There is an extraordinary case of prosecutorial abuse out of Ohio where former Assistant County Prosecutor Aaron Brockler, 35, is mystified why he has been fired. Let’s see if you can spot the reason. Brockler was given a murder case in which he was told that the accused had two girlfriends as alibi witnesses. Brockler then proceeded to pose as a woman on Facebook and engage the women in chats about the accused. He told the women that he was the former girlfriend of the accused and had an child by him. After enraging the women, he then spoke to them in his real capacity as a prosecutor and they refused to serve as alibi witnesses at the trial. Brockler is astonished that he would be fired for such dishonesty and insists that he was wrongfully terminated.
Brockler was assigned the the aggravated murder case of Damon Dunn, 29, of Cleveland. Dunn was accused in the shooting death of Kenneth “Blue” Adams on May 18, 2012. When the defense counsel gave him his witness list, he spotted the two women who would serve as alibi witnesses. That is when he decided to go undercover as a former girlfriend to try to change the testimony for two witnesses in a murder trial.
What is astonishing is that the Brockler has continued to insist that “I think the public is better off for what I did.” So to recap, Brockler believes that he was perfectly ethical and professional in lying to witnesses to try to change their testimony in a murder case. While County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty fired him for “disgrac[ing]” his office and his professions, Brockler believes he was serving the public good. By the way, McGinty noted that he not only lied to witnesses, and created false evidence, but lied to other prosecutors.
Brockler’s gross misconduct was discovered by Assistant County Prosecutor Kevin Filiatraut, who had replaced Brockler on the Dunn case. To his credit, he reported Brockler dishonesty to his superiors.
The question will now be the response of the Ohio bar in the face of such misconduct not only as a prosecutor but as an attorney and officer of the court.
Source: Cleveland
nick s;
Your arguments about “listening clients” (and in other threads about the nobility of your profession (former)) would bode more congruent – if there were not such copious, prodigious and undeniable evidence that much is amiss is both the courts and legal practices.
The “Blue Wall of Silence” is not a proper phrase for judges protecting judges, lawyers protecting lawyers and military officials protecting sexual misconduct. A better “coin of phrase” needs to arise.
Be that as it may – the “nobility” in those aforementioned professionals (as is such in Congress, Senate, Department of Justice and U.S. Supreme Court) – shall remain greatly in question;
until the copious, prodigious and unassailable evidence arises that nobility is the norm; rather than the exception.
Zimmerman’s counsel (who has already apologized to the court for his transgression) will most likely get a 30 day (or less) suspension AFTER the trial is over.
That is just stupid, why would he do something like that and think that he could get away with it.
He wonders why he was fired? I would fire him for stupidity if I could.
Mike, and those shows do something else which is far more destructive, they train the audience to expect and accept the worst kind of prosecutorial discretion. Load on as many charges as possible. Alleged perp won’t plead out because the prosecutor’s case is shaky? Why, just load on more charges until s/he does and if that doesn’t work call in the feds on specious cause to change the jurisdiction and potential sentencing burden. Drop a shaky case and re-file new, different charges that carry heavier penalties based on evidence gained in the original case but ruled not usable in that case- beat that poor ol’ horse ‘inevitable discovery’ to death…. We have L&O on as background noise routinely, it or some (auditorily innocuous) clone is a ’round the clock thing in our TV market. Man, I hate that show if I find myself watching it or thinking about it.
Brockler needs to be disbarred at the least and the Dunn trial needs to be thrown out- it’s tainted beyond repair.