Federal Cases

31 Cases

Main Menu

State:   AR   CA   FL   GA   ID   IN   IA   MA   NJ   NY   NC   OK   OR   PA   SD   TX   VA   WA

Location

Defendant(s)

Date of Alleged Crime

Toguri was charged with being the legendary “Tokyo Rose” and convicted of treason.  During World War II, American servicemen in the Pacific invented the myth of a Japanese radio broadcaster they dubbed “Tokyo Rose,” who called on them to lay down their arms.  The name “Tokyo Rose” was never broadcast on Radio Tokyo.  Toguri was a native-born Japanese-American who visited Japan to see relatives in 1941.  She was stranded there when war broke out between Japan and the United States in Dec. 1941.  Toguri ended up being one of about 20 female English language broadcasters on Radio Tokyo.

Toguri as well as other native English-speaking broadcasters were able to subvert intended Japanese propaganda into harmless rhetoric.  Broadcasters were able to slip double-entendres, innuendos, and sarcastic references into their broadcasts, as Japanese censors did not understand American idiom.  Toguri actually helped the Allied war effort by giving advance warnings of air raids under the guise of threatening Allied forces.  She also helped by reporting on Tokyo weather conditions.

The U.S. military imprisoned Toguri without charges after the end of World War II.  When Toguri was permitted to return to the U.S. in 1948, she did so.  Upon arrival she was arrested and charged with eight counts of treason.  Her prosecution was the most expensive prosecution directed toward a single person in U.S. history to that date.  At trial most reporters thought she would be acquitted.  The jury deadlocked on the charges, but the judge refused to declare a mistrial.  After 80 hours of deliberation, the jury convicted her on a vague count of speaking about a loss of ships.  Toguri was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment and was released in 1956.  In 1976, the Chicago Tribune had its Tokyo correspondent track down the witnesses responsible for that count.  Both witnesses admitted perjuring themselves under pressure from federal prosecutors.  In Jan. 1977, President Ford pardoned Toguri.  Toguri died at age 90 in 2006.  (JD28 p22)  [2/07]

DePalma was convicted of on charges of being the sole gunman who robbed the Mercury Savings and Loan in Buena Park, CA.  Following the crime, Sergeant James David Bakken, an Identification Officer for the Buena Park Police, identified a partial fingerprint purportedly lifted from the bank counter as the fingerprint of DePalma.  A local warrant was issued, but it was subsequently dismissed and the case was tried in U.S. District Court.

At trial, Sergeant Bakken testified as a government witness.  An FBI latent print examiner also testified, but only in regard to whether the lifted fingerprint matched DePalma’s fingerprint.  He gave no testimony on the source of the found fingerprint.  DePalma was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Some time later, presumably years, Sergeant Bakken was indicted in a completely separate matter for perjury and for manufacturing evidence.  Since DePalma had been persistent in his claims of innocence, authorities re-examined the partial fingerprint in his case.  They concluded that the partial fingerprint was not lifted from a bank counter, but from a photocopy of DePalma’s fingerprint.  DePalma’s conviction was vacated in Feb. 1974.  DePalma later sued the City of Buena Vista and in Aug. 1975 accepted “a sizeable settlement.”  (Source)  [12/07]

Krause’s cellmate, Jeff Milton, at USP Lompoc, challenged corrections officer Anita Pahnke after she mouthed off outside their cell.  Milton said, “That’s tough talk behind a cell door.”  Against regulations Pahnke opened the cell door, at which point Milton punched her with such force that she fell down.  Although Krause never touched Pahnke, both he and Milton were dragged out of their cell and severely beaten before being stripped and chained hand and foot to a concrete slab for a solid week.  They were not only forced to lie naked in their urine and fecal matter for the week they were chained to the slab, but they were repeatedly brutalized by several guards who punched and kicked them.

