Judge Denies Convertino Request For Legal Fees And Sanctions

US District Judge Arthur Tarnow last Thursday denied the request of acquitted former federal prosecutor Richard Convertino to order the government to pay his legal fees and to sanction prosecutors for disclosing records Tarnow had ordered sealed. Convertino was indicted in 2006 on conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury counts in connection with his alleged presentation of false evidence and concealment of exculpatory evidence in the prosecution of two Detroit men accused of being terrorists. The men were convicted but the verdicts were thrown out by government request after the USAO investigated and determined that the terrorism charges were baseless.

After Convertino was acquitted on all counts by a jury last October, he moved in January to have his defense costs reimbursed on grounds that the DOJ’s decision to prosecute him was “vexatious, frivolous or in bad faith.” However, Tarnow ruled that Convertino had failed to meet “the defendant’s heavy burden” to show that the government acted in bad faith by indicting him. He also noted that his order sealing the records applied to the trial, and that the sealed records had been introduced after the trial in response to Convertino’s attorney fee request. The records allegedly showed that Convertino had repeatedly lied about his credentials (ABA Journal, Detroit News).