Richard Convertino

Richard Convertino (born 1961) was, for 16 years, a career federal prosecutor in Detroit, Michigan. He was the lead Assistant U.S. Attorney in the "Detroit Sleeper Cell" prosecutions of Karim Koubriti and Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi.^[1] However, the U.S. Department of Justice subsequently removed Convertino from his position and asked courts to dismiss those convictions, on the grounds that Convertino had failed to disclose evidence to which the defense was entitled.^[2]

Background

Convertino is the son of Italian immigrants, a devout Catholic and father of five. He is known for gestures of generosity — collecting money to buy winter gloves for the homeless — as well as a tenacity that is not confined to the courtroom.

He is a favorite of Detroit FBI agents, who like his courtroom drive. Colleagues say he is well prepared and "quick on his feet." But Convertino had an abrasive edge. "Rick went out of his way to antagonize people. If you disregarded him, he would dismiss you as an idiot." a Detroit colleague said.^[3]

Detroit Sleepers Cell Case

In 2001, FBI agents were looking for Nabil Al-Marabh, a Bin Laden right-hand man, who was in the top 10 on the FBI's Most Wanted List. Al-Marabh was not at home in the apartment at the house on Detroit's Norman Street, but Koubriti and several others were, and their plans, diagrams, and over 100 jihadist videos were discovered by agents.

Federal charges were filed in the Detroit Sleeper Cell in September 2001, very shortly following the attacks of September 11, 2001. DOJ's prosecution in U.S. v. Koubriti alleged that an apparent holiday video five men made while visiting Disneyland was really a clandestine reconnaissance video, which would allow bomb experts to plan where to plant bombs.

Trial preparation was complex, involving numerous trips in the United States and overseas and hundreds of Arabic documents and tapes to translate. In Turkey, Convertino climbed atop a warehouse for a better view of the Incirlik Air Base to compare it to a crude sketch. ^[3]

The trial began on March 27, 2003. As lead prosecutor, Convertino argued that the five men were not the Westernized, secular Muslims they seemed. The government argued that they were "Takfiris" -- radical jihadists who had a dispensation to drink alcohol, use narcotics and avoid praying, in order to blend in to western societies, while secretly plotting clandestine attacks.^[4] Doubt was cast on the prosecution's case in U.S. v. Koubriti when it was alleged that the star witness, Youssef Hmimmsa, a member of the group who turned on the others, was a known con-artist. During cross-examination, Hmimssa had admitted lying to federal agents, but Convertino was accused of not disclosing this and other potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense.^[1]

On June 3, 2003, Elmardoudi and Koubriti were convicted of terrorism-related charges, as well as ID fraud. Hannan was acquitted of charges linked to terrorism but convicted of ID fraud. Ali-Haimoud was acquitted on all counts.^[3]

Post-trial consequences

In July 2003, Convertino had a meeting with Detroit US Attorney Jeffrey Collins: "I've been ordered to reprimand you (for not cooperating with Washington)." Collins was the date of a "former" Islamic terrorist at an awards banquet.[[cite}} He was upset that Convertino obtained a conviction that implicated local Muslim and Arab agencies, including ACCESS (the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services).^[5]

In late summer, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, asked Convertino to testify about identity fraud.

The day after telling Collins about the Grassley invitation, Convertino was taken off the terrorism case. It was reassigned to Eric Straus who reviewed the case. When Grassley found out, he complained to Ashcroft about the apparent retaliation, and subpoenaed Convertino to appear before his panel. His testimony did not criticize Washington, but he was already seen as "off the reservation". ^[3]

Within days, Collins had assigned three lawyers to review Convertino's cases dating back to the mid-1990s, and a Justice Department official, allegedly Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathon Tukel, disclosed a Muslim confidential informant who helped on the case and jeopardized the man's life. Subsequently, Detroit Free Press reporter, David Ashenfelter, published the name of the informant. ^[5]

The Morford Report

A nine-month internal review of the Detroit Sleeper Cell case, without the benefit of an evidentiary hearing at which Convertino could have disputed the findings.^[6] In this review, the Department of Justice concluded that prosecutors concealed dozens of pieces of exculpatory evidence that should have been given to defense attorneys during the trial.

The internal investigation, a 60-page memorandum called "The Morford Report", was submitted by then US Attorney Craig S. Morford on August 31, 2004.^[7] Morford found a pattern of prosecutorial misconduct and he recommended dismissing the terrorism convictions. The Report said the prosecution withheld from the defense numerous e-mails, photographs, witness statements and other items, and that the errors and misconduct in the case were so widespread that there was “no reasonable prospect of winning” on appeal.

