The office of Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein is mounting a vigorous defense of two of his federal prosecutors accused of misconduct in a drug conspiracy case that could end with the death penalty.
In a recent 58-page court filing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah A. Johnston wrote to a federal judge that her colleagues, Jason M. Weinstein and Steven H. Levin, "conducted themselves professionally and ethically" despite the accusations.
Weinstein leads the office's violent-crime section, and Levin serves as the section's deputy chief.
FOR THE RECORD - A headline in some editions of yesterday's Maryland section misidentified the office of the U.S. attorney for Maryland.
The Sun regrets the error.
The case, which could be heard by a judge as soon as next month, is raising eyebrows inside and outside the U.S. attorney's Baltimore office. Some attorneys now wonder whether an honest deal can still be brokered with prosecutors who might be secretly plotting future indictments against their clients, even as they plead guilty to lesser charges.
The legal controversy centers on what prosecutors may have promised to defendants Howard and Raeshio Rice. Defense attorneys insist the Rice brothers only pleaded guilty to a single heroin count because prosecutors suggested the plea would insulate them against any more serious charges in the future.
But federal prosecutors said they made no such promise and therefore, felt no obligation. They charged the Rices again days after their sentencing - this time with a raft of crimes that could carry the death penalty.
Several legal experts who reviewed the case believe that prosecutors might have acted within the letter of the law. But the approach, the experts said, could make it fundamentally more difficult for defense attorneys to persuade their clients to plead guilty. In federal court, where potential penalties can be especially harsh, the vast majority of criminal cases end in guilty pleas.
In a 2004 deal, the Rice brothers each pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to distribute heroin. They each received a substantial prison sentence of more than a decade. The judge in U.S. District Court in Baltimore even predicted that one of the Rices could serve his time and return to a productive life.
But less than a week after Raeshio Rice's sentencing, federal prosecutors shocked the Rice brothers in January 2005 by charging them with a host of new crimes stretching back a decade, including two killings in Baltimore. One prosecution witness characterized Howard Rice as "the biggest drug dealer in Baltimore," according to court papers.
