Bad Week For Carmen Ortiz: Admits To Botched Gang Arrest As Congress Kicks Off Swartz Investigation
from the complete-flops dept
Carmen Ortiz is not having a good month. The US Attorney who was in charge of the ridiculous Aaron Swartz prosecution -- and now has over 50,000 people asking the White House to fire her -- now will have to deal with an official investigation by Congress into that particular case. A bipartisan pair of Congressional representatives, Darrell Issa and Elijah Cummings -- who are basically the top dogs from each party on the House Oversight and Government Reform committee -- have officially kicked off their investigation. They're asking these specific questions:- What factors influenced the decision to prosecute Mr. Swartz for the crimes alleged in the indictment, including the decisions regarding what crimes to charge and the filing of the superseding indictment?
- Was Mr. Swartz's opposition to SOPA or his association with any advocacy groups among the factors considered'?
- What specific plea offers were made to Mr. Swartz, and what factors influenced the decisions by prosecutors regarding plea offers made to Mr. Swartz?
- How did the criminal charges, penalties sought, and plea offers in this case compare to those of other cases that have been prosecuted or considered for prosecution under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act?
- Did the federal investigation of Mr. Swartz reveal evidence that he had committed other hacking violations?
- What factors influenced the Department's decisions regarding sentencing proposals?
- Why was a superseding indictment necessary?
But, of course, that's not all that is weighing on Carmen Ortiz. Last week, we noted, she lost a highly questionable case in which it appears she tried to seize a family-owned motel based on some trumped up charges concerning drug deals, even though there weren't that many drug problems there (less than others in the area) and the owners of the motel had worked with law enforcement to try to crack down on them.
And... that's not all. Today there's news of an even bigger embarrassment as it appears that Ortiz had to go to court to admit that her office arrested the wrong man in a gang takedown a few weeks ago. Basically, her office is coming to the conclusion -- weeks later -- that one of the guys arrested may just look like the guy they wanted.
In the latest setback for Boston’s beleaguered U.S. attorney, red-faced feds admit they may have arrested the wrong man during a massive gang and drug takedown two weeks ago because he looked like someone they wanted, after they were forced to tell a judge there was “sufficient doubt” that he was the suspect.How many screw-ups do you get to make and keep such a job?
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Filed Under: aaron swartz, botched arrest, carmen ortiz, darrell issa, doj, elijah cummings, investigation
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One can only hope this doesn't lose momentum and leads to much needed reviews and changes.
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Re: This is only coming to light
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Chances are that she resigns from her current position after answering the questions, since the internet population is a truely frightening enemy. As soon as the buzz dies down she will be in another good prosecutor job. Lapse of judgement is not uncommon in court rooms...
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A: They are mostly equally ridiculous.
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Consequences
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Re: Consequences
If it is only an initial question she can easily get cooked on this one if the committee has a broader angle to it, like asking how much she knew about it and to reveal her emotional state at time of the filings.
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Re: Consequences
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Re: Re: Consequences
1. Central Banking - this allows central control of the money supply.
2. IP Laws - These allow ownership of information, and central control over who is allowed to know what.
3. Limited Liability - this allows "owners" to have their interests protected from "labor" and "consumers" - an artificial and unjust separation by any measure.
The more I read, the more I realize all of history is a long, slow march towards totalitarianism. We are far less free than our Medieval cousins were, shockingly. We just don't comprehend it yet.
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I think that is ridiculous. She shouldn't be fired. She should have a group of people go through her life and find any crimes they can possibly charge her with and offer her a "deal" if she only wants to spend a year in prison.
With any luck, she has an unlocked smartphone.
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Re: With any luck, she has a smart phone (LOL)
The Office of General Counsel from the Administrative Offices of the US Courts needs to be confronted at these hearings in DC because the stone covering the PACER incident needs to be turned; this was a huge embarrassment to the FBI where their harassment of Aaron over the PACER download ended with the fact that absolutely no law had been broken. The aforementioned makes the current situation look like a �We got him this time� scenario chased by some heavy handed retaliation.
