Veteran Boston Prosecutor Grilled Over Misconduct Allegation
Tuesday in a Boston courtroom U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf grilled career prosecutor Suzanne Sullivan over her failure to disclose that a Boston police officer’s testimony at a motion to suppress hearing was contradictory to what the officer told her in prior interviews. Specifically, officer Cooley testified at the motion to suppress hearing that he recognized the defendant, who fled when he saw the officer, which was contrary to his usual behavior. In earlier interviews officer Cooley told AUSA Sullivan that he did not immediately recognize the defendant and only recognized him when he was tackled by fellow officers. This is the rub of AUSA Sullivan’s Brady violation.
When other discrepancies in the officer’s testimony became manifest at the motion to suppress hearing, Judge Wolf ordered AUSA Sullivan to review her notes. In turn, she supplied her notes to the Court for review. That voluntary act has bitten AUSA Sullivan harder than fairness dictates.
Quite frankly, it seems to me that Judge Wolf went off on AUSA Sullivan, not because of her conduct, which in the scheme of things and which in the context of certain prosecutorial misconduct by government agents which this writer is personally aware of, and which this writer’s firm has diligently pursued pales in comparison, but rather because of Judge Wolf’s increasing frustration with the failures of the Boston U.S. Attorney’s Office. In fact, at the end of his order denying the motion to suppress, which addressed AUSA Sullivan’s misconduct, Judge Wolf included a 3 page appendix cataloging misconduct by the Boston U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Not only did Judge Wolf make AUSA Sullivan file an affidavit regarding her conduct, but also he held a hearing on her conduct where she appropriately accepted responsibility for her conduct.
Although I’m no apologist for government misconduct, I think Judge Wolf’s view of AUSA Sullivan has been regrettably colored by his past frustrations with the Boston U.S. Attorney’s Office.
