This Monday, Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos was in a courtroom, standing before a judge - which isn’t anything new for him: however, this time he was in a federal courtroom not a state one, and Villalobos was there as an indicted defendant, facing federal charges of massive corruption while acting as the head prosecutor for Cameron County, Texas.

Seems that the Texas D.A. along with his former law partner Eddie Lucio are alleged to have make a tidy profit off Villalobos’ position as district attorney. (Lucio was also indicted Monday.) The indictment is thick with allegations of wrongdoing. It’s a bonanza of criminal charges: there’s racketeering involved.  Taking bribes.  Handing out bribes.  Also: extortion, improper influence, concealment, and conflict of interest.

And yes, you’ve read this right:  all these crimes are alleged to have been done by the top prosecutor for Cameron County.  The Top Dog for the area in making sure that criminal laws are respected and the public at large is protected and safe from those who violate the law.

Now, about the money.

There’s an allegation that the prosecutor took $80,000 to make a nice plea deal (that’s bribery). There’s also an allegation that Villalobos agreed to pay former Texas district court judge Abel Limas a chunk of cash so Limas would approve the plea agreement and enter the sentence.  That was key, apparently:  according to the 34 page indictment, the judge needed to enter a sentence so that the bond money would be available to fund the bribes.

This sweet deal? It let a murderer have two months (60 days) before he had to report to prison. Guess what? That convicted murderer, a man by the name of Amit Livingston, has never shown up for his appointment to be incarcerated and he’s free right now, as this post is being typed.   Out there, somewhere….

You may remember Judge Limas.

We’ve been monitoring his case for awhile now. Seems Judge Limas – who sat on a Texas judicial bench for around 7 years down in Brownsville – got busted for his own evildoing last year and copped his own plea: now, as part of ex-Judge Limas’ plea deal, he’s been spilling the beans on other bad actors down in South Texas.

Like the Cameron County District Attorney, it looks like ….

Meanwhile, it just keeps getting more zany.  Villalobos took no time in getting himself a good lawyer and getting himself out on bail (betcha he’s had that lawyer on retainer and that bail strategy set up for awhile now, probably since the news got out that Lima was singing like a canary to the feds).

Then, Cameron County District Attorney Villalobos did one thing more:  he held a press conference to let everyone know that, yes, he was still running for  Congress. That’s right:  the guy has been indicted for a kitchen sink of felonies and he’s still in the race for Congressional seat 34.

This week, a Washington Post investigation is spreading like wildfire over the web and it’s getting lots of people talking.  People like Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins, who was on television this week here in Dallas to answer some questions about what the Post has revealed (watch him on video here).

You can read the expose for yourself, entitled “Convicted defendants left uninformed of forensic flaws found by Justice Dept.” and written by Spenser S. Hsu online here.

What’s the big deal?

Seems the U.S. Department of Justice has known for a long, long time that FBI Lab forensics were not to be trusted, but DOJ higher-ups as well as U.S. Attorneys and federal prosecutors didn’t bother to let anyone know that forensic evidence wasn’t trustworthy — leaving who knows how many innocent people convicted and imprisoned in this country.

That’s right.  The federal government through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been handing out bad forensic evidence for years, and the federal government, through the Department of Justice, has seen fit to let that bad evidence be used to convict folk. Mum was the word, apparently, when dealing with this faulty forensic testing and trying criminal cases: no one bothered to let the defendants in on the forensic evidence having problems and for sure, no one told the defense attorneys.

What Hsu has reported is based upon a report by the Inspector General which summarizes findings of a 9 year investigation into misconduct by the FBI Crime Lab and complaints that the FBI Crime Lab was sending out flawed and faulty lab results.  The IG report was completed in 2004, and it was bad — but instead of letting everyone impacted by the findings know about it, the results were only shared among U.S. prosecutors.

The Washington Post is reporting that there are literally 100s of people setting in prison or living on parole right now, as this is being typed, that were wrongfully convicted in the first place because the FBI Crime Lab provided hair and fiber evidence that was just plain WRONG.

This has gone on for years and years and years.

Of course this means that innocent people have been wrongfully convicted of crimes all over the country.  And yes, some may have been executed for crimes they did not commit: according to Hsu’s investigation in the Post,  back in 1997 — a year into the DOJ’s investigation into bad forensics, so the problem was known already — the State of Texas may have executed Benjamin Herbert Boyle based upon evidence that was inaccurate.