Was US Attorney Ortiz pressured by the US Courts to pursue Aaron is a question that MUST be asked! Further, US Attorney Ortiz needs to be asked why she felt she should be so heavy handed on Aaron when her office chose to ignore alleged computer fraud by court staff which was supported by material evidence submitted to her office such as court dockets and filings as well as affidavits? US Attorney Ortiz needs to be asked why the FBI and her office ignored alleged fraud by staff at the USDC of Massachusetts and First Circuit where computers provided to them by the tax payer were used with the purposeful intent to obstruct justice. US Attorney Ortiz needs to be asked why no action was taken when her office was informed that these acts were not only carried by clerk staff but, also, carried by a Magistrate Judge and an Assistant Circuit Executive with the Title LEGAL AFFAIRS who felt she could render fraudulent documents with an inactive law license and post those documents on a government web site. Criminal defendants are not the only ones being abused in the very corrupt US Courts and the abandonment of principle, oath and duty by the front line staff in these courts is happening throughout this country; citizens are being robbed of life, liberty and property at the hands of corruption. Further the federal court system has set the standard and many state courts throughout the country are following suit; they are also infested with corruption.
NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW yet Aaron with his open records campaign, connections after working to defeat SOPA and general capabilities that could lead to full exposure of the corruption in the US Courts was the one being persecuted! Hopefully MIT will answer why they chose to bow to a corrupt federal government over standing by Aaron!!!
http://www.scribd.com/tired_of_corruption https://public.resource.org/aaron/army/
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Preach it Brother!
It's good to see this investigation, but it needs to go much, much farther.
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Got Milk?
http://i.imgur.com/lsdUxnM.png
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Consequences
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Does any of this remind you of Prenda?
Maybe it's time we started using a new term to describe this behavior from prosecutors. I nominate "indictment trolling". Anyone else like the idea?
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Re: Does any of this remind you of Prenda?
"business as usual". this is how prosecution is done. welcome to our "justice" system.
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Re: Does any of this remind you of Prenda?
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This is all Aaron's fault.
She is thinking: He ruined her life.
Just like:
1. I didn't want to rob that bank, but it had all that money in it, I had to.
2. I didn't want to rape that girl, but she wasn't properly veiled and so she forced me to rape her.
Criminals always blame their victims.
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She should remember...
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scapegoat
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She must belong to one hell of a union.
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How many screw-ups do you get to make and keep such a job?
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Re: How many screw-ups do you get to make and keep such a job?
Fixed it for you...
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Re: How many screw-ups do you get to make and keep such a job?
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Man, TechDirt needs to get a spellchecker. You keep misspelling "persecution" in every single one of these Aaron Swartz articles.
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I'm shocked you didn't get a insightful badge for this along with the funny one.
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Bad Week For Carmen Ortiz
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She's a government employee. Government employees are impossible to fire. Have you ever wondered why public schools never bother to fire bad teachers? The process is so hard and complicated that most schools don't even try.
On a more related note, I'd like to thank Carmen Ortiz and the federal government. By persecuting Aaron Swartz and bullying him into suicide, they turned him into a martyr. Many more people are carrying on his legacy. Governments have this strange idea that if they get rid of a radical thinker, then no one will try to follow in his footsteps. They have this idea that if a radical thinker dies, then all his ideas will die with him. Hahaha! Jesus Christ!
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Actually it's not that hard... unless the teacher has tenure. Then it's almost impossible even if the teacher commits a felony. (Literally.)
Not quite a felony, but I remember in high school, our school paper ran an article one time strongly suggesting that a significant fraction of high school-age students who lived on farms were in the habit of participating in sexual activities with animals. (This was in a rural community where a lot of the kids at my school lived on farms, BTW.)
The school paper was supposed to be supervised by a teacher who acted as editor. The buck stops there, as they say. Turns out she let the article go through because she thought it was "amusing." She should have been thrown out on her ear for that... but she had tenure. So instead they moved her to teaching history.
I ended up in her class the next year. Worst teacher I've ever had. She did some stuff in there that should have gotten her thrown out again, but... tenure. (I also ended up writing for the school paper. The guy they got to replace her actually did a really good job.)
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i suppose that depends on how many and for how long the fuck ups can be kept quiet!
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http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/wh_ortiz/?akid=1973.16477.4nFLkv&rd=1&t=2
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The government doesn't give a care about screw ups. She'll get a raise for that.
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Petition the Whitehouse
Go to this website if you feel the punishment should fit the crime.
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