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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...
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...
Huh? What the hell is that? A new virus? Perhaps a medical condition? Maybe a new martial arts technique? Let's take a look and see if we can find a definition on line for "NIFONGED"...Nifonged-Nifonged describes the railroading or harming of a person with no justifiable cause, except for one's own gain. It is someone being taken advantage of unfairly by someone without scruples or morals. It is created more in disdain of North Carolina/Durham District Attorney Michael Nifong, and his screwing of 3 Duke University Lacrosse Team members and helping to inflame a tense racial situation for his own glory, ego, and political gain.
To put the word in perspective, let's look at some synonyms, SCREWED, FCUKED, REAMED, RAILROADED, HOSED, ETC. We all remember the story of the out of control prosecutor in the Duke Lacrosse story don't we? We're going to discover some startling similarities between the behavior exhibited by District Attorney Nifong and the Assistant State Attorney involved in the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case, Bill Kostrzewski. That's a pretty strong statement, trust me, I have the goods to back it up. What I've shown you over the last six months is a culmination of horrific police work by Detective Jorge Baluja, although this is inexcusable on it's own, what's worse is that Detective Baluja didn't act on his own, everything he did was at the direction of the assistant state attorney. Amazing isn't it? What would drive a prosecutor to step outside his role as an advocate and therefore open himself up to this kind of liability? Why would a prosecutor engage in a level of misconduct that would put himself and his offices reputation at risk? I have no idea, but I for one am appalled at what I've found, from the extrajudicial statements regarding the case, fabricating witness statements, lying to the judge (I've been given audio tapes of Mr. Kostrzewski performing in court) and stifling any attempts at reasonable discovery by the defense. Ladies and gents, I can't make up the stuff I've found in this case, it's just too damn stupid.
I've been warned by countless people not to talk about the prosecutorial misconduct that I've uncovered for fear of reprisals against myself or the defendants by the scorned prosecutor. Therein lies the problem, people are so scared of the powers prosecutors wield that they're terrified to call them out. If we don't alert the public and the courts about this kind of behavior, then all we're doing is creating a situation where the prosecutor isn't accountable to anyone and can literally get away with anything they want. I'm tired of being NIFONGED. Fuck that.