Krause was convicted of assault despite corrections officers testifying in his defense against inmate informants testifying for the prosecution.  A videotape surveillance camera recorded the assault, but Krause’s defense was not allowed funds to enhance the video.  Krause was also transferred to the top federal supermax facility, USP Florence, in Colorado.  (JD31 p14)  [12/06]

Antonino Lyons, a Cocoa, Florida businessman, owned a chain of clothing stores.  He was convicted of drug trafficking, carjacking, and distributing counterfeit clothing.  The prosecution relied on the testimony of 26 felons convicted of federal drug law violations.  These witnesses testified that Lyons sold them more than $6 million of cocaine.  There was no independent evidence – no drugs, no non-felon witnesses, no wiretaps, no tape recordings – supporting the claims of the witnesses.  Lyons received letters from prisoners who said they were approached by the prosecution, but refused to perjure themselves in exchange for sentence reductions.

At trial, the prosecution withheld numerous exculpatory documents that were belatedly turned over on appeal.  The documents supported Lyons’s contention that the prosecution’s case against him was not just evidentially insufficient, but had the appearance of being contrived out of whole cloth.  In 2004, a judge vacated Lyons’ convictions and dismissed all charges against him.  It is unknown why federal prosecutors targeted Lyons.  (JD33 p6)  [2/07]

After receiving a letter he considered obscene, the City Solicitor of Atlanta, Nash R. Broyles, turned it over to Federal Authorities. The letter reflected pointedly on Broyles' moral character. It was signed Grant Jackson, so a man named Grant Jackson was arrested as well as William Broughton who was considered by authorities to be a close friend of Jackson and of necessity involved in whatever mischief Jackson might be involved. Broyles had sent both Jackson and Broughton to jail at various times for a variety of misdemeanors. Both Jackson and Broughton denied writing the letter or having any knowledge of it.

The case against Jackson collapsed when it was found that he could not write, but authorities discovered that Broughton had written a letter for Jackson on at least one occasion. Police persuaded Broughton to write a letter to his mother, asking her to send clothing to him at the jail. This stratagem gave them a sample of his handwriting to compare to the Broyles’ letter. Authorities concluded the handwriting was the same and Broughton was indicted.

At Broughton’s trial, Broyles testified not only as a witness, but also as a handwriting expert. Broyles qualified as an expert because he said a number of cases involving handwriting had come before him when he was United States Commissioner in Atlanta. Broyles told the jury there were incriminating and unmistakable similarities between the writing in the letter he had received and the note Broughton had sent his mother. While there were similarities, there were also dissimilarities. Broyles testified that these dissimilarities could be explained by Broughton trying to disguise his handwriting when he wrote the note to his mother.

Two other handwriting experts testified to points of similarity between the letters. The two were considered experts because one had experience in bank work while the other was an auditor for the Standard Oil Company. In his defense Broughton denied knowledge of the letter and stated that he held no grudge against Broyles for his frequent commitments to jail. However, Broughton was convicted, sentenced to 5 years in jail, and fined $500 plus the costs of prosecution.

Subsequent events revealed that another man, Charley Mitchell, had written the letter. Mitchell had a dispute with Jackson over a 20-cent loan and a scarf pin. To get even, Mitchell sent the letter to Broyles, signing it with Jackson’s name. Broughton was released after serving two months of his sentence. Mitchell was sentenced to the same sentence as Broughton, but only had to pay a $100 fine.  (CTI)  [4/08]

Powell was convicted of participating in a massive swindling scheme that had operated in 14 cities and had taken in millions of dollars.  The organizers of this scheme ran a "Millionaires' Club" for the purpose of operating fake horse races, wrestling matches, foot races, and boxing matches. They then had a "steerer," to induce a "mike," to join with the club's secretary in betting against the club, the "mike" believing that the race or match was to be "thrown" in his favor.  After the stakes were put up, with the club's secretary as stakeholder, the event was instead thrown to the club and the "mike" got a dose of his own medicine.  The scheme was cleverly worked out, inducing persons to surrender their money, yet leaving them in such a compromising position that they were not anxious to report the affair to the authorities.

