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Shaygan Trial Fireworks!

SFL here, tending bar while David O. battles prosecutorial misconduct:
U.S. District Judge Alan Gold, at a hearing in Miami late Monday, asked assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Senior ? who appeared in court solely because of this issue ? to immediately address possible remedies that would be least disruptive to the ongoing trial of Dr. Ali Shaygan. Later, the prosecutor is to answer a substantive request by the defense to dismiss all charges.

Gold said he may grant a less disruptive remedy initially, such as recalling the witnesses, but would consider a more severe measure if required at the end of trial.

Defense attorneys David O. Markus and Marc Seitles argue in a highly charged motion to dismiss that Shaygan?s attorney-client privilege was breached when witnesses secretly taped Markus and a private investigator. They also alleged the taping violated their client?s Sixth Amendment right to counsel.

Both government witnesses were patients of the doctor and were acting as confidential informants during a federal investigation of a witness tampering allegation.

But defense attorneys say the ?malicious invasion of the defense camp? stems from a long standing animus directed at them by the prosecution team of Sean Cronin and Andrea Hoffman. They allege it started last year when Seitles won an acquittal in an unrelated case against them. The Herald's coverage is here, and the Sun-Sentinel story is here.

For more fun government facts, take a look at the previously-secret John Yoo Justice Department memos that explain how the United States should treat its citizens during wartime:

"The current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically," Justice Department officials John Yoo and Robert Delahunty wrote White House counsel Alberto Gonzales in the Oct. 23 memo.

"We do not think that a military commander carrying out a raid on a terrorist cell would be required to demonstrate probable cause or to obtain a (search) warrant," they said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Constitution's Fourth Amendment ordinarily requires a probable cause and a warrant to execute a search. However, the memo said those requirements "are unsuited to the demands of wartime."

Furthermore, it said, "First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully."

"The government's compelling interests in wartime justify restrictions on the scope of individual liberty," it said. The Justice Department under Bush had fought a lawsuit which sought to make the memo public.

Oh well, past is past!

Full post as published by Southern District of Florida on March 03, 2009 (boomark / email).