Posts Tagged ‘Charles Ramsey’
Pershing Park Case: Read The Document Nickles Didn’t Want You To See
In the past few weeks, the Office of the Attorney General has waged a curious battle against plaintiffs in the Pershing Park case.
Attorney General Peter Nickles & Co. fought over whether plaintiffs could depose a government witness. They lost that battle and the deposition provided devastating evidence of more discovery abuses.
The losing fight over the depo has yet to put a dent in Nickles' M.O. The AG has not backed down from further stonewalling in the cases. In a curious move, the OAG argued in federal court filings that plaintiffs should return 211 pages of documents claiming that they were "mistakenly produced." The OAG contended that these documents were attorney-client work product.
Last night, Legal Times reported that U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled against Nickles on the matter.
So what are these mystery docs?
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Committee to “Learn Lessons” from the Gates Arrest Forms, Includes Former D.C. Police Chief
The Cambridge, Mass., police department has announced the creation of a committee to "help identify lessons learned from the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr." or, rather, to Figure It All Out. It supposedly will meet several times over the next few months and do what all committees do: make a report.
Why Does The Pershing Park Case Matter?
Late last week, I got an anonymous letter gently complaining about our coverage of the Pershing Park mess. A few times a week, we've posted critical pieces concerning the sloppy work of the OAG or pointed to discrepancies among D.C. Police personnel over how basic documents could either disappear (the running resume) or be tampered with (the radio dispatches containing gaps). The writer wanted to know why the plaintiffs in the case didn't just settle.
The facts are really not in dispute--the mass arrests were bad, violated due process, etc. Other Pershing Park plaintiffs have settled.
I can't begin to guess why the plaintiffs in this case have not settled. But one thing that appears driving the plaintiffs is the simple quest of getting to the truth of what happened on September 27, 2002.
Why is this important? Because immediately following those bad arrests, D.C. Police officials lied and manipulated information about that day.
Pershing Park Case: Now It’s All About The Cover Up; Nickles Faces Huge Test In U.S. District Court
On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan slammed the District's lawyers for how it has severely mishandled evidence in a civil case brought by plantiffs who were arrested in Pershing Park in September 2002.
Sullivan focused particularly on AG Peter Nickles. The Post writes:
"Sullivan ordered D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles to submit a sworn declaration detailing his office's shoddy work and the steps he was taking to fix the problems.
Sullivan said he would impose 'severe' monetary sanctions on the D.C. government and urged Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to 'settle this case soon.' 'This kind of conduct is not acceptable,' Sullivan said, calling the actions of D.C. government lawyers 'abysmal' and urging the D.C. Council to investigate the attorney general's office.'"
You can read Sullivan's full statement to the court here. So what provoked the judge's anger?
