(Bushbot) Federal prosecutor admits mistake, begs for leniency

[struggle4progress]

Source: Boston Globe

May 12, 2009 01:59 PM
By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

A federal prosecutor today acknowledged that she withheld evidence that could have helped clear a defendant in a gun case but said it was an inadvertent mistake and implored the chief judge of the US District Court in Massachusetts not to impose sanctions that could derail her career.

"It is my mistake. It rests on my shoulders,'' a composed Assistant US Attorney Suzanne Sullivan said during an extraordinary hearing in Boston that lasted more than two hours. "I also ask the court to give me the opportunity to rebuild my reputation.''

But Judge Mark L. Wolf said he was considering several sanctions because he was so appalled by Sullivan's lapse and by what he characterized as a pattern of prosecutors in the US attorney's office withholding evidence. The sanctions ranged from fining her personally -- something prosecutors said would be a first by a federal judge in the country for a lapse of Sullivan's type -- to an order that she and perhaps all 90 prosecutors in the office undergo additional training about the constitutional duty to share such evidence.

"It's unpardonable, and if I don't find it deliberate, I find it's at least ignorance and reckless disregard,'' Wolf said at a hearing during which he criticized both the US attorney's office and the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility ...

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/05/us_attorney_fac.html

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Judge chastises federal attorney
Says prosecutor failed to disclose crucial evidence
By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | January 27, 2009

... Yesterday, Michael Sullivan said in a statement that Suzanne Sullivan was a "valued member" of the office but that "we, of course, take seriously the issues raised by the court." He said he was reviewing the matter and would file a response.

Michael Sullivan, a President Bush appointee who has served as the top federal law enforcement official in Massachusetts since a week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is widely expected to be replaced by the Obama administration in the coming months ...

Suzanne Sullivan was a prosecutor in the Plymouth district attorney's office, which Michael Sullivan once headed, before she became a federal prosecutor ...

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<doc:> http://www.alfredtrenklerinnocent.org/documents/090127commentandarticleaboutprosecutorswithholdingofevidence.doc

[Atman]

1. It was all in the past. We should just look forward.

What is the point in digging up old stuff like this. We should all just look forward.


.

[harmonicon]

9. yep - and why not treat all crime that way?

Your house was robbed? You know who did it and have evidence to prove that? What's your problem? It happened, now just look forward? Someone in your family was murdered in the robbery? Just look forward. No investigation or prosecution necessary.

[Xipe Totec]

2. Nail her to the fucking wall!

If she's truly sorry, let her pay her debt to society like everybody else.

As a prosecuting attorney, she of all people should understand.

[Segami]

5. Here.....this might help. Its pneumatic!

Its only when they get caught do we hear them squeak out leniency to save their hides. I wonder how many innocent people served time for their corrupt mistakes?


<>

[spindrifter]

3. Oops. I think she's toast anyway.

The odd thing is that she worked for Michael Sullivan before he became a US Attorney.

[struggle4progress]

6. The one Sullivan probably reached back to grab the other and bring her along

[Diclotican]

4. struggle4progress

struggle4progress

If you do the crime, you have to do the time, or something like that the word is going... And if this is true, this attorney have earn her been fired.. And prosecuted to the full extent of the law I might say.. Even that she is an excelent attorny and have up to this point a good reputation... She should have known that she was wrong when she was doing this..

To say she is sorry, is jut the first step of undoing what she have doing wrong.. She have to prove for a long time that she is not just trying to get of the hook.. At least she have earn a harsh reppimande...

Diclotian

[Doctor_J]

7. Leniency: Possibility of parole

[bertman]

8. Doesn't it make us all feel better to know that we have such trustworthy and competent

federal prosecutors representing us in court?

Pull all of the files from that office and find out how many years people have served for crimes they were not guilty of, then put every frickin one of those prosecutors in jail for the length of the sentences of the people they railroaded.

This is one of THE MOST egregious acts of arrogance and abuse of power that goes on in this country. Punish them so severely their reputations will never be restored.