Jury gets 2 views of terror prosecutor

Paul Egan / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- The Justice Department says Richard Convertino was a politically ambitious federal prosecutor willing to break the law to notch a high-profile terrorism case under his belt.

Convertino's lawyer says he was an overworked hero fighting to make Americans safe from radicals plotting to harm them.

Today, jurors begin deciding which picture is accurate after a full day of emotionally charged closing arguments Tuesday.

Convertino, 46, and former State Department security officer Harry "Ray" Smith, 51, are charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and false statements in connection with the terror trial Convertino prosecuted in 2003.

"They wanted to win that case too much to risk losing it by playing by the rules," U.S. Justice Department lawyer Eileen Gleason argued.

"He acted to save lives, and some of those lives might have been your own," Convertino lawyer William Sullivan told jurors.

The stakes are high for both sides. Convictions would mean up to 10 years in prison and an inglorious end to the law enforcement careers of Convertino, an ex-star prosecutor who is now a private lawyer, and Smith, a highly decorated security officer who received high praise for competence and integrity from numerous government witnesses.

A Convertino acquittal would fuel defense allegations that he was unfairly targeted in retaliation by a Justice Department embarrassed by his testimony before a congressional committee soon after the 2003 trial in which he complained of a lack of resources for the war on terror. An acquittal also could revitalize Convertino's civil lawsuit against the department, now on hold pending the outcome of this and one other criminal case pending against him.

U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Tarnow's courtroom was overflowing during final arguments. Tarnow cautioned Sullivan against shouting as he strode in front of the jury box and hurled allegations of bad faith at government prosecutors. Thomas Cranmer, Smith's attorney, finished his argument with his voice cracking and tears welling in his eyes.

"I hope and pray that you will have the courage to do what's right, what's just and what's fair," Cranmer told the jury of eight men and six women.

At the 2003 trial, watched nationally as the first terror prosecution following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Convertino alleged a drawing found in the defendants' Detroit apartment was a terrorist sketch casing the Queen Alia Military Hospital in Amman, Jordan.

Defense lawyers in the terror trial wanted to see aerial photos of the hospital to compare with the sketch.

Convertino is accused of illegally withholding photos and lying about their existence because they did not help his case. Smith, who worked at the U.S. Embassy in Jordan, is accused of lying when he testified he didn't take photos of the hospital because getting approval would have been difficult

The federal jury in 2003 returned terrorism-related convictions against two of the four defendants, but those convictions were tossed out a year later because of alleged misconduct by Convertino, who resigned from the Justice Department in 2005. Convertino and his lawyers maintain the case was solid and the North African defendants were in fact terrorists.

Today, the first business by the court will be to dismiss two of the jurors by random draw so only 12 will deliberate. The trial began Oct. 9.

Convertino, who had talked about running for Congress and applied to become a federal judge, coached Smith so thoroughly for his testimony in the 2003 terror trial that "this was choreography worthy of 'Dancing with the Stars,' " Gleason told jurors.

But Sullivan argued that FBI Special Agent Paul George was at the meeting where Convertino prepared Smith for his testimony in the terror trial, and George told the court that nothing inappropriate happened.

Convertino's boss, Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Corbett, testified as a government witness. He saw no evidence of a conspiracy or any criminal conduct by Convertino, Sullivan argued.

If Convertino failed to turn over photos, it was an honest mistake by a busy prosecutor with 60 other cases, Sullivan said. In fact, though, the alleged sketch was a pebble in a mountain of evidence in the terror case and the photos were not that important, Sullivan told jurors.

"Mistakes are not crimes," he said. "Everyone makes them."

Neither Convertino nor Smith took the stand.

Cranmer told jurors Convertino and Smith barely knew each other and there is no evidence they conspired. The only witness who testified he saw Smith take pictures of the Jordanian hospital was Samir Jarandogha, a Jordanian U.S. Embassy official, who admitted to lying under oath, Cranmer said.

Though Smith testified at the 2003 trial he never took photos of the hospital, Smith said in an e-mail to another State Department official: "I took some photos but they never really came out."

That e-mail shows Smith also lied when he testified it would have been too difficult to get approval to photograph the hospital because it was a military installation, Gleason argued.

There is ample evidence Convertino knew Smith took photos and that Convertino also received a batch of hospital photos that did turn out -- taken by State Department security officer Kevin O'Connor, Gleason argued.

Convertino still faces one criminal charge that was separated from the current trial because it has nothing to do with Smith. He is accused of lying to a federal judge in a drug case in July 2003. Convertino has pleaded not guilty, and a date for that trial has not been set.

You can reach Paul Egan at (313) 222-2069 or pegan@detnews.com.