Was There a Knowing, Wrongful Execution of Benjamin Herbert Boyle?

That’s right.  Mr. Boyle would not have been eligible for the death penalty without the use of this flawed forensic evidence, the federal government already knew the forensics were questionable, and not one government employee stepped up to stop Boyle from being killed.  And, how do we know that this was known back then, in 1997?  It’s information found in a prosecutor’s memo.

Forensic Evidence Is Not 100% Trustworthy – Ask Any Criminal Defense Attorney

We’ve posted here already about how television shows aren’t reality – and lab results are not to be considered as iron-clad evidence of anything.  So, for the defense bar, the news that the lab results weren’t accurate is just one issue.  However, there’s another issue here, as well.  The continuing problem of prosecutorial misconduct – when attorneys for the government are aware that evidence exists that may support the defense, they are required to share that information with the defense team.  It’s a pursuit of justice that is mandated for them, not how many wins they can tally on their career scorecard.

• Prosecutorial misconduct is a huge problem in the State of Texas as well as the United States of America.  For more on this, check out details at the new site dedicated to this national crisis, Prosecutorial Oversight.
• To learn more on how untrustworthy forensic evidence really is, watch this excellent Frontline investigation online from PBS.

District attorneys are responsible for seeking justice on behalf of the people, but that’s a joke when rogue prosecutors are involved.  We keep track of Texas prosecutors doing bad things here in the Lone Star State (check out the “DA Watch” link there in the right sidebar and here) with a careful eye on prosecutorial misconduct.

Something that seems to run rampant in Texas.

For a few prime examples, check out our November 2011 list in “Prosecutorial Misconduct is a Big, Big Problem in Texas – Here Are Just a Few Examples” and our post from earlier this month, which shows this problem has been around for a very long time, “Former Texas Death Row Inmate Kerry Max Cook’s Case Continues to Expose Texas Prosecutors Gone Wild (In a Bad, Bad Way).”

All too often, it takes the voice of outsiders as well as the continued fight of the innocent victims of prosecutorial misconduct to expose and remedy a district attorney that has gone power-mad, forgetting his or her duties to the people and to justice as evidence is hidden or cases are twisted in charges, procedure, etc.  However, sometimes the system itself does take heed of these rogue prosecutors and suddenly, investigations begin into what the state’s lawyer has done in a particular case.

Like the federal investigation into the prosecution of the Ted Stevens case and the state investigation into the prosecution of the Michael Morton matter.

Federal Inquiry Into Rogue Prosecutor In Ted Stevens Case

Back in 2008, there was a federal jury trial where Ted Stevens was convicted of lying on financial disclosure statements.  Now, all these years later, a 525 page report has been released this month by those investigating the bad actions of the prosecutors in that case.  (The Stevens conviction got overturned in 2009.)

You can read that big, fat report detailing what the rogue prosecutors did by reviewing or downloading it online here.

It’s too late for Ted Stevens to know that the Inquiry into the prosecutors bad acts has vindicated him:  Stevens died in 2010.  However, it’s not too late for the rest of us to read and learn how these prosecutors acted and what they did, which included:

• lying (the report calls this making “astonishing misstatements”) to the defense attorneys about evidence and
• keeping quiet and allowing perjury on the witness stand, perjured testimony that helped the state’s case.

Texas Court of Inquiry Into Prosecutorial Misconduct in Michael Morton Murder Trial

Meanwhile, here in Texas, the investigation into prosecutorial misconduct in the Morton case is still going on – no reports to read as yet.  The latest?

• The Williamson County prosecutors are now proceeding to go after another man for the murder of Michael Morton’s late wife, Christine Morton.  Mark Norwood was indicted last month for homicide, and a pre-trial hearing scheduled for this week has been reset to May.
• Michael Morton is becoming a public advocate for addressing prosecutorial misconduct, doing things like appearing on 60 Minutes and taking part in panel discussions on how to stop rogue prosecutors.
• Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson has appointed Rusty Hardin to act as Special Prosecutor in the Court of Inquiry.
• Tarrant County District Judge Louis Sturns was appointed by the Chief Justice in February 2012 to preside over the Court of Inquiry after Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield recused himself.
• Yesterday, Judge Sturns set the date that the Court of Inquiry will begin its proceedings as September 11, 2012.