Copyright © The Age Company Ltd 2001.
And another article on Criminal Clinton's
grantor of Absolute Power and her abuse of an American.
Thursday, April 26, 2001
YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK
House report exonerates Florida politician
Committee says 'the vast power of the state was used to destroy him'By Jon Dougherty
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.comA little-noticed report released this month by the House Government Reform Committee has exonerated a local Florida politician whose career was ruined after false charges were made by federal, state and local officials.
The April 10 report said that the Miami State Attorney's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted an investigation of allegations that Dade County Commissioner Joseph Gersten had consorted with prostitutes, smoked crack cocaine and filed a false police report.
But after a review of the charges, available evidence, actions and statements of officials involved in the Gersten case, the House committee concluded that "at a minimum, individuals participated in a conspiracy to make allegations that they knew to be false.
"It also appears that government officials failed to develop and disclose evidence that was obviously exculpatory," the committee report said. "The use of government authority to conduct an examination that purposefully ignores relevant information offends notions of fundamental fairness and should not be tolerated.
"After reviewing the known facts, I believe that appropriate federal and state law enforcement authorities should conduct a thorough, independent investigation to determine whether prosecutorial powers were improperly used against Mr. Gersten," Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., the committee's chairman, said in a statement.
The committee also found evidence that state and federal continue to "rely on, and perpetuate, obviously suspect allegations" against Gersten, "to his detriment."
"Based on available information, the Committee finds that state and federal law enforcement officials acted in a way that indicates extreme bad faith in their investigations of Joseph Gersten," the report said. "It appears, as new facts emerge, that the vast power of the state was used to destroy him."
False charges
By 1992, Gersten had already served terms in the Florida House and Senate as a Democrat. He ran unsuccessfully for Florida attorney general, but he had successfully run to become a Dade County commissioner.
He also had taken preliminary steps to announce his candidacy to become mayor of Dade County.
As a prominent politician, Gersten attracted a great deal of media attention and scrutiny. After announcing his mayoral candidacy, allegations surfaced that he had abused his position as county commissioner "to benefit from illegal bond transactions," the committee report said.
"Indeed, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had commenced an investigation of allegations that Gersten had participated in illegal bond deals, and had specifically looked into allegations that he had been involved in illegal financial transactions with, among others, former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson," said the report.
The FBI investigation was extensive; phone taps were requested and granted, and informants wore wires during conversations with Gersten to enable FBI investigators to record any information he divulged that would link him to the bond allegations.
However, Burton's committee said, the FBI never developed any evidence linking Gersten to illegal bond activities.
"It is particularly significant to note that in an interview conducted on Jan. 12, 2001, the FBI's chief investigator on the Gersten case told the Committee that some of those who had made allegations against Gersten had themselves been subsequently indicted," the report said.
Because some persons who had initially made the allegations against Gersten regarding bond activities were eventually indicted, "this raises some doubt as to the reliability of their allegations," said the committee report.
Other charges eventually surfaced, as well.
On April 29, 1992, the report said, Gersten told the police that his car had been stolen from the driveway in front of his house.
"The following day, his car was recovered. The individuals apprehended when the car was located told a story markedly different than that which had been offered by Gersten. Simply put, they explained that the car had been taken while Gersten was smoking crack cocaine and consorting with prostitutes," said the report.
Within a few days, Gersten left for France to attend the Cannes Film Festival -- a trip he had previously planned. He was scheduled to be gone for two weeks.
During that period of time, press reports began to echo the charges and, "on the advice of counsel," the report said, Gersten extended his trip by another two weeks. By the time he returned to Miami, there was already a widely held belief that he had done what he had been accused of doing.
"At the insistence of prosecutors, a follicle test was conducted to prove that Gersten had been using cocaine on the evening of April 29, 1992," the report said. "Although the test came back negative, and it was clear that Gersten could not have done a significant part of what his accusers claimed, the government continued to investigate the allegations that Gersten was involved in illegal conduct."
The government, said the report, also claimed it was investigating the theft of Gersten's car, "although records produced to the Committee support the conclusion that this 'investigation' was merely a pretext to obtain statements from Gersten that would permit an indictment for perjury."
On the advice of counsel, Gersten refused to cooperate with the investigation of his car because he and his counsel had concluded that the investigation was going forward on bad faith, "and that the ultimate goal of the prosecutors was not to convict the car thieves, but to destroy Gersten personally and professionally," said the report.
