Report: Prosecutor in Terror Trial Probed
Sat Jan 17, 5:24 PM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!
DETROIT - The Justice Department (news - web sites) is investigating possible misconduct by the lead prosecutor in the nation's first major post-Sept. 11 terrorism trial, according to a published report.
U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins requested the investigation in November after discovering possible ethical violations involving Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino, the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday, citing sources it did not name.
The allegations include withholding evidence from defense attorneys and trying to convince a court employee to get confidential information about a prisoner, the newspaper said.
Convertino said Collins is trying to destroy his reputation and career.
"This is so untrue, one-sided and about as low as it gets," Convertino said.
The case, in which Moroccan immigrants Karim Koubriti and Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi were convicted last June of being part of a terror cell, was hailed as an early success in the Bush administration's war on terror. But the case came in danger of unraveling last month after revelations that government lawyers failed to turn over certain information to the defense.
U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen held a hearing on the issue last month and is deciding whether to throw out the convictions.
A Justice Department spokesman said Saturday he couldn't confirm or deny whether an investigation was taking place. Collins has declined to comment.
The newspaper said Collins told the Justice Department that Convertino tried to persuade a pretrial services employee at U.S. District Court to dig up damaging confidential information about a federal prisoner; failed to inform another federal prosecutor before he approached a drug defendant to assist in the terrorism case; withheld evidence from defense lawyers; and failed to get approval before arranging plea deals and sentence reductions.
The inquiry is being conducted by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, after Collins told the department about the possible violations, the newspaper reported.
Convertino's lawyer William Sullivan said, "Obviously, I can't comment on the existence of an OPR investigation. But to the extent such allegations exist, we categorically deny them as untrue and unsubstantiated." |
