Federal jury acquits terror prosecutor

Jubilant Convertino calls trial 'politically motivated prosecution.'

Paul Egan / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- In a rebuke to the U.S. Justice Department, a federal jury on Wednesday found former federal prosecutor Richard Convertino and his co-defendant, Harry "Ray" Smith, not guilty of obstruction of justice and other charges related to Convertino's prosecution of a terror trial in 2003.

Convertino embraced his wife, Val, his attorney, William Sullivan, and other supporters after the jury delivered its unanimous verdict shortly before 4 p.m. The seven men and five women deliberated about seven hours after a three-week trial that began Oct. 9.

"It's a just result of a politically motivated prosecution that never should have been brought," Convertino said outside the courtroom. "Somebody must be held accountable for this."

Eileen Gleason, one of three Justice Department lawyers from Washington, D.C., who prosecuted the case, said: "We do respect the jury's verdict and we respect the jury system." Bryan Sierra, a spokesman for the Justice Department in Washington, did not return a call for further comment.

Convertino, 46, and Smith, 51, a former U.S. State Department security officer at the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, were found not guilty in U.S. District Court in Detroit of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and false statements.

If convicted, each had faced up to 10 years in prison on the most serious charge, obstruction of justice.

Convertino still faces one separate criminal charge accusing him of lying to a federal judge in a drug case. Convertino and Sullivan said they hope and expect the Justice Department will dismiss that charge.

The indictment's beginnings

When he took the terror case less than one week after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Convertino was a rising star in the U.S. Attorney's Office who had aggressively prosecuted mobsters and drug kingpins. Though the high-profile trial in 2003 convicted two of the four defendants of terrorism-related charges, the case unraveled amid allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. The Justice Department asked U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen to throw out the terror convictions in 2004. Convertino resigned in 2005 and was indicted by a grand jury a year later.

Throughout the saga, in public statements and on a Web site operated by his wife, Convertino has maintained the terrorism case was solid, but the Justice Department retaliated against him for testifying before a congressional committee in 2003 without departmental approval.

Convertino has sued the Justice Department in federal court, a case that awaits the outcome of criminal proceedings.

Part of the case in the terror trial was a sketch seized from the defendants' Detroit apartment, which Convertino alleged was a terrorist casing sketch of the Queen Alia Military Hospital in Jordan.

Defense lawyers in the terror trial -- which drew national attention as the first terror prosecution following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- said the sketch was a doodle made by a madman. They wanted to see photos of the hospital to compare it with the sketch but were told none existed.

Prosecutors in the current case alleged that was a lie concocted by Convertino and Smith. They allege Smith took photos of the hospital during a March 2002 helicopter flight and Convertino received a set of photos taken in September 2002 by Kevin O'Connor, a State Department official.

But Sullivan argued Convertino was overworked and had too few resources. If he failed to turn over to the defense evidence he should have, it was an honest mistake, Sullivan said.

In fact, the photos were a small part of a mountain of evidence in the case and not that important, he said.

Unprecedented charges

Sullivan said it's unprecedented for the Justice Department to criminally charge a federal prosecutor for such a judgment call. Failure to turn over evidence to the defense, known as a "Brady violation," is a common infraction that is almost never dealt with by criminal charges, he said.

"The government just never made its case, and in that sense it's not surprising the jury came back quickly with a not guilty verdict," said Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor and a law professor at Wayne State University.

The government can claim the case showed its willingness to prosecute one of its own, but the verdict strengthens Convertino's claim that the case was misguided from the start, Henning said.

"The claim was overzealousness by Convertino, but was the government itself overzealous in prosecuting Convertino and Smith?"

Smith, who lives near Washington, D.C., and was highly praised by many of the government witnesses who testified, left almost immediately after the verdict.

"I still have faith in the system and this country," Smith said through tears before pulling away in an SUV. "That's why I stayed so long and fought, because I knew it was going to work."

Sullivan said Wednesday's verdict "validates the original verdict in the (terror) trial," and the work Convertino did in that case.

But Ben Gonek, a Detroit attorney who is representing Karim Koubriti in a federal malicious prosecution lawsuit against Convertino, disagreed. Koubriti, a Moroccan immigrant, was convicted of providing material support to terrorism in the 2003 trial before the conviction was tossed out. He now is a truck driver.

Though Convertino did not testify in the criminal trial, he will not have the option of refusing to answer questions in a civil trial unless he wants to lose a judgment, Gonek said.

"He has a lot of explaining to do," Gonek said.

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