Interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin in Washington, D.C., is “rewriting” rules that require prosecutors to turn over all evidence of police credibility issues to defense attorneys and judges before officers testify, a prospect that many in his office fear could upend cases and land them in trouble. Martin cast the move as a way to “stand up to judges” and “anyone who maligns our officers for sport or advantage unfairly.” The court-mandated disclosures include information about whether an officer or federal agent has been investigated by prosecutors for misconduct, sued for actions on duty or faced internal disciplinary action. The U.S. Attorney's office will no longer allow judges or others to gratuitously damage your careers because of the outside impact of inexact characterizations,” he wrote, in a memo entitled “Open Letter to Our Cops and Law Enforcement Officers, reports the Washington Post. “More and more, I hear from Men and Women in Blue that they want to know we have their backs. We do and we will.”
It is the latest move to leave prosecutors wondering if he has their backs, coming on the heels of a wave of firings, demotions and at least one resignation since he took over the nation’s largest U.S. Attorney’s office eight weeks ago. The decision to rewrite the rules for what prosecutors refer to as the Lewis List, which names officers with potential integrity issues, troubled defense attorneys, judges and many prosecutors.
Failing to disclose information that could challenge the credibility of the witness — even if that witness is a law enforcement officer involved in a criminal case — not only risks delaying or having a judge throw out the case, but also puts prosecutors at risk of punishment that could include disbarment. "No one is going to risk losing their bar license for not handing over evidence about a witness, which the [D.C.] Court of Appeals has instructed us to do in this jurisdiction for decades,” one prosecutor said. “What Ed Martin is setting up is not only a violation of disclosure rules and law, but he is all but begging for cases to be dismissed or reversed once that information is later disclosed,” said law Prof. David Singleton of the University of the District of Columbia.