2019 INVESTIGATIVE SUMMARY 12

INVESTIGATION OF ALLEGED MISREPRESENTATION TO THE COURT; INSUBORDINATION

A U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) reported that two Assistant U.S. Attorneys may have committed professional misconduct by asserting in response to a defendant’s motion to suppress that law enforcement agents had not made any specific promises to the defendant when they questioned him, despite the agents having informed the defendant that the government did not intend to use any statements he made against him.  During the course of its investigation, OPR learned that the USAO also believed that one of the prosecutors had been insubordinate to her supervisor by delaying the filing of a subsequent pleading to correct the allegedly misleading statement in the government’s initial response.  OPR expanded its investigation to include that allegation as well.

Based on the results of its investigation, OPR concluded that both prosecutors made a mistake in the way they characterized the agents’ assurances to the defendant in the government’s response to the defendant’s motion to suppress.  Although the prosecutors inertfully denied that the agents made a promise to the defendant, the government nonetheless acknowledged in its pleading that the defendant had been told his statements would not be used against him.  OPR also concluded that there was insufficient evidence that one of the prosecutors was insubordinate towards her supervisors in the USAO.