Why is a prosecutor telling a defendant not to answer questions during a deposition?

Let's lay off the incompetent cop theme and focus our attention on an incompetent prosecutor for today.  As the title of today's post states, why would a prosecutor tell a defendant not to answer questions during a deposition?  After all, the defendant has their own attorney, so in what legal capacity can a prosecutor tell the defendant not to answer a question?  Strange, huh?  In preparing yesterdays post about photo lineups, we had to go through the deposition of one of the defendants in the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case, Michael Martinez, the man who was accused of lending the straw buyer in the fraud $125,000 for the down payment of the Oak Avenue home.  In doing so, we came across several instances where Assistant State Attorney Bill Kostrzewski repeatedly undermined the defense attorneys questioning of Mr. Martinez by telling Mr. Martinez not to answer the questions.  WTF you say?  Let's get started.

We start off by one of the defense attorneys reminding Mr. Martinez that he is represented by an attorney and that if he feels at any time during the deposition he needs to talk to his attorney he can do so and furthermore that Mr. Kostrzewski does not represent him in any shape or form...

Simple enough right?  If you have any issues, we'll get your attorney on the phone, in the mean time, ignore that easily excitable little man since he doesn't represent you.  Makes sense after all, that guy is the one that created this mess he calls a case!


Moving along, we get to a rather sensitive question regarding previous conversation between the police, the prosecutor and Mr. Martinez that must have made prosecutor Kostrzewski a little uneasy, check the prosecutors reaction...

Oh really?  Am I confused or did the prosecutor just tell the defendant not to answer a question?  That's a major no no isn't it?  Why doesn't Mr. Kostrzewski want Mr. Martinez to answer the question?  Is there something he'd like to keep hidden?  Let's see what happens next...

From the looks of it, Mr. Kostrzewski has done a nice job screwing up the deposition at this point and the defense attorney has to remind the defendant that the prosecutor can't tell him not to answer.  They start the depo again only to have the witness look over to the prosecutor for instruction again...

Doesn't the prosecutors behavior during the course of the deposition thus far give you the feeling of impropriety?  Let's not forget, this is the same prosecutor that to date hadn't been exactly forthcoming with documentation that the defense attorneys had been requesting, yet this rises to a different level of misconduct.  Here is a roomful of people gathered with the intention of obtaining meaningful information from Mr. Martinez only to have their efforts stifled by ASA Kostrzewski.  What is prosecutor Kostrzewski trying to keep the defense attorneys from finding out?  Why is his behavior so erratic during these depositions?  Would you characterize his behavior as becoming of an attorney, let alone an assistant state attorney representing the people of Florida?  What the hell is going on here?


Rest assured, this is just the tip of the iceberg, we have to admit, we've been holding back from our readers, we have much, much more on ASA Kostrzewski and his shocking level of misconduct throughout the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case, from sloppy mistakes, to willful misconduct, we got it covered, just be patient.  Best of all, the unintended consequence of writing this blog has been the honing of our writing skills that are going to come in mighty handy when we start bombarding Mr. Kostrzewski with a myriad of Bar complaints.  By the time we're done with Mr. Kostrzewski, he'll be working right along side one of his former colleagues, Mr. Mike Nifong...