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Calculated abuses (cont.) Jury disregarded Sometimes prosecutors won’t take no for an answer. Even when the no comes from a jury. Federal agents in South Florida said Sal Magluta was the largest cocaine supplier they’d ever caught when they heralded his arrest and that of his partner, Willy Falcon, in 1991. They were in prison for 52 months before their trial finally got under way. In February 1996, Magluta and Falcon were acquitted on all counts. Defense attorneys were able to show that virtually every witness called to testify against them was lying or had been given freedom in exchange for their testimony. Jurors said afterward the testimony was not believable. Prosecutors weren’t ready to give up, though. Only a few days after his acquittal, they released information to the media showing Magluta and Falcon had attempted to negotiate a plea agreement in which they would plead guilty and turn over to the U.S. government vast quantities of cash, real property and cocaine in exchange for a lesser sentence. Such negotiations are supposed to be confidential. Then, only three weeks later, the government indicted Magluta with yet another crime — perjury — based on a statement he had made before he was indicted on the drug charges. Magluta’s attorneys were outraged. Their client had been acquitted and now federal prosecutors were trying to find another way to put him in prison. "The best evidence of actual prosecutorial vindictiveness is the release of information about the negotiations for a plea agreement in direct contravention to (federal court rules and their) requirement of confidentiality," wrote attorney Roy Black. "The only purpose for disclosing this information was to prejudice Magluta in the eyes of the public. The disclosure would stand as justification for the government continuing to seek indictments against him." Among the points made in their appeal: The 52 months Magluta had been imprisoned awaiting his first trial would cover any penalty that might be imposed on the perjury charges, which stemmed from statements he’d supposedly made 61/2 years earlier. Magluta’s attorneys also argued the government was simply trying to re-try a case it had lost. Magluta remains in prison, awaiting action from an appeals court. It has been almost seven years since his initial arrest. He has yet to be convicted of even one crime. Last summer, his problems got worse. The foreman of the jury that found Magluta not guilty was charged with accepting a $500,000 bribe to fix the case. That case is still pending. Bowing to pressure Mary Ann Rounsavall has filed an appeal seeking a reduced sentence based on the government’s promises to her. In addition to accusing the government of breaking its promise, the appeal also says some of the testimony she gave in her brother’s case was provided by federal agents. During a telephone interview, she described how she finally relented to government pressure and agreed to testify against her brother. She remembers the fateful meeting with Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Gillen after weeks of negotiations about whether she would tell on her brother. Gillen didn’t respond to a Post-Gazette request for comment. "I said, ‘If I sign this plea agreement, how much time am I going to do?’ Bruce Gillen told me seven to 10 years. At the time, I was so upset with everything that I just said yes," she said. At a hearing in October, the government argued she had not fully cooperated in return for leniency, an argument her sentencing judge had earlier rejected. During the course of her research into the appeal, Rounsavall said she found another case where the same U.S. Attorney’s office did not fulfill promises it made on a deal. In that case, Roderick Pipes and LaSalle N. Waldrip, two Nebraska men caught in a cocaine case, had cooperated with the government. In September 1997, the 8th U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the sentences they received after the government refused to give them reduced prison time. In that case, Nebraska agents said the two men had been forthright in their assistance, while agents in Oklahoma said they had not. The re-sentencing of the two men has not been resolved. As for Rounsavall, on Friday a judge granted her motion to compel the government to abide by its agreement. She will be resentenced Jan. 6.
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