Powell was indicted because of testimony that he knew and associated with some of those clearly involved in the scheme.  However, there was no evidence that he conspired with anyone.  He and his attorney expected a directed verdict of acquittal.  However, at the last minute in the Mar. 1910 trial, a “mike” was recalled as a witness and identified Powell as a participant in the group who fleeced him in a fake horse race near Denver, CO.  This “mike” could not fix the date when he was fleeced, beyond saying it was between March 20 and April 10, 1908.  The only other witness who had testified about this swindle had already been dismissed and had left town.

The date was important, because Powell had alibis in different locations during this time period and did not have time to collect alibi evidence covering the entire period.  Powell had two witnesses testify that they returned from Cuba with him around the first of April.  Another witness testified that he was in Denver when Powell arrived about the middle of April.  However, the jury disregarded this evidence and convicted Powell.

Following Powell’s conviction, his attorneys established that the horse race occurred on Mar. 28, 1908, and that Powell was clearly in Tampa, Florida on this date, having returned from Cuba two days before.  U.S. President Taft granted Powell a full pardon in July 1910.  (CTI)  [11/07]

Army Capt. MacDonald, wife Collette, 26, and two daughters, ages 5 and 2, were attacked by intruders to their home.  MacDonald survived with wounds including a collapsed lung.  MacDonald was acquitted of the murders at a Ft. Bragg Army hearing and probably would not have been tried again had he not angered the prosecution by criticizing them during interviews on national TV.  MacDonald's Army acquittal meant that he could not be court-martialed, but he could still be tried in federal court and he was.  Before his federal trial MacDonald invited author Joe McGinniss on his defense team to write a book and hopefully help to establish his factual innocence.  At that trial MacDonald was unfortunately convicted.

Author McGinniss, who prior to publication acted like he was MacDonald's best friend and biggest supporter, revealed his personal morality by writing a best-seller Fatal Vision in which he portrayed MacDonald as a monster.  MacDonald sued McGinniss.  At the lawsuit trial McGinniss had famous authors like Joseph Wambaugh and William F. Buckley defending journalists right to lie or tell "untruths" to people in order to obtain information that they would not get if they behaved honestly.  Jurors, uneducated in such rationalizations, were appalled.  McGinniss ended up paying the imprisoned MacDonald, $325,000 to dismiss the suit.

Two of the intruders to MacDonald's home are known but the Army refused to investigate them because one is the daughter of a retired Army colonel.  She is also a known drug user and an informant for the Ft. Bragg military police.  MacDonald's in-laws were overwhelmed by the tragedy and wanted him to visit the graves every day.  Some time after the Army hearing, MacDonald was offered a job in California, which his in-laws insisted he not take.  They threatened him in front of witnesses, "If you move you'll live to regret it."  When MacDonald moved, his father-in-law turned against him and said he became convinced of MacDonald's guilt.  MacDonald is pursuing DNA tests and hopes that such tests will exonerate him.

Proceedings prior to MacDonald's trial and the trial itself were a mockery of justice in the suppression of evidence favorable to the defense.  At trial, the prosecution argued that there was no evidence of intruders in the MacDonald household, but it was later shown that there was plenty of evidence.  A second book was written about the case, which is pro-defense, entitled Fatal Justice.  (Crime Library) (www.themacdonaldcase.org) (48 Hours)  [7/05]

About an hour after a Greensboro, NC bank was robbed of $371,000 by two black males, Charles Walker was arrested at a mall parking lot 2 1/2 miles away from the bank for driving a U-Haul truck without a driver’s license.  The next day police decided to charge him with the robbery.  No evidence linked Walker to the crime other than he being a black male.  Walker had rented the U-Haul truck with Emmanuel Brown’s stolen driver’s license.  Two weeks later police and FBI arrested Brown in Philadelphia, PA for the robbery and searched his home.  They found $67,365.85 and seized it on suspicion that it was part of the robbery money.  Brown, however, co-owned two nightclubs and a restaurant that took in large amounts of cash.

