Al-Arian Records Shredded

The Tampa Tribune ^ | Dec 10, 2003 | ELAINE SILVESTRINI

[windchime]

TAMPA - Original court documents relating to searches conducted in 1995 on Sami Al- Arian's home and office have been mistakenly destroyed by court employees. The documents were requested by Al-Arian's defense attorneys as part of the pretrial exchange of information in Al- Arian's upcoming trial on terrorism-related charges. It is unclear what effect the shredding will have on the case.

The defense could ask the court to prevent prosecutors from using as evidence anything seized as a result of the warrants.

``I just don't know how this is going to play out,'' defense attorney William B. Moffitt said. ``I'm unfamiliar in 30 years of being a lawyer with anything like this. ... We're looking into our options, and we'll pursue them to the fullest extent we can.''

U.S. Magistrate Thomas B. McCoun III disclosed the document destruction to attorneys in a letter Friday. McCoun wrote that he directed his staff to contact the U.S. attorney's office, the FBI and immigration investigators seeking their copies. McCoun said he will ``review the documents to satisfy myself as to their accuracy and copies will be disseminated to all parties.''

Moffitt and co-counsel Linda Moreno responded with a letter lodging a ``formal objection'' to the judge's suggested procedure and asking for time to research the issues raised.

William West, the retired Immigration and Naturalization Service supervisory special agent who wrote the affidavit in support of the 1995 search warrants, said he would be willing to testify to help the court reconstruct the files.

``I believe the loss of the search warrant evidence to this case as a result of some clerical mistake by the court would be a travesty that significantly abuses the interest of justice, and I would hope such a travesty could be avoided,'' West wrote in an e-mail to a Tampa Tribune reporter.

Indicted in February, Al-Arian has been under investigation by federal authorities for years. In 1995, law enforcement searched his home and offices. Warrants related to those searches were initially sealed but were made public in April 1996 after the Tribune sought their release.

The documents were shredded as part of wholesale document destruction begun in the Tampa federal courthouse clerk's office in 1998 in preparation for the move to the new Sam M. Gibbons Courthouse, according to court officials. Employees in the office didn't understand policy on the destruction of documents and began destroying all magistrate files 5 years old or older.

The shredding continued until the error was discovered in 2002, said Sheryl Loesch, clerk of the court for the Middle District of Florida. She estimated several thousand files in cases dating as far back as 24 years were destroyed. ``It was regrettable,'' Loesch said. ``It was just a human error.''

``When we caught this, we immediately took steps to make sure the staff was retrained ... to avoid this from ever happening again,'' Loesch said.

U.S. Attorney Paul I. Perez said in a prepared statement, ``We do not believe the shredding of the documents relating to the 1995 searches will affect our ability to prosecute this case.''

Reporter Michael Fechter contributed to this report. Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837.

[windchime]

....Speechless...........

[Mike Fieschko]

I heard this story last night (Tuesday) on WABC Radio's Batchelor & Alexander show, when they were doing the nightly segment with John Loftus.

Loftus said that he has a duplicate original of the affidavit, which he received in a court case.

IIRC, his duplicate original is marked/stamped 'filed', as in filed with the court clerk.

[windchime]

You posted a story on this yesterday from the Chicago Tribune. The rest of the story...

[Mike Fieschko]

Sorry ... typed too fast. The affidavit Loftus claims to have is the affidavit supporting the application for a search warrant, and if the affidavit had been shredded, then the evidence obtained from the search and derivative investigations might be inadmissable. But if the affidavit still exists, then the evidence, etc., is admissable.

[windchime]

Thanks for the information. It is somewhat comforting.

[windchime]

Worried again. Thanks for the clarification.

[alloysteel]

Well, I expect that Al-Arian will walk, now won't he?

[Publius6961]

Another confirmation of the average mentality of "public" employees, particularly in the "PC" age.
Before donning my Nomex PJs let me ask anyone inclined to flame me: have you been to a public office records lately to get any kind of help or information? Motor vehicle department?

[JamesA]

Prosecutors say that there may *may* be duplicate files, somewhere.

[Quilla]

DMV: Only idiots need apply.

[randita]

Heard the loftus Report, as well. He said that the DOJ and FBI were at loggerheads over this case. The FBI wants to throw the book at Al-Arian and the DOJ wants to let it drop. All about money--Arab money--Loftus said. It made me extremely angry.

[windchime]

Let's hope not!

[windchime]

Sounds like you have.

[mewzilla]

So who did the shredding I wonder? And was it really an accident?

[windchime]

"I hope there are duplicate files 'somewhere'."

Michael Fechter,a reporter with the Tampa Tribune, has been following details of this case for years.

http://reports.tbo.com/reports/alarian/

Fechter's inquiry has been so detailed that maybe he kept copies of documents he obtained in his research.

[windchime]

The same thought occurred to me. The shredding that accompanied the move of the office would have provided the perfect cover for the 'accident' to happen.

What about computer files? The documents in '95 would probably have been computer generated and copied there for the record after processing.

See post #15. Maybe Fechter remembers in what format he saw them because he is probably the Tampa Tribune reporter that requested them.

They could also have been misfiled (note reputation of public office employees). Are they assuming they were shredded because they can't find them?

Lots of questions to be answered here.

[Gritty]

The documents were shredded as part of wholesale document destruction begun in the Tampa federal courthouse clerk's office in 1998...

Let's see. Let me guess. Whose Administration was in office when this neat trick happened?

Why is it I don't believe in these little "coincidences" and "regrettable errors" any more?

[windchime]

You mean like the American MUSLIM Council being listed on HRC campaign donation list as American MUSEUM Council?

[swarthyguy]

Mistakenly? Were any clerks paid off to "inadvertently" do this?

[windchime]

Lots of questions and I have seen no follow up on this story.