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Posted on 06/01/2019 8:31:42 AM PDT by jazusamo
Full title: Citing prosecutor misconduct, defense urges judge to drop charges against Navy SEAL charged with murder
Defense attorneys for a Navy SEAL charged with war crimes argued Friday that military prosecutors’ actions amounted to misconduct so egregious that all the charges against their client, Chief Special Operator Edward R. Gallagher, should be dismissed.
The judge in the case, while agreeing prosecutors violated Gallagher’s rights, did not immediately rule on their motion.
Gallagher is charged with killing a wounded ISIS fighter in Iraq in 2017 after providing medical care. Other charges he faces are related to fellow SEALs’ statements that he shot an old man and young girl from a sniper tower and, at other times, fired his rifle at Iraqi civilians, according to court documents.
Gallagher denies all the charges and has pleaded not guilty. His court-martial trial is scheduled for June 10 at Naval Base San Diego.
The lead prosecutor, Navy Cmdr. Chris Czaplak, admitted he sent emails to defense attorneys and to a Navy Times reporter that contained an embedded a link in an image that enabled investigators to track when the emails were opened and forwarded. Investigators were trying to find out who was leaking court documents that were under a protective order.
Thursday Rugh ruled those attempts to track the emails violated the Gallagher’s 6th Amendment right to speedy trial and ordered Gallagher released from pretrial restriction.
Friday the defense team, led by attorney Timothy Parlatore, further argued that prosecutors had “weaponized” the Naval Criminal Investigative service against his defense team.
That weaponization, Parlatore said, included not just tracking software but also NCIS background investigations into Gallagher’s civilian defense attorneys. On Thursday, three NCIS investigators testified about that investigation.
“There’s no legitimate law enforcement purpose to investigating defense attorneys,” Parlatore said in court Friday.
NCIS also investigated 189 users of its own computers and found no leaks there, Ronald Rader, an NCIS computer forensics specialist, testified Thursday.
Other NCIS investigators refused to testify Friday, including the supervisor of the leak investigation. Rugh said their “resistance and lack of candor or cooperation in this process” could be viewed as a sign of culpability.
Parlatore pointed out to that one member of the prosecution team, Marine Capt. Conor McMahon, was absent from court Thursday and Friday. He said it is proof that the government’s case had “blown up.”
McMahon had attnded all prior hearings in the case.
“Capt. McMahon isn’t here today,” Parlatore said Friday. “When the Marine Corps retreats, there’s a problem.”
Prosecutors told the court Thursday that the Marines had pulled McMahon from the case but didn’t say why. The Marine Corps did not respond to a request for comment late Friday.
Another member of the defense team, Marc Mukasey, said that efforts by prosecutors to track emails amounted to “cyber-criminal misconduct” and pointed to emails exchanged between Czaplak and NCIS after the email trackers were discovered as evidence they knew what they did was wrong.
According to court filings, Czaplak told NCIS in an email, “They found the beacon.”
“They sound like criminals,” said Mukasey, who also is one of President Donald Trump’s personal attorneys.
Prosecutors argued that the email tracking was not an invasive tool and so did not meet the legal criteria of a search or a wiretap and did not require a search warrant.
Rugh adjourned court Friday afternoon without ruling on any of the three defense motions under consideration. That includes motions to dismiss the charges and dismiss the prosecutors and a motion to declare that the case has been tainted by “unlawful command influence.”
It is not clear when Rugh will issue a ruling.
Amen!
Yep. It is hard for me to comprehend that senior military officers acted so badly.
If the prosecution falsifies any material part of a case, it seems that that case should be dropped in short order.
Prosecute the prosecutors and bust their rank and send them to jail.
When an “officer of the Court” Lies, Cheats, Steals and Commits Crimes during an Official Government Proceeding, Shouldn’t they be Immediately found in Contempt of Court, Remanded into Custody, Fined in to Bankruptcy and Referred for Permanent Disbarment??
If Not, then why would ANY god fearing, honest person ever believe ANYTHING put on in a Trial conducted by these very same people??
Bump!
I’m no legal eagle but that’s the way I view it also, sounds to me like they hacked defense counsel.
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“There’s no legitimate law enforcement purpose to investigating defense attorneys,” Parlatore said in court Friday.
Apparently the Demagogic Party doesn't see it that way. Thanks jazusamo.
This is why you always set your email client to not automatically open images embedded into emails.
Email 101...
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