The FBI also charged two others, Susan Parker and Neil Harewood as participants in the robbery.  Prior to Brown’s trial, Walker agreed to plead guilty and testify against Brown in return for a no-jail time sentence.  Harewood also agreed to plead guilty and testify against Brown in exchange for a five-year sentence.  Walker and Harewood claimed to have robbed the bank and that the robbery was masterminded by Brown, who was with them in Greensboro, but did not accompany them to the bank.  It is not clear that Walker and Harewood even robbed the bank.  Given their generous plea deals, there presumably was no physical evidence that they did.  Parker was a former bank employee, who allegedly provided inside information.  She had once traveled to Philadelphia where she had a family reunion at one of Brown’s nightclubs.  She was acquitted.

Brown had two alibi witnesses who testified and presented documentation that he was in Philadelphia on the day of the robbery.  George Jackson, the owner of Jackson Auto Body Repair in Philadelphia testified that Brown picked up his car at Jackson’s shop between 11 a.m. and noon.  This was about the time of the 11:30 a.m. robbery in Greensboro.  In addition, a physical therapist working for Cynwyd Medical Center in Philadelphia testified that Brown arrived for a regular therapy appointment at 6:10 p.m.  Since the distance between the Greensboro bank and medical center was 468 miles, Brown would have had to travel at a speed averaging over 70 miles an hour to make his appointment.

The prosecution’s claim that Brown masterminded the bank robbery cannot, however, be refuted by an alibi.  Brown could have masterminded the robbery from Philadelphia.  The virtue of charging someone with being a mastermind is that the charge does not require physical evidence.  As the alleged mastermind, Brown was sentenced to 27 1/2 years in prison.  (JD32 p3)  [2/07]

On March 11, 2004, a number of bombs were detonated on trains in Madrid, Spain, which killed 191 people and injured about 2000 others, including American citizens.  A bag containing detonation caps was found outside a train station through which all the bombed trains had left or had passed through.  On March 17, digital images of fingerprints found on the bag were transmitted to the FBI and run through their AFIS database of fingerprints.  When latent print #17 was run, the database produced 20 possible matches.  FBI Senior Print Examiner Terry Green then manually compared the potential matches and found a 100% match with the fourth ranked print on the AFIS list.  The FBI has long claimed that fingerprint identification is infallible. A top FBI fingerprint official had testified to a “zero error rate.”

Two other FBI print examiners purportedly confirmed Green’s match.  The source of the matching print corresponded to the left index finger of an Oregon attorney named Brandon Mayfield.  It is suspected that Mayfield’s Muslim religious beliefs and his activities as a lawyer influenced the match.

On April 2, the FBI sent a letter to Spanish authorities reporting the match.  On April 13, the Forensic Science Division of Spanish National Police responded that the purported match was “conclusively negative.”  On April 21, a representative of the FBI Latent Print Unit flew to Madrid and met with ten members of the same Division.

On May 6, the federal government applied for warrants to arrest Mayfield as a material witness and search his home, office, and personal vehicles.  It represented that at the meeting with the Spaniards, the Spaniards felt satisfied with the FBI’s print match.  However, that was not the Spaniards’ interpretation.  The Spaniards later stated that at the conclusion of the meeting they refused to validate the FBI’s finding and maintained there was no match.  The federal government’s warrant affidavits also mentioned that Mayfield had represented a Jeffrey Battle in Oct. 2002 in a child custody matter, noting that Battle had been subsequently arrested and convicted as a member of the Portland 7 on federal terrorism charges.

Mayfield was arrested the same day, May 6.  Prior to his arrest, his home had been secretly searched under provisions of the U.S. Patriot Act.  The intruder(s) had aroused his family’s suspicion by bolting the wrong lock on the door and leaving a footprint that did not match any family member.  Following Mayfield’s arrest, FBI agents seized many personal belongings including what they termed “Spanish documents” -- apparently Spanish homework by one of Mayfield’s sons.

