Grounds For Prosecution: Withholding of Evidence Illegal

withholding of evidence

Definition
Obstruction of justice caused by stifling or suppression of evidence with the knowledge that it is being sought.

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withholding of evidence is in the Corporate, Commercial, & General Law subject.
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6th Circuit: WITHHOLDING EVIDENCE FROM DEFENSE IS ILLEGAL
Organized Crime Digest, Oct 7, 2005
E-mail Print Link The prosecutor's withholding of information from the defense violates Rule 32 of Criminal Procedure, the 6th Circuit Appeals Court held.

In this case, the information consisted of about 30 letters written by victims of a fraudulent investment scheme to bilk many people and small businesses employed by defender Michael Meeker.

Over a period of eight years, Meeker collected over $3 million from 76 clients who wanted him to invest their funds.

Instead of investing the money as he had told his clients he would do, Meeker kept the money and transferred it into his personal investment account. All the while, he was sending falsified quarterly statements to his clients.

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Murder trial collapses after police withhold evidence When one of Meeker's clients became suspicious and called the authorities, an FBI investigation was launched. Meeker was charged with mail fraud and interstate transmission of funds obtained by fraud.

The letters from victims described the effect that Meeker's crime had had on them and their families. Some of them had invested their entire life savings and in many cases all of that money was now gone.

Of 16 of the letters, the district court provided to Meeker and the government only two of them. Meeker contends that if he had been aware of the contents of the letters, "it is likely that a meaningful reply to the specific comments made in the letters could have been made."

The 6th circuit determines otherwise. "There seems to be little that Meeker could have done to effectively rebut the heart-wrenching descriptions of his victims' emotional distress that were recounted in many of the letters. For the many people who had trusted him with all of their life savings, the result was financial devastation accompanied by severe emotional trauma."

Inf.: U.S. v. Meeker, 03-1873, 6th Circ., June 17. The circuit consists of Kentucky. Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.

Copyright Washington Crime News Service Oct 7, 2005
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