THE OTHER DESTRUCTIVE TRIAL LAWYERS

Rogue Prosecutors With A Big Bag Of Dirty Tricks Take Huge Toll Around U.S.

We hear a lot about the excesses of private practice trial lawyers. But another
group of trial lawyers has been left alone to go about their dirty work with
few restrictions - and all at taxpayers' expense. And their abuse isn't just a
taxpayer issue; it should also be seen as a justice issue, a privacy issue and
a civil liberties issue. We refer to government prosecutors who abuse their
positions to further their careers and power while spending your money. They
use high-publicity cases, such as those involving the hot "drug du jour" such
as OxyContin, as career steppingstones on the backs of the defendants, instead
of serving the public or justice. A recent study by the Center for Public
Integrity found that prosecutors stretched, bent or broke rules so badly that
appeals court judges have dismissed criminal charges, reversed convictions or
reduced sentences in more than 2,000 cases since 1970.

And these numbers only cover the cases that went to trial - about 20 times as
many defendants plead guilty before cases ever get that far. And it's in the
pretrial period that the misconduct is the most hidden and the most abusive, up
to and including legal extortion.

Aside from concerns about individual civil liberties, the impact is felt
throughout the country, in various ways on various industries. Take, for
example, privacy issues. Medical records and other personal files are fair game
in these pretrial fishing expeditions. The targets are often white-collar
professionals or foreign-born blue-collar workers, who make easy targets
because they don't fight back the way real criminals do.

The abuse became so blatant at one point that the Justice Department issued a
memo to U.S. attorneys to back off on such prosecutions. But it didn't help,
and the abusive practice continues.

Defendants are held without trial - sometimes for years - through various
stalling tactics, a favorite trick to bring defendants to their knees.
Prosecutors know that the more time passes, the more the defendant is unable to
earn a living at the same time his legal fees mount, and the better the chances
that the victim will make a bad deal just to bring the nightmare to an end. The
result, as the Center for Public Integrity puts it: "The prosecutor becomes the
judge and the jury."

St. Louis dentist Charles Sell continues to languish in prison after more than
five years awaiting trial on fraud charges that carry only about a four-year
sentence and after the U.S. Supreme Court told the prosecutors they couldn't
force mind-altering medications into him without his consent.

Sometimes dozens of unrelated charges are piled on in the hope that the
frightened defendant will plead guilty to something to make most of the other
charges "go away." Yet being found guilty on even one count in these criminal
cases can lead to jail and fines.

In other cases, drug-dependent patients are arrested and then promised drugs if
they will testify against a doctor. Psychiatric patients are threatened with
involuntary confinement; senile geriatric patients are coached to change
stories.

The Center for Public Integrity describes the case of St. Louis prosecutor Nels
C. Moss Jr., cited for misconduct in at least 25 cases by Missouri judges. Yet
this prosecutor has never faced a disciplinary action, much less jail time or
fines, for doing injustice to others. The Center's Web site includes examples
of prosecutorial abuse from all 50 states; it's at www.publicintegrity.org/pm/

Kathryn Serkes, a Washington, D.C.-based health and public relations consult
ant, is establishing the Coalition Against Prosecutorial Abuse. Serkes is
planning a congressional briefing. Those who want to sign up for alerts and
information should e-mail her at kaserkes@att.net .

Working with courageous former prosecutors and defendants willing to tell their
stories, we must end this legal abuse through public education, judicial
reforms and the prosecution of law-breaking prosecutors.