As a prosecutor, I took an oath to conduct myself to the highest level of integrity and I expect the same from my colleagues in the Miami State Attorney’s Office (SAO). I believe that the integrity of the SAO is paramount. I wish to enlighten the reader as to examples of illegal actions by members of SAO.
One such example is Special Assistant State Attorney, William Richard Scruggs. After, reading about the illegal activities and obtaining official court documents from Costa Rica, of the indictment that was issued to this “prosecutor” the reader may wonder why he is actually working for such an esteemed agency.
Scruggs was one of the 1,100 Reagan-Bush holdovers brought into the Clinton Administration for the purpose of controlling information leaks and cover-ups. He was part of a few shadowy CIA operations know as the C&C Crowd (Conspiracy and Cover-up Crowd) that linger from administration to administration. He was known to have participated in numerous “extralegal” procedures which purpose was to bring foreign fugitives before American courts.
In 1992, the U.S. government requested Costa Rica to extradite Israel Lazaro Abel. Scruggs representing the U.S. government as a Federal prosecutor went to Costa Rica . While Scruggs was in Costa Rica he hired Costa Rican police to arrest Abel and turn him over to U.S. agents on an American jetliner. Abel was brought to the United States to be tried and sentenced to four life sentences in prison. Once Scruggs returned to the United States he realized that the Costa Rican government learned that he kidnapped and hid Abel for two days and that he then shipped Abel to the United States without benefit of the due process that laws in Costa Rica and the United States guarantee.
In the summer of 1993, Costa Rican officials, after scouring the documentation provided with Scruggs requested extradition, filed the first of three protests with the American government related to Abel’s case. They charged Scruggs for collaborating with over-zealous members of the Costa Rican National Migration board to “circumvent the country’s extradition procedures.”
Within months, the Costa Rican Attorney General’s Office proffered a bill of indictment with the U.S. State Department seeking the extradition from the United States of William Richard Scruggs and Donna Hamilton, a U.S. Consular officer in San Jose to stand charges in a Costa Rican Court of Law pursuant to crimes they committed. Hamilton left Costa Rica before she could be tried and Scruggs refused to return to Costa Rica to confront his criminal charges.
Robert N. Scola Jr., Abel’s lawyer, who is now a Circuit Court Judge in the 11th Circuit Court asked the 11th United States Court of Appeals in Atlanta to dismiss the case against Abel because of prosecutorial misconduct.
The appeal charged that the government’s documents, obtained through Freedom of Information Act request, “irrefutably demonstrate . . . the knowing use of both perjured testimony and affidavits by (Assistant United Attorney Karen) Rochlin before and during evidentiary hearings.”
Despite discovery requests, “None of these documents have ever been turned over to the defendant,” Abel’s appellate brief stated.
The Pittsburgh Post Gazette wrote a story on Scruggs’ prosecutorial misconduct. Please see the following link http://www.postagazette.com/win/day3_3a.asp
Abel is scheduled to be released from Butner Federal Correctional Complex in Butner , North Carolina on Wednesday, November 12, 2008.
Scruggs wanted to leave the Department of Justice to enter the private sector. He finally made the decision of leaving the Department of Justice to join the Miami Regional Office of Kroll Associates. Since apparently he did not have great success in the private sector he tried to return to the Department of Justice but they denied his request to return as a Federal prosecutor for obvious reasons.
In Scruggs’ desperation to obtain a government job, he applied in November of 2002 for an opening position that the Florida Attorney General’s Office had. Since Scruggs was not selected for the Statewide Prosecutor position, he spoke to his old friend Trudi Novicki to see if the Miami State Attorney’s Office would be interested in hiring him. Novicki recommended Scruggs to State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle for a position as a prosecutor in her office. State Attorney Fernandez Rundle took Novicki’s recommendation without researching why the Department of Justice would not accept Scruggs as a prosecutor and in all probability without knowledge of his previous misconduct activities.
The kind of behavior exhibited numerous times by Scruggs suggests the typical cowboy, always gets his man attitude (even if he has to commit prosecutorial misconduct). This type of conduct should not and cannot be part of any Prosecutor’s office. Being a prosecutor for many years and knowing State Attorney Fernandez Rundle, I believe that if she would have known that Scruggs was indeed such a loose canon she would never have hired him.