"The sex and drugs allegations were so inconsistent, and the witnesses so weak, that there appeared to be little likelihood that a case could be advanced," said the committee report. "However, there was a real concern that the State Attorney's Office would indict Gersten for perjury if he did not agree with the version of events offered by those who had originated the sex and drugs allegations. …"
As a result of his refusal to cooperate fully in the investigation of his car theft, prosecutors in the State Attorney's Office sought to have him held in contempt of court.
"On March 15, 1993, the day before the election to determine who would sit on the Dade County Commission, the Fourth District Court of Appeals refused to hear Gersten's appeal of a lower court order that he answer prosecutors' questions," the report said.
"On Election Day, the headline of The Miami Herald newspaper read, 'State Gets Go-Ahead to Quiz Gersten.' Gersten ultimately was found to be in contempt of court, and he served almost three weeks in jail," said the report.
He was released April 12, 1993, remained for another five months in the United States, and then left the country in September of 1993. Currently, he resides in Australia.
The report noted that had government officials made a good-faith effort to consider exculpatory material in the Gersten case, "the Committee would not have considered issuing a report about this matter."
However, the committee's investigation discovered that "there are so many indications of unfair -- and possibly corrupt -- practices by state and federal government officials that the Committee believes it important to provide a public explanation of events."
Some key information was found to have been kept from the public, the committee found, as well as from some government investigators.
"Indeed, one of the most important matters was deliberately kept from Gersten and his lawyers. Furthermore, it appears that there was even an effort to keep the most significant matter from this Committee," the report said.
"The principal concern of the Committee is the appearance that government officials were engaged in a headlong rush to destroy Gersten, and that they did so knowing that they were using the sex and drugs allegations as a means to achieve that end," said the report. "In addition, it appears that government officials also purposefully ignored clear-cut evidence of a crime that, if pursued, might have undercut their rationale for investigating Gersten."
The sex and drugs story was initially derived from the testimony of two female prostitutes, Lisa McCann and Claudia Lira, as well as a male friend of theirs, Robert Maldonado, and a pimp, Kenneth Keswick.
"There were numerous reasons to question the reliability of the witnesses, even if one did not factor in their professional backgrounds," said the report, noting that Keswick and Lira "were, at the time of the allegation, wanted for kidnapping and armed robbery."
Also, Keswick had been dishonorably discharged from the military, and Lira had at least 16 convictions for drug possession, prostitution and theft, the report said.
Meanwhile, the committee found that McCann had 18 convictions for prostitution, possession of cocaine and other crimes; Maldonado had been convicted of manslaughter in New York, served nine years in prison and then skipped parole.
And, "the witnesses' stories were fatally inconsistent," said the report, adding that Keswick offered to change his testimony for a cash payment of $10,000.
Finally, the committee found that the stories were told after Keswick and Lira had been apprehended for stealing Gersten's automobile.
The committee also found that McCann offered an individual money to make the false allegation that Gersten had murdered a transvestite on the same night as the alleged sex and drugs activity.
According to FBI Special Agent Michael Bonner, he did not learn of this fact until January 12, 2001, when the Committee interviewed him. He also indicated that this information would have been important for him to have had at the time of the investigation.
Bonner, during the Gersten investigations, had deemed McCann one of the two most credible and reliable witnesses the government had.
The committee also found that Gersten and his attorneys were never informed of this information.
"Why did state and federal law enforcement officers fail to conduct a thorough investigation of the false murder allegation against Gersten, and why was nobody prosecuted for making a false report to the police?" the report said. "There is not a single indication in the State Attorney's Office Gersten file that an inquiry into the false allegation was made. From the records produced to the Committee, there is no discernible good faith reason for the failure to investigate this matter. Indeed, it does not even appear that Lisa McCann was asked about her role in attempting to frame Gersten for murder."
The committee, in its report, also questioned why the FBI gave McCann money "after she suborned the false murder allegation," and asked why local law enforcement failed to point out that payments to McCann might be inappropriate given the circumstances.
Other exculpatory evidence
A number of other pieces of evidence also led the committee to conclude that the charges against Gersten were bogus.
For instance, the committee said, Gersten -- after being accused of smoking crack in front of four witnesses -- tested negative for the drug.
"Given the high degree of accuracy of this test, the eyewitness accounts were significantly discredited. Even the Dade County chief toxicologist recognized that, because of the negative test results, 'essentially, [Gersten] has been exonerated,'" the report said.
Also, after the sex and drugs encounter was described to investigators, the site was examined for forensic evidence on May 8, 1992. No evidence of Gersten's physical presence was found.
And, less than one month after he first gave a statement to the FBI, Keswick approached Gersten's lawyers and indicated that he would change his story for $10,000.
Furthermore, a Miami-Dade police officer, J. L. Garcia -- who found Gersten's stolen car -- