Government Actors Without Conscience

Someone is angry; that's for sure. The government filed a scathing 3-page letter responding to Paul Bergrin's last defense letter and attached a telephone recording transcript to it dated November 25, 2003 - the date of William Baskerville's arrest. The letter:

Bergrin Trial Govt Letter 10 July 2013

The transcript reveals Bergrin telling Hakeem Curry that Baskerville was facing life and is intended to create doubt about the later recordings that state differently. Obviously, at least to me, Paul Bergrin actually believed that William Baskerville faced life as a result of government paperwork and statements on the day of the arrest and then by December 4, 2003, the date of the other wiretap transcripts posted on this blog, realized that this was not the situation and knew he could deal the case for a 12-13 year sentence.

A read of the government's acrimonious letter would make the unaware believe that they'd uncovered serious evidence contradicting defense statements on the topic of the Curry wiretrap transcripts. Actually, the situation is quite the opposite and the attached transcript reveals the natural progression of a criminal case in the US courts. At first glance, the case looked real bad for Will, but a week later it was just another overzealous US prosecution.

Furthermore, Bergrin certainly did not "cherry-pick" the calls included in the earlier defense letter. The specific call transcripts clearly reveal the progress of the case and that Bergrin clearly told Curry that he could get Will a deal for 12-13 years, nine days after the initial arrest. The calls also reveal that no meeting on a street corner was ever mentioned between Bergrin and Curry as of December 4, 2003.

The government letter also seems to threaten to provide transcripts of all of the 33,000+ suppressible calls. Take note that Paul Bergrin has nothing to hide and welcomes such a move. I do realize that the defense letter dated 3 July 2013, mentioned concern about "opening the door," however, Paul Bergrin did not compose it - perhaps Mr. Lustberg's secretary did. No telling who specifically composed it, but there is no fear of any proof favoring the government's argument in the content of any of these calls.

And how exactly is it that 33,000+ calls are suppressible in the Baskerville and Curry cases anyway? In that I know what the Oscar Cordova recordings went through, I cannot even begin to imagine what agents did to result in all of those calls being suppressed. I mean really - if you read the transcripts of Oscar's trial testimony, you know that most of the exchanges recorded between him and Bergrin were unintelligible and transcribed as U/I.

And then there's the fact that it was SA Shawn Brokos that transcribed all of the Oscar tapes to begin with. There was no real transcription of those recordings as they really are unintelligible for the most part. What happens is you hear a small part of a statement by Bergrin which results in the entire conversation being taken out of context. Even the expert knew there were serious anomalies with the tapes. Yet these recordings were not suppressible.

So what exactly makes 33,000+ recordings suppressible? The government makes statements about sealing being an issue. As if Oscar Cordova's recordings were properly sealed! Once the little creep didn't hand a recording to an agent for nine days, so let's not pretend anything Oscar the criminal informant did was monitored by agents; the situation was much the opposite.

But the worst part of the government's letter is the part that expresses a lack of concern as to the truthfulness of Anthony Young's testimony and justifies it with legal citations. They say that it doesn't matter whether Young's testimony was corroborated or not and his word alone is enough to convict Paul Bergrin. A violent career criminal informant makes a statement intended to assist the government agenda and call recordings reveal that it is a false statement about a street corner meeting that never happened and the government says that this is immaterial. Is this not "victory at all costs"?

Initially, Bergrin refuses to accept that “uncorroborated accomplice testimony may constitutionally provide the exclusive basis for a criminal conviction.” United States v. DeLarosa, 450 F.2d 1057 (3d Cir. 1971). Young testified that Bergrin came to a meeting at Avon Avenue and 17th Street after Thanksgiving in 2003 and effectively instructed the Curry Organization to murder McCray. 9T2249-54. That testimony, if credited by a rational jury, alone suffices to uphold Bergrin’s convictions for the McCray murder. See United States v. Pendleton, 636 F.3d 78, 84 (3d Cir. 2011). Whether other evidence supported or contradicted Young was for the jury to decide.

I thought that the government was supposed to represent the people. According to these government actors, the truth is immaterial. Their courtroom tactics and hand-picked judge sealed Paul Bergrin's fate, or so they believe at the moment. When they managed to get USDJ William Martini recused in this case, the victory was in close reach and all they had to do was fool a naive jury in a hurry.

Of course Paul Bergrin has a response to this scathing letter of misinformation and you'll hear it soon.