Sincerely,
Lady of Justice Whistleblower
One such example is Special Assistant State Attorney, William Richard Scruggs. After, reading about the illegal activities and obtaining official court documents from Costa Rica, of the indictment that was issued to this “prosecutor” the reader may wonder why he is actually working for such an esteemed agency.
Scruggs was one of the 1,100 Reagan-Bush holdovers brought into the Clinton Administration for the purpose of controlling information leaks and cover-ups. He was part of a few shadowy CIA operations know as the C&C Crowd (Conspiracy and Cover-up Crowd) that linger from administration to administration. He was known to have participated in numerous “extralegal” procedures which purpose was to bring foreign fugitives before American courts.
In 1992, the U.S. government requested Costa Rica to extradite Israel Lazaro Abel. Scruggs representing the U.S. government as a Federal prosecutor went to Costa Rica . While Scruggs was in Costa Rica he hired Costa Rican police to arrest Abel and turn him over to U.S. agents on an American jetliner. Abel was brought to the United States to be tried and sentenced to four life sentences in prison. Once Scruggs returned to the United States he realized that the Costa Rican government learned that he kidnapped and hid Abel for two days and that he then shipped Abel to the United States without benefit of the due process that laws in Costa Rica and the United States guarantee.
In the summer of 1993, Costa Rican officials, after scouring the documentation provided with Scruggs requested extradition, filed the first of three protests with the American government related to Abel’s case. They charged Scruggs for collaborating with over-zealous members of the Costa Rican National Migration board to “circumvent the country’s extradition procedures.”
Within months, the Costa Rican Attorney General’s Office proffered a bill of indictment with the U.S. State Department seeking the extradition from the United States of William Richard Scruggs and Donna Hamilton, a U.S. Consular officer in San Jose to stand charges in a Costa Rican Court of Law pursuant to crimes they committed. Hamilton left Costa Rica before she could be tried and Scruggs refused to return to Costa Rica to confront his criminal charges.
Robert N. Scola Jr., Abel’s lawyer, who is now a Circuit Court Judge in the 11th Circuit Court asked the 11th United States Court of Appeals in Atlanta to dismiss the case against Abel because of prosecutorial misconduct.
The appeal charged that the government’s documents, obtained through Freedom of Information Act request, “irrefutably demonstrate . . . the knowing use of both perjured testimony and affidavits by (Assistant United Attorney Karen) Rochlin before and during evidentiary hearings.”
Despite discovery requests, “None of these documents have ever been turned over to the defendant,” Abel’s appellate brief stated.
The Pittsburgh Post Gazette wrote a story on Scruggs’ prosecutorial misconduct. Please see the following link http://www.postagazette.com/win/day3_3a.asp
Abel is scheduled to be released from Butner Federal Correctional Complex in Butner , North Carolina on Wednesday, November 12, 2008.
Scruggs wanted to leave the Department of Justice to enter the private sector. He finally made the decision of leaving the Department of Justice to join the Miami Regional Office of Kroll Associates. Since apparently he did not have great success in the private sector he tried to return to the Department of Justice but they denied his request to return as a Federal prosecutor for obvious reasons.
In Scruggs’ desperation to obtain a government job, he applied in November of 2002 for an opening position that the Florida Attorney General’s Office had. Since Scruggs was not selected for the Statewide Prosecutor position, he spoke to his old friend Trudi Novicki to see if the Miami State Attorney’s Office would be interested in hiring him. Novicki recommended Scruggs to State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle for a position as a prosecutor in her office. State Attorney Fernandez Rundle took Novicki’s recommendation without researching why the Department of Justice would not accept Scruggs as a prosecutor and in all probability without knowledge of his previous misconduct activities.
The kind of behavior exhibited numerous times by Scruggs suggests the typical cowboy, always gets his man attitude (even if he has to commit prosecutorial misconduct). This type of conduct should not and cannot be part of any Prosecutor’s office. Being a prosecutor for many years and knowing State Attorney Fernandez Rundle, I believe that if she would have known that Scruggs was indeed such a loose canon she would never have hired him.
Sincerely,
Lady of Justice Whistleblower
