The Plea Bargaining Blog

According to CNN , French financier Dominique Strauss-Kahn's attorney has stated that his client will not accept any plea bargain and "won't plead guilty to anything." These comments followed an extensive meeting between defense attorneys representing Strauss-Kahn and prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's office. Just a week ago, District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. acknowledge that serious questions existed regarding the credibility of Strauss-Kahn's accuser. The 62-year-old former chief of the International Monetary Fund is charged with sexual abuse and attempted rape of a hotel maid in May. While Wednesday's meeting with prosecutors was "constructive," Strauss-Kahn's attorneys said, prosecutors maintained that they are not ready to drop the charges. "The investigative process is continuing, and no decisions have been made," said Manhattan District Attorney spokeswoman Erin Duggan. The accuser's civil attorney has ca...

According to multiple sources, including CBS News , Johns Edwards was offered a misdemeanor plea deal before prosecutors indicted him last week for soliciting and spending more than $925,000 to hide his mistress and baby from the public during his 2008 presidential bid. According to CBS News: John Edwards was on the verge of accepting a plea deal, according to reports, from federal prosecutors who last week charged him of using more than $900,000 in campaign contributions to keep his pregnant mistress out of sight during his 2008 run for president. Just before Edwards was indicted Friday, prosecutors gave him a chance to plead guilty to just three misdemeanor charges, the Raleigh News and Observer reports, citing multiple unnamed sources familiar with the investigation. The deal likely would have allowed the former Democratic vice presidential nominee to keep his law license, but he would have had to serve up to six months in prison. CBS affiliate WRAL News reported the same details of...

According to Fox News , the Obama administration has decided to take a "cut-the-head-off-the-snake" approach to federal corporate crime. Federal officials has revealed that they will move to punish individual executives and employees more often when crimes occur within corporations. Thus far, this strategy of increased punishment of individuals, instead of just the corporations, has focused on health care fraud and immigration violations. As for health care, federal investigators have opened the door to go after executives for alleged crimes within their company hierarchies. In one prominent case, the health department's inspector general in April notified the CEO of Forest Laboratories that it was considering barring him from doing business with federal health programs. The reason? A subsidiary of his pharmaceutical firm had pleaded guilty to charges that it defied federal warnings not to distribute an unapproved drug and improperly promoted another drug to children. But...

The New York Times this week published an interesting article examining the government's response to the financial crisis and those who brought the economy to the brink. Of particular focus, the article examines how it is possible that the only person at Goldman Sachs sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for selling mortgage-securities investments is a 28 year-old mid-level executive named Fabrice Tourre. At the height of the housing boom, the 26th floor of Goldman Sachs’s former headquarters on Broad Street in Lower Manhattan was the nerve center of Goldman’s fast-growing mortgage trading business. Hundreds of employees worked closely in teams, devising mortgage-based securities — billions of dollars’ worth — that were examined by lawyers, approved by management, then sold to investors like hedge funds, commercial banks and insurance companies. At one trading desk sat Fabrice Tourre, a midlevel 28-year-old Frenchman who was little known not just outside Goldman but even...

According to CNN , Phillip Garrido was sentenced Thursday to 431 years to life in prison for the kidnapping and sexual assault of Jaycee Dugard. Dugard was held captive by Garrido and his wife from age 11 to 29. Garrido's wife was sentenced to 36 years to life in prison for her role in the abduction. Both defendants previously pleaded guilty and waived their rights to appeal. The Garridos, a married couple, pleaded guilty in late April in El Dorado County Superior Court to charges of kidnapping and sexual assault. Dugard was abducted from the street in front of her home in South Lake Tahoe, California, in 1991. Authorities found her in 2009. During those years, the Garridos held Dugard in a hidden compound on their home's grounds in Antioch, California. She bore two daughters, fathered by Phillip Garrido. Dugard's written statement, presented during Phillip Garrido's sentencing, was lengthy. "I chose not to be here today because I refuse to waste another second of ...

The Texas Monthly has published a scathing critique of the role of plea bargaining in an infamous Texas case. The case, referred to locally as the "Mineola Swingers Club" case, involved shocking allegations of child sexual abuse. While the facts of the case may remain uncertain, the power of plea bargaining in the matter is clear. Well, it’s finally over, and if you didn’t look too closely, you’d think the good guys had won. Today at a pre-trial hearing in Smith County, six of the seven so-called Mineola Swingers Club defendants—accused of unbelievable acts of child sexual abuse—pled guilty to “injury to a child” (a felony) in exchange for their freedom. They’ve all been in jail or prison since 2007, though two had their sentences overturned. The remaining defendant—whose conviction is still intact—will remain in prison. I’ve rarely seen the wheels of justice grind up so many innocent people — and I’m not just talking about these seven defendants. I’m also talking about the ...

In a follow-up article regarding "donations" in plea bargaining cases, the Bellville News-Democrat is reporting that in March 2011 an individual was required to donate $22,500 to a police drug task force and Sheriff's task force as part of a plea bargain in a drug case. The defendant also received probation. The article went on to describe some of the responses to the revelations in the earlier article regarding the use of such "donations." Based on the BND's Sunday article, the Illinois State Bar Association issued this statement Monday concerning the practice of plea bargains that include payments to funds controlled by the office of the prosecutor or police in the case: "It's not our place to comment on the legality or ethics of the practice, but it does raise concerns that the public's perception of our justice system may be undermined," said Charles J. Northrup, general counsel to the bar association. Northrup is a frequent lecturer o...