“In its best light, the record would show that the prosecution committed a pattern of mistakes and oversights that deprived defendants of discoverable evidence...and created a record filled with misleading inferences that such material did not exist...Unfortunately,numerous developments since trial, including the discovery of significant materials not disclosed by the prosecution, have undermined each part of this three-legged stool.”

Convertino, as the lead prosecutor, was the subject of the Report. He allegedly failed to turn over photographic evidence to the defense and obtained evidence from witnesses, leading the judge and other attorneys to believe the photographs did not exist. The Report indicated that much of the key evidence and testimony in the prosecution’s case was either fabricated or deliberately misrepresented. A videotape was found at the men’s apartment. A Tunisian man in the video told investigators that the tape was shot while he was a university student on trips to Disneyland, Las Vegas, New York, and other tourist locales. Prosecutors demonstrated to the jury that the tape was surveillance footage for a potential terrorist attack, but failed to reveal that FBI agents had disagreed with this supposition, and that “under the court’s established protocol, the government should have brought this information to the court’s attention.” An Air Force colonel testified that military officials agreed that a sketch was of an aircraft hangar at the base in Turkey. The Report concluded that American investigators in Germany determined the sketch was an outline of the Middle East. A CIA official had shown it to various experts who invalidated its significance. The prosecution denied to the Defense they had photos of a Jordan prison hospital. The Report claimed, “It is difficult, if not impossible, to compare the...sketch with the photos and see a correlation." The Report report criticized the testimony of the Youssef Hmimmsa, the prosecution’s star witness. Hmimmsa had testified that the defendants asked him to join a terrorist cell that was planning to shoot down airplanes with Stinger missiles and were involved in other terrorist activities. In exchange for his testimony, Hmimmsa entered guilty pleas to 10 felony counts, and was sentenced to 37 to 46 months in prison rather than up to 81 years. The Report claimed Convertino “made a deliberate decision not to have the FBI take any notes” during Hmimmsa’s debriefings sessions, to avoid any challenge to his trial testimony.^[8][9]

Subsequently, on September 2, 2004, US District Judge Gerald Rosen, threw out the June 2003 convictions of three Detroit-area men. The judge ruled that the prosecution’s “understandable sense of mission and zeal to obtain a conviction” in the wake of September 11 “overcame not only its professional judgment, but its broader obligations to the justice system and the rule of law.”

Convertino responded, "This is retaliation; it's an absolute shame what they're doing. It's more important to destroy me and destroy the case than it is to fight the war on terrorism."^[3]

Charged and acquitted

On March 29, 2006, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced criminal indictments ^[10] for obstruction of justice against Convertino and Harry Raymond Smith, III, former security official assigned to the US Embassy in Amman, Jordan, who served as a government witness in U.S. v. Koubriti case.

Convertino was charged with conspiracy to conceal possibly exculpatory evidence from the defense and lying to a Federal judge. Smith, formerly a U.S. Department of State investigator, who had testified in the terrorism case prosecuted by Convertino, was allegedly part of the conspiracy. Not turning the evidence over to the defense had led, at the government's request, to the court dismissal of the terrorism case prior to the charging of the case's prosecutor for the conspiracy. Convertino faced a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

On October 31, 2007, a jury acquitted Convertino and Smith. A 13-page report by FBI Agent Paul George concluded that satellite photos of a Jordanian hospital closely match hand-drawn sketches found in 2001 inside the Detroit apartment of four North African immigrants who the government claimed had surveyed the site as part of a terrorist plot. Jurors, for a second time, said that clearly these men were terrorists and that Convertino saved American lives by prosecuting them.^[5] Evidence revealed that Justice Department also battled with Convertino and his prosecution team and prevented him from using evidence that could have strengthened his case.

