As a former prosecutor for over two decades I had the good fortune of not having to use admitted liars as witnesses. Having watched a federal trial or two it seems to me that the federal prosecutors aren’t that fortunate. They, at least in the cases I have seen, depend for their evidence on people who are admitted liars. But they should try not to assist the liar in his lies.
What brings this to mind is that this week one of the biggest liars ever to take the federal, or any other, witness stand, will testify. That man I often call Benji Ditchman because his life was spent in the equivalent of a benjo ditch. He is Steven Flemmi.
Flemmi is Whitey Bulger’s former partner both of whom were protected by FBI agent John Connolly because they were his informants. Flemmi admitted he was an informant – Whitey averred he (Whitey) wasn’t – but there is no way Connolly could have obtained the information from Flemmi except through Whitey. Whitey has been trying to redeem some scintilla of misguided honor from his decrepit life by denying the obvious.
My great beef with Connolly and the FBI is that to protect Whitey and Flemmi and their corrupt state police source Richard Schneiderhan they set up an innocent Massachusetts state trooper John Naimovich. They would have him indicted for racketeering. I, then an active prosecutor, was subpoenaed by defense counsel to testify for Naimovich. He was acquitted.
Flemmi would perjure himself before Judge Mark Wolf (after Naimovich died) testifying that Naimovich was his state police source. Wolf believed him. Which shows even skilled judges cannot tell when a person is lying. (Flemmi testified Jeremiah O’Sullivan tipped him off about a bug placed at Lancaster Street. Wolf did not believe that. Flemmi was telling the truth there.)
Flemmi continued his trail of lies – as we know he blamed Whitey for killing his girlfriend and daughter when he did it himself. He admitted killing his girlfriend to Murderman Martorano saying that he accidentally strangled her but to get his deal from the prosecutor Wyshak who was looking to get as much mud as he could find to throw against Whitey (and hoping some might fall on Whitey’s brother which it never did) he said Whitey made him do it.
Whitey’s amanuensis Kevin Weeks and Murderman testified previously. Weeks who was sometimes candid at one point stated something to the effect he was a life-long criminal and to be one you have to lie all the time. Murderman who was on the lam for 16 years pretty much said the same thing.
They and Flemmi have been witnesses for the United States. They have admitted to the juries they lived lives full of lies. Then when testifying they will tell the biggest lie of all.
Any half-awake juror will wonder why he should believe anything this life-long liar will testify about. After all he lied all his life how am I supposed to believe him now. Now here’s the biggest lie. The witness will say something like: “if I lie during my testimony I’ll be indicted by the prosecutor for perjury.”
Why is that the biggest lie? It’s simple. The witness knows the last thing the prosecutor would do is charge him with perjury. They’ve already rehearsed the lie together and are dancing it out to the jury. No amount of evidence contrary to the witnesses statement would make the prosecutor disbelieve the witness. For one thing, It would mean having to try the case again. That is the last thing the prosecutor wants to do.
I know all the arguments for having to use these liars. To get one bad guy sometimes you have to use another bad guy, yadi-yadi-ya. But why does the prosecutor have to join in with the liar and pretend he has to tell the truth because something dreadful will happen to him if he doesn’t? It’s bad enough professional liars are allowed to testify without the prosecutor colluding with him in the biggest lie.
Matt
Your thoughts on the Motion delay in the Salemme trial ? What if anything does to mean ? It seems to bring up some of the issues of informants and cooperating witnesses but more so on law enforcement workers side. Issue with under covers testifying when they are still actively working undercover. The Boston Herald has an article.
Janet is totally wrong about Connolly. She never met him. She only knows what Whitey told her. He falls into the Weeks category of career criminals that lie constantly.
Dunno … Are Italians superstitious ? Robert DeLuca testified this morning that Frank Salemme met DeLuca and his brother down in North Providence with Steven DiSarro’s body. Allegedly he drove down 95 South , the Godfather himself, to deliver this ” package.”
