Years ago I was charged with a crime I didn’t commit. We found out the original business records were mysteriously “destroyed”. We filed a Motion to Dismiss. That Motion was denied and now we filed another Motion to Dismiss because my former fund committee member lied to the Grand Jury to get me charged.
If you are a cooperating Government witness, it’s often because you were one of the first to come forward and/or seemingly hadn’t done much “wrong”. The cooperating Government witness was Scott and he had been given an immunity deal, just tell the truth and cooperate.
Cooperating in this situation implies that you are going to help the Government bring down the people that seemingly did worse things. That’s just my interpretation. I could be wrong.
When you lie when you are supposed to be cooperating, it really pulls the rug out from under your credibility that you are helping to get people that did bad things. Now, you did a bad thing to the very people that you agreed to tell the truth to.
Scott couldn’t be honest about himself, so why would anyone ever think he would be honest about others. Is it logical to think that he can overlook his own role and intentions, but be a credible witness to someone else’s?
Scott lied. He admitted he lied. He was charged and plead guilty to lying. What kind of a witness lies to get someone charged? What is the Government’s strategy going to be if they proceed with Scott as one of their witnesses? I would think that would be terribly confusing. When did Scott lie and when did he tell the truth? It’s as if you need to have a scorecard. Why should we believe anything he says?
There were a couple of civil cases that various members of the committee were a part of prior to the criminal case. We had transcripts and judgments to substantiate Scott’s “innocence” along with all of the fund committee. Scott defended himself against a person that we will call “CC”. I was in the case with Scott. We all prevailed and we all told the truth. -How can Scott tell a different truth when defending himself with me in a civil case than he would as a Government witness in a criminal case?
There is no different truth. The truth doesn’t change. Scott was a liar.
Transformation
Hope swelled in me again that when you lie to get someone charged, you aren’t a credible witness and your testimony should be stricken and the charges should be dropped. It seemed like the right decision to me as incredibly biased as I was.
I had made myself a promise that I would just keep telling the truth no matter what others decided, so I allowed myself to hope, but not get too hopeful. My stubborn optimism was intact.
I wished that I could talk with Scott and remind him of some of the things that we had discussed as a management committee. The fund committee never intended for anyone to lose money and hoped to provide a unique opportunity to have an IPO within the fund if we were successful at getting shares. We had been an early investor in a company that announced their IPO, so we had been understandably encouraged that the fund might be a beneficiary. We all thought that we were providing an investment opportunity.
When there is no intent, there is no crime. Scott knew that.
You aren’t allowed to talk to a Government witness when you are a defendant unless the attorneys allow it which is about never. I wanted Scott to remember to tell the truth. Telling the truth isn’t just being honest, it’s being forthright. I was beginning to understand why the Government emphasized being truthful and cooperative.
Community
My community was beginning to understand, as I was, that this was not a simple case and was not going to be over quickly. It was not a sprint; it was a marathon. We all had to learn to adjust to having this case in our lives.
Holidays were now reoriented around what the case deadlines were. Socializing might include organizing emails or putting together trial notebooks while we ate snacks together. I spent a Mother’s Day weekend writing a brief with my Mom and sister organizing exhibit documents. I was diagnosed with pneumonia one morning and spent the entire day editing documents at my attorneys’ office.
My friends and family lowered their expectations of what I would be able to participate in. I was missing out on their lives as I was watching mine evolve to life as a defendant. I didn’t waste much time feeling sorry for myself, but I did notice what I was missing. I knew what I had to do and what was important, that was clear.
Your Thoughts
Do you ever think life is hard or are you making it hard?
