Criminal Law Blog by Defense Lawyer John Floyd and Mr. Billy Sinclair
False Statements, Perjury and Prosecutorial Over-Charging
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Between 1984 and 2006, Roger Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, was arguably the best—certainly one of the top five—pitchers ever to take the mound in Major League Baseball (“MLB”). Nicknamed the “Rocket,” Clemens’ 354 wins (ninth on the all-time win list) and his 4,672 strikeouts (third only to career strikeout leader Nolan Ryan and runner up Randy Johnson) make a compelling argument that he is one of the greatest MLB pitchers of all time.
Then it happened. Former Oakland Athletics outfielder Jose Canseco released his book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big (William Morrow 2005), and pointed the finger at a number of prime time baseball stars as steroid users, including Clemens. Canseco’s book spurred the congressional House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (“Oversight committee”) in March 2005 to conduct a hearing titled “Restoring Faith in America’s Pasttime: Evaluating Major Baseball’s Efforts to Eradicate Steroid Use.” Canseco and a host of other prominent MLB stars, including Mark McGwire, testified before the committee, either confirming or denying performance enhancement (“PED”) drug use by themselves or others.
Over the next year MLB reeled under one revelation after another about the magnitude of PED use among its star athletes. Home run and hitting records, as well as pitching wins/strikeouts, were being called into question. The word “asterisk” became routinely associated with Barry Bonds’ single season and career home run records along with McGwire’s smashing of Roger Maris’ single season 61 home run record. “Juiced” became part of our daily vernacular. It caught our attention last year.
In March 2006 MLB Commissioner Bud Selig asked former U.S. Senator and Ambassador George J. Mitchell to investigate PED use in major league baseball. The former federal judge and U.S. Attorney was imminently qualified to lead such an investigation. Twenty months later Mitchell issued a 409-page report titled “Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball” (“The Mitchell Report”).
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Know Your Legal Rights Before Talking to the FBI
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The Fort Hood shooting massacre last year, the Christmas day bombing attempt, and the Times Square car bombing attempt have prompted the FBI to again increase its surveillance of the Muslim American community in this country. Muslim Advocates recently issued a “community alert” informing all Muslim Americans, but especially those from Pakistan and South Asia, that the FBI may be contacting them for information and advice in “addressing violent extremism.” Muslim Advocates was so concerned that it offered a free webinar about how Muslims can freely and safely work with law enforcement.
We agree with Muslim Advocates that before any Americans speak to the FBI they should have an attorney presence. The FBI does not conduct “information gathering” interviews to seek advice about how to address “violent extremism.” The FBI is a law enforcement agency whose overriding function is to investigate criminal wrongdoing, especially potential terror attacks. They can very easily, and have quite frequently, take “innocent” information provided to them and turn it into a “terrorism” investigation which actually has no foundation in fact or law. Muslim Advocates offers the following advice, to which we subscribe:
- Be smart, protect yourself, know your rights
- Protect your friends, family and community
- Learn more about how to work with law enforcement
- When contacted by the FBI, inform agency that your attorney will contact them
- Seek an attorney
Our law firm has provided pro bono assistance to hundreds of Houston-area Muslim Americans who have been faced with “voluntary” FBI interviews. Our position is not to be obstructionists but to make sure that Muslim Americans suddenly in the target sight, or even potential target sight, of the FBI have proper legal advice in the critical “information gathering” process. For instance, to inform the client that false statements to FBI agents can be a federal felony criminal offense with a possible five year term of imprisonment. Additionally, that everyone in the U.S. has constitutionally protected rights guaranteeing free exercise of religion, speech and association, which can be infringed upon by certain FBI practices and questions.
The St. Louis Dispatch reported recently that the ACLU has established a civil rights project to protect American Muslims from law enforcement intimidation, especially the FBI. Such legal projects are necessary because 2.5 million Muslim Americans were born abroad, according to a 2007 Pew Research Center report, and this necessitates that many of them travel frequently to see their families in their native countries. Such foreign travel automatically makes them “persons of interests” in the eyes of the FBI. Muslim Americans cannot engage in “innocent travel.” They are uniformly considered “suspects.”
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Recent Terrorism Related Arrests Illustrate Need to Consult Lawyer Before Interviewing with Law Enforcement
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
This legal maxim is rooted in the very soul of every criminal defense attorney. Even if an individual is innocent, no one should ever talk to the police once the police make it clear they are investigating a crime, or a potential crime, and they feel the individual has either some involvement or knowledge about the crime. This advice is especially true when it comes to the FBI whose agents are skilled in the art of interrogation and proficient at tricking a person into making a false statement.
This FBI strategy was recently highlighted in a suspected al-Qaeda terror plot involving Najibullah Zazi, a lawful permanent resident of the United States who hails from Afghanistan. News media reports, based on official accounts or leaked accounts by the FBI, have linked Zazi and at least three other Denver-area men, along with a number of suspected or unknown individuals in New York and other cities in the United States, with an alleged al-Qaeda plot to use hydrogen peroxide bombs carried in backpacks to attack New York City’s mass transit system or other mass transit systems in this country.
(The following fact pattern is taken from FBI affidavits, which are notoriously one-sided, and news reports and may be incorrect, misleading or wrong. These men are presumed innocent and the use of these facts in this article is for illustrative purposes only.)
Zazi and his father, Mohammed Zazi (a naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan), and a New York City imam named Ahmad Wais Afzali (also a lawful permanent U.S. resident from Afghanistan) were arrested on September 19, 2009 by the FBI for allegedly making false statements to federal agents in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1001(a)(2). The “false statement” charges indicated that the FBI, and Homeland Security agents, had not yet compiled enough evidence to bring terror-related conspiracy charges under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 371 or specific acts of “international terrorism” under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2331(1) against anyone they suspect were involved in the alleged New York City mass transit terror plot. The government has since indicted Najibullah Zazi on terrorism related charges. (more…)
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