Maybe a quibble about details, howsomever :
Do you murder a guy in your kitchen or your living room or any other place than your hearth and home when logic says, this guy will meet us where we choose ??? You have to go back home, sleep, and celebrate the next Thanksgiving with friends and family in that place . …. UNLIKELY .
Does a guy, a really laid back and retiring type like Flemmi. walk in on a murder and scurry out covering his eyes ? … This is essentially Flemmi’s testimony. ….. UNLIKELY.
Would Frank Salemme Sr. stand by as the proud dad as his namesake strangled a guy in front of him? ….. UNLIKELY.
Would the head of the New England Mafia , long used to surveillance, hazard such a mortician’s journey to North Providence to go and deliver a body he could have had buried up in Massachusetts without as much risk of danger,or, of future revelation when Bobby DeLuca would cash out such an insurance policy???…… UNLIKELY .
Was this good looking kid, DiSarro, probably tortured down in Rhode Island before the Branch Ave. burial on Mr. Ricci’s ( California Kid?) property? …. LIKELY.
Was Stevie Flemmi the guy always up for sadistic excess and murder as overkill ???… LIKELY, AND HERE, PROBABLE !!!
Check out the etymology of ” Idiot ” sometime, I did ( I was also intrigued by the Greek root for “Irony” at one time.) It has to do with standing out from the rest. That, presumably, goes for comments as well as any empanelled jurors.
If she’s alright with Jimmy, which she is, then that is Ok with this Kid .
Howie ” Cover your ears, Bill” Carr wrote a very sharp edged column about The Rifleman last night. He regards Stevie as having what we might call a. .. credibility problem.
His mention of polygraphs as a way for the ” Laws” to establish credibility is a nod to common sense. It is a death knell to manufactured testimony.
I give Matt a dry and witty cut time to time, but,for his ilk , I have maintained he was clearly a cut above the rest as an ADA in Norfolk County. That pesky “Morality” of his, no doubt. He has the character to admit he came around on Flemmi being the hands on murderer of his …. Trophies . If the two Debs had antlers Flemmi would have mounted them in the Federal Room at Casa Stevie !!!
Interesting Times !!!
“Ironic.” The most misused word in the English language.
I agree Abelah’… Always liked Doctor Johnson’s English Dictionary down and dirty …. “Irony is the difference between what is said and what is intended.” Its original meaning, of course, from the Greek … Eironea … was …. To dissemble .
I always find copies of his book that are terribly stained and missing the first or last 300 pages. Or both. I have the “Modern Selection” by McAdam and Milne. Pretty good stuff.
Are juries chosen in such a way that assures that only idiots are impaneled?
I want to know how they all escape from their handlers.
Seems, Matt, that you think everyone is a liar EXCEPT John Connolly! Connolly was a corrupt FBI agent who sold information, and some of that information led to the death of certain individuals. He lied about accepting the money, gifts, trips, etc. The initial BIG lie was Morris and Connolly’s informant file — a lie which was repeated again and again by the Boston media and “abracadabra” became the gospel truth (a tactic we can trace back to Hitler’s aide).
Connolly deserves to be in prison — not for the murder of Callahan, but for being a dirty agent.
As for Wyshak’s “professional” witnesses (after all, he does pay them with freedom and assets returned) they, and, in my opinion, Wyshak, some of his colleagues, and more than a few federal judges belong there as well.
How do the scales of justice balance the murder count of a Flemmi, a Martorano, a Nee, a Morris, and a Weeks against that of Bulger? Something simply isn’t right, and until people can bring themselves to question the truth of Morris and Connolly’s informant file, then the astounding depth of the corruption in the DOJ will not be realized. They’ve spun a fantastic tale — and Wyshak continues to weave it with his professional star witness Steve Flemmi!
John Connolly was an honest FBI agent and honest man and honest young man and those who know him his lifelong through know this. Even the deeply corrupt Steve Flemmi testified to that fact, twice under oath, for 8 years . . .1995-2003, while in Federal Custody
You don’t know John Connolly and you don’t know what you are writing about. Keep reading and listening to the corrupt Howie Carr and Cullen, two forked tongued yellow dogs/.