On May 20 it became known that the Spanish police identified an Algerian as the source of the latent fingerprint.  Mayfield was released the same day.  The FBI then appeared to blame the mismatch on not having the highest resolution of the fingerprint. Subsequently the FBI determined that the print was of “no value for identification purposes.”  This point is difficult to understand since the FBI used it to identify Mayfield, and the Spanish police used it to identify an Algerian.  Evidence indicated that the FBI simply overlooked discrepancies between the fingerprint sent to them and that of Mayfield.  (Champion) (MSNBC)  [3/08]

In Feb. 1973, 200 American Indian Movement (AIM) activists launched a 72-day occupation of Wounded Knee, SD (Site of an 1890 American Indian massacre) to protest living conditions at the Pine Ridge reservation.  During the next three years, the FBI carried out intensive local surveillance, as well as the repeated arrests, harassment, and bad-faith legal proceedings against AIM leaders and supporters.  In 1975, two FBI agents entered the reservation and with tensions being high managed to provoke a firefight between themselves and local Indians.  Both FBI agents as well as Indians were killed.  To avenge the death of the two agents, the government issued arrest warrants against four men, including Leonard Peltier.  It dropped charges against one and tried two, but during the trial a key prosecution witness admitted that he had been threatened by the FBI and as a result had changed his testimony upon the agents' instructions, so as to support the government's position.  The two defendants were acquitted.

Peltier was in Canada and to get him extradited the government submitted an affidavit from a mentally unstable woman who claimed to have been Peltier's girlfriend, and to have been present during the shootout, and to have witnessed the murders.  In fact, she did not know Peltier, nor was she present at the time of the shooting.  She later confessed she had given the false statement after being pressured and terrorized by FBI agents.  At Peltier's trial, the government withheld thousands of documents.  It presented coerced witnesses; though none placed Peltier at the murder scene before the murders occurred or claimed Peltier shot the two agents.  Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two life sentences.

Peltier's case is detailed in In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, a 1983 bestseller, and in Incident at Oglala, a documentary produced by Robert Redford.  (www.freepeltier.org) (AJ)  [6/05]

Thirty-one-year-old Doris Faye Lentz disappeared on Apri1 23, 1996 after telling a friend she was driving from her Arlington, VA home to pick up her 4-year-old daughter, Julia, at her ex-husband's home in Fort Washington, MD.  Her ex-husband, Jay E. Lentz was a naval intelligence officer.  Doris was once an aide to Senator James Sasser of Tennessee.  Doris' blood spattered automobile was found a week after her disappearance in southeast Washington, DC.  Federal prosecutors suspected Jay murdered her.  They did not have sufficient evidence to bring murder charges against him as there was no body, no weapon, no eyewitnesses, and no crime scene.

Instead they charged Jay in April 2001 with kidnapping across state lines resulting in death.  Prosecutors claimed that Jay had lured Doris from her home under the assumption that she would pick up Julia.  Julia was not with Jay, but was visiting her grandparents in Indiana at the time of Doris' disappearance.  During jury deliberation, prosecutors planted inadmissible hearsay evidence in the jury room.  The jurors sent the judge a note that they were deadlocked after four days of deliberations.  However, after more days of deliberation, the jury convicted Jay in July 2003 of the kidnapping charge.  Jay faced a possible death sentence, but Julia testified that she did not want to lose her father after losing her mother.  Jay was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

Prior to jury deliberations, the defense filed a Rule 29 motion to dismiss the charge against Lentz due to lack of evidence.  The defense argued that the charge of kidnapping required that the defendant both "lured" his victim and "held" her against her will.  The defense maintained there was no proof Lentz held his ex-wife against her will even if he killed her.  The judge didn't rule on the motion, but waited until the jury verdict and sentence was rendered.

In a written opinion the judge agreed that prosecutors had failed to prove their case.  The judge ruled, "To allow this conviction ... to stand would be to allow the federal government to, in essence, secure a conviction for first-degree murder without having to support the grade of that offense with evidence."  The judge entered a verdict of acquittal.  However, on appeal in Sept. 2004, the ruling was overturned and the appeals court ordered a new trial.  In March 2006, Lentz was again convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to life without parole.  No evidence was presented that Doris was held against her will.  (Google)  [4/08]