A month later, the judge dismissed one remaining charge against Convertino.^[11]

Convertino told reporters that the charges of obstruction of justice were “a politically motivated prosecution that never should have been brought.”^{[12] [13]}

Aftermath

On August 13, 2007, Washington's Winston & Strawn litigation partner William Sullivan, who represented Convertino replied to a docket filing in the case, tying Convertino's case to the ongoing scrutiny over U.S. attorney firings. "There is a precise parallel here to the administration's firings of the eight U.S. attorneys which we've all read so much about." He said Convertino claimed the obstruction charges were retaliation for criticisms of the Justice Department's counterterrorism effort that Convertino made in a whistleblower suit he filed in 2004 against former Attorney General John Ashcroft. ^[14]

Convertino v. U.S. Department of Justice

In February 2004, Convertino filed a lawsuit ^[15] against the Justice Department (DOJ), former Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and other superiors, accusing them of mismanaging anti-terrorism efforts and retaliating against him for testifying to Congress about those efforts.^[16]

Convertino has alleged that the DOJ disclosed other information to the news media that is protected by the Privacy Act in order to smear or discredit Convertino for his whistleblowing, the lack of governmental, resources to fight terrorism and other disclosures he testified to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. Convertino claims an unnamed official illegally gave Detroit Free Press reporter, David Ashenfelter, information for a 2004 article about the department investigating Convertino's handling of the Sleeper Cell Trial. At his December 8, 2008, deposition, Ashenfelter invoked his Fifth Amendment protection. In a January 2009, court filing, Ashenfelter argued that he had a "legitimate basis to fear prosecution in connection with the confidential documents and information that Convertino alleges Ashenfelter obtained and published."^[17][18] On April 21, 2009, U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland heard evidence and ruled that Ashenfelter could keep his silence. Convertino's lawyer, Stephen Kohn, said "The Department of Justice is helping ... hide the true culprits. For a journalist to set forth these facts is very, very troubling ... especially given the hardship suffered by Mr. Convertino."^[19]

Karim Koubriti v. Convertino et al.

On August 30, 2007, Karim Koubriti, a Moroccan immigrant defendant in the Sleepers Cell case whose conviction was overturned, filed a US$9 million federal lawsuit against Convertino, claiming he violated his civil rights. ^[5][20]

After the Terrorism conviction was overturned, Koubriti was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Prosecutors allege he falsely told an insurance company in 2001 that he was injured in a car crash. The case is pending.^[21]

Convertino and Associates

In 2005, Convertino opened a private practice in suburban Detroit specializing in criminal and civil litigation, including malicious prosecution. He continues to have a winning track record.^{[citation needed]} Convertino explained his travails on Public Radio International’s (PRI’s) This American Life, in the episode The Prosecutor.^[22]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Detroit 'Sleeper Cell' Prosecutor Faces Probe, washingtonpost.com, November 20, 2005
2. ^ Hakim, Danny. The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02E7DE1531F932A3575AC0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print. Retrieved May 22, 2010. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} Serrano, Richard; Miller, Greg (October 14, 2004). "How a terrorism case came undone". The Seattle Times. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20041014&slug=terror14. 
4. ^ USA v. Karim Kobrouti et al., Findlaw
5. ^ ^{a b c d} http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2008/12/terrorists_laws.html
6. ^ http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/uskoubriti82802ind.pdf
7. ^ http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/terrorism040831.htm
8. ^ http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:YZw715DTgcgJ:www.wsws.org/articles/2004/sep2004/detrs03.shtml+convertino+morford&cd=20&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
9. ^ Slevin, Peter (November 20, 2005). "Detroit 'Sleeper Cell' Prosecutor Faces Probe". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/19/AR2005111900952_3.html. Retrieved May 22, 2010. 
10. ^ http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2006/March/06_crm_183.html
11. ^ http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=karim_koubriti
12. ^ http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071031/NEWS19/71031020
13. ^ Shenon, Philip (November 1, 2007). "Ex-Prosecutor Acquitted of Misconduct in 9/11 Case". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/us/01detroit.html. Retrieved May 22, 2010. 
14. ^ http://www.winston.com/index.cfm?contentID=30&itemID=935
15. ^ http://files.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/doj/convertino21304cmp.pdf
16. ^ Slevin, Peter (November 20, 2005). "Detroit 'Sleeper Cell' Prosecutor Faces Probe". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/19/AR2005111900952.html. Retrieved May 22, 2010. 
17. ^ http://metrotimes.com/news/story.asp?id=13646
18. ^ Richard Convertino v. Department of Justice
19. ^ http://www.freep.com/article/20090422/NEWS01/904220314
20. ^ "Cleared terror defendant sues prosecutor". USA Today. August 31, 2007. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-31-3261276173_x.htm. Retrieved May 22, 2010. 
21. ^ The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-8123055,00.html. ^{[dead link]}
22. ^ http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=356

External links

• "United States v. Karim Koubriti, et al.", August 28, 2002
• Judge throws out terror convictions, USA Today
• "Richard Convertino v. United States Department of Justice", February 13, 2004
• "The Prosecutor", May 30, 2008
• Convertino & Associates

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