Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITATION CHECK
Cop gets prison for perjury
Justice Department sought to make example of case
worldnetdaily.com
Copyright 1998, WorldNetDaily.com
A Boston police officer has been sentenced to
two years and 10 months in prison after being
convicted in federal court for perjury and
obstruction of justice -- even as defenders of
President Clinton were suggesting
impeachment was too serious a punishment
for his apparent lies under oath.
United States Attorney Donald K. Stern and
Bill Lann Lee, acting assistant attorney
general of the Civil Rights Division,
Department of Justice, announced last month
that Kenneth M. Conley, 29, of South Boston, a
seven-year veteran of the Boston Police
Department, was ordered to serve his
sentence, which includes two years of
supervised release and payment of a $6,000
fine. After a six-day jury trial in June, Conley
was convicted of one count of perjury before a
federal grand jury and one count of
obstruction of justice. The jury acquitted
Conley on one count of perjury.
"This sentence stands as an important
message to those who would come before any
grand jury and lie or attempt to obstruct the
investigation," said Stern. "In this case, it is
even more troubling that the grand jury
witness who lied was a police officer.
However, the grand jury's investigation of this
deplorable incident will continue."
According to evidence presented at the trial,
the grand jury was conducting a criminal civil
rights investigation into an incident which
occurred on Woodruff Way in Mattapan on
Jan. 25, 1995. The investigation was focused
on whether members of the Boston Police
Department had unlawfully assaulted and
failed to provide medical care to an
individual, later determined to be Officer
Michael Cox, who was attempting to capture a
fleeing suspect when the unlawful assault
occurred.
The evidence showed Cox, who was in
plainclothes, chased a suspect to a fence as the
suspect jumped over the fence. Before Cox
could go after him, he was mistaken for a
suspect, struck on the head with a flashlight
by a uniformed Boston police officer and then
kicked repeatedly by other Boston police
officers. When Cox's identity as a police
officer was revealed, the police officers left
him bleeding and injured.
The evidence showed that Conley was in one
of the first few responding police cars on the
scene. When called to testify before the grand
jury and compelled to testify by a court order
of immunity, the jury found that Conley gave
false testimony about what he observed in the
moments preceding the beating when he
denied seeing Cox pursue and grab hold of a
suspect as that suspect ran toward and
climbed a fence in his attempt to get away
from police.
Although Conley was found not guilty on the
perjury count which charged him with falsely
denying that he saw police officers beat Cox,
the jury convicted him of obstructing justice
by giving evasive and misleading testimony
and withholding information from the grand
jury.
At the sentencing before U.S. District Judge
Robert E. Keeton Sept. 29, the court stated
that, "[Conley] put his loyalty to fellow police
officers ahead of his responsibility to the
public interest to tell the truth."
The case is still being investigated by special
agents of the FBI and officers from the
anti-corruption division of the Boston Police
Department. The prosecution was conducted
by Assistant U.S. Attorney S. Theodore Merritt
of Stern's public corruption and special
prosecutions unit and attorney Sheryl L.
Robinson of the criminal section.
More than 100 persons are currently serving
time in jail for committing perjury in the
United States. |
