received an email tip with the following case of alleged spying, which is the third time it is alleged that the prosecution has invaded the defense camp. This one is from the summer but it is still being litigated.  From the Florida Bulldog:

Miami federal prosecutors stand accused of spying on the defense – this time in the case of an alleged $28-million, international sweepstakes fraud.
As described in court papers, the “invasion of the defense camp” appears to have begun in February when one of four defendants in the case cut a secret plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and began working undercover.
The informant, John Leon of Wilton Manors, participated in defense team strategy sessions for three months as a government “mole,” obtaining documents and listening to privileged discussions about witnesses and other sensitive defense matters and reporting back to the government, the documents say.
The fallout: defense accusations that the case has been irretrievably “tainted” due to constitutional violations of the attorney-client privilege.
“For a period exceeding two months, Leon, acting as a government informant with the government’s acquiescence, invaded the defense camp where he learned critical defense strategies by actively participating in numerous meetings, after already accepting a government plea and agreeing to cooperate,” say court papers filed by attorneys Marc Nurik of West Palm Beach, J. David Bogenschutz of Fort Lauderdale and Marshall Dore Louis of Miami.
...
The judge ... has sided so far with the defense. On Aug. 3, after an initial hearing, he ordered the government to turn over to the defense all “rough notes” of interviews of Leon by Internal Revenue Service agents who helped build the government’s fraud case. The defense had sought the agents’ notes, contending the government had “carefully sanitized” memos of interviews with Leon produced to the defense.

1 Billion Dollars...

Oh, this is such a South Florida story -- about a billion dollar bond.  Paula McMahon has the details:

When a South Florida man's friend sent him photos of a $1 billion bond earlier this year, investigators said, Michael Ifrah quickly pronounced it was genuine.
Ifrah wrote back to his pal that "the bond was real and it was more real than any other bond in the world," federal prosecutors said.
But that assurance was about as credible as the counterfeit bond, prosecutors told a judge Monday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.
"This case is about two defendants trying to cash an unbelievable amount of money — a $1 billion bond. Few people have actually seen a billion-dollar bond, and that is because these bonds do not legally exist," prosecutor Daniel Cervantes wrote in court records.

More intrusions into the defense camp

This time, the case is before Judge Scola. But it's another Howard Srebnick case involving the DOJ Fraud section from DC.  (You remember the last time this issue came up with the copy service). This time the government allegedly searched a defense team's war room.  Srebnick's 32-page motion is here.  The introduction summarizes truly outrageous conduct:

On October 3, 2016, only six weeks prior to the scheduled trial date, the government executed a post-indictment search warrant at a location that the prosecution team knew was being used exclusively by the defense team as a satellite law office or litigation “war room” for trial preparation. Even after defense counsel cautioned the prosecutor that she was jeopardizing the integrity of the prosecution by invading the defense camp, she nevertheless directed government agents to proceed onward. Refusing to provide the defendants or their attorneys a copy of the warrant, agents entered the space, seized and boxed up documents and electronic data that the defense team had itself generated and was reviewing and using to prepare for trial. In effect, the post-indictment search stripped the defense naked and paralyzed a significant component of the defense.
Perhaps more troubling, government agents became exposed to substantial defense work product, including records that revealed defense strategies. Government agents observed which documents were deemed relevant by defense counsel and consultants. Government agents observed how the defense was preparing for trial. The government’s decision to utilize a search warrant to circumvent discovery and trial procedures contemplated by the rules of criminal procedure – see, e.g., Rules 16 and 17, Fed. R. Crim. P. – resulted in a quagmire of its own creation.
This unprecedented post-indictment invasion of the defense camp, which has disrupted trial preparation and given the government access to insider information about defense strategy, warrants dismissal of the Superseding Indictment. Alternatively, the Court should, at a minimum, a) suppress and order the return of all records seized; b) disqualify the prosecution team from further participation in this case; c) prohibit the government’s review of any materials until a procedure for determining privilege is established; and d) order other and further relief that may be appropriate after an evidentiary hearing.

 I mean, this is getting ridiculous already.  Let's see how this plays out.