For those following the World Bank/IMF litigation, the Attorney General of the District of Columbia has been repeatedly referencing the forthcoming report of his adviser, former Judge Stan Sporkin, on the allegations of the destruction of evidence in the case. Judge Sullivan has previously indicated that he is considering a criminal referral and would wait for the Sporkin Report. The District waited until after 6 p.m. on a Friday night to file the report.
The report states the following:
* “Because the contradictory statement in the record are incapable of being reconciled, we cannot rule out the possibility of untruthfulness or something worse.” (Page 16)
* “We are particularly disturbed by the fact that not only have we been unable to retrieve a hard copy of the Running resume but also that the electronic copy was purged from the system. We have no way of knowing whether this was an act of intentional mischief or reflects a benign action. We do not believe it was the later” (sic) (page 15.)
* “We are particularly troubled by the fact that the group recordation system was purged. It is difficult to understand how something like this could occur innocently.” (Page 16)
As lead counsel in one of the two cases (with my colleague Daniel Schwartz of Bryan Cave), I am limited in what I can say on the case. However, to reduce calls to my office, I am posting the filing here: SPORKIN
Erased? Not hardly. NASA has developed statistical software over the years to extract faint data from the electronic noise of space. Turn the scientists loose on the tapes – even Nixon’s 18 minutes – and words, phrases and possibly whole sentences can be found. It won’t take a rocket scientist to understand the meaning. Only a RS to gather the data.
It is bad enough when some ponzi-master effects a spoliation of evidence, but when a corrupt City’s Police Department alters and falsifies evidence, we have some serious problems. this is especially true where the State Attorneys knows that his charging-evidence is false and altered, but proceeds to prosecute the case to protect the corrupt police officers and police force that altered and falsified the evidence in the first place. And, when the Public Defender in Broward County (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida) directs a criminal defendant to file an Internal Affairs complaint, which is Mirandized and later constued to be a confession by the IA Officer (Cf., Watts/Escobedo) who testified at the trial and charged the jury (without objection) that in his opinion, the Defendant admitted guilt, and that a citizen “does not have a right to resist excessive force by a police officer (in Hollywood, Florida), and must fall down, curl up –” (and accept whatever torture, beating, or death that the officer decises to inflict), and loses their (the Public Defender’s) file on the case, and, finally, falsely testifies against their own client at a subsequent habeas hearing in testifying, inter alia, that it was the defendant’s own idea and plan to provide the police with a complaint (a sworn/Mirandized statement), and that the Public Defender did not have a clue that the evidence was altered and falsified, even after the elected Public Defender, “Help-Me-Howard” Finkelstein, upon viewing the falsified evidence found by a privite investigator, summoned his television news-channel, WSVN Channel 7, Miami, Florida, to report the story, lends absolutely nothing to the entirety of the judiciary’s competence and reliability in Broward county, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Excuse the run-on sentence, but to adequately explain the corruption and incompetence involved in this case, we would need in excess of a 183 page Petition for Writ of Error Coram Vobis, with extensive exhibits to explain it. Such a petition is presently pending in the 4th DCA, West Palm Beach, Florida at this time and is available upon request. See, also: http://www.flickr.com/photos/terrorinblue/4124578134/in/photostream/
John McNamara
Again I am struck by how lawless this nation is, at the very top as well as at the local level. You cannot have the rule of law and destroy evidence. This must not be countenanced. I am very worried that people charged with upholding our laws, flout it so readily. These are dangerous times and the judiciary must step in to stop the lawlessness because so far, the executive and Congress are no-shows or engaging in extreme lawlessness themselves.
Wow.
Get ’em, Prof! This should not end too well for Sporkin – personally or professionally.
One of the guilty pleasures we lawyers get to indulge is watching the guilty squirm. “… or something worse,”– wonderful understatement. The ghost of Rosemary Woods arises!
Note to my friends here: Sorry to be such a sporadic poster, but I’m in sunny LA on a case and I’m scrambling to get this posted between the dep prep.
Is this pre or post Wolfowitz?
Nixon, Ken Lay, Enron, PWC. Did Nixon come alive I am missing 6 mins…..
Nixon, Ken Lay, Enron, PWC
That’s right Elaine. A total accident. Imagine that!
Professor Turley, thank you for the Sporkin PDF.
To others, the former district court judge provided his services pro bono.
Jill–
Remember the eighteen-minute gap on the White House tape recording of a conversation between Nixon and an aide? Of course, part of that conversation was erased purely by accident.
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I read this article recently on Huffington Post–
Nixon Tape Gape: Watergate Mystery under Review (11/18/09)
The National Archives is bringing together investigators to search for scribbled secrets from the first days of the Watergate scandal that destroyed Richard Nixon’s presidency.
The elusive goal is to find out what Nixon and an aide discussed during the infamous 18 1/2-minute gap in a White House tape recording of a meeting held three days after burglars linked to the president’s re-election committee broke into Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/18/nixon-tape-gap-watergate_n_362923.html
I see no reason to suspect criminal wrongdoing. I’m certain these are all simple coincidences with equally simple explanations. Just like those CIA tapes, things happen.