A Florida federal judge said Friday he would be ordering a new trial — with a new prosecution team — for a trio of men found guilty of swiping millions of dollars from elderly people in a sweepstakes scheme, saying during a hearing that the original prosecutors "deliberately misled this court" (article available here).
Southern District of Florida prosecutors lied to the court about sending a cooperating witness into defense strategy meetings in 2016, the federal judge said during the hearing, and knowingly using the confidential information in their prosecution. Three Florida men were convicted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud in 2017.
The court said that ahead of the trial, it thought the government was "reckless and naive," but that John Leon, a fourth defendant in the case who cut a deal with prosecutors, took it upon himself to give the information to the prosecution. "But now I know a whole lot more than that," the judge said.
The government had actually received written notes and a timeline prepared by the defendants working together under a joint defense agreement, the judge said. And Leon received specific authorization from the government to attend multiple defense meetings, he said. "So in sum, the government knowingly invaded the defense camp, which is improper," the court said.
But "the most egregious thing is the government lied to the court about it."
In particular, the judge said prosecutors lied about whether Leon attended more than one meeting and whether meetings were done with their knowledge and approval. And the way this information was disclosed to the court "is problematic," he said.
The case is U.S. v. Matthew Pisoni et al., 15-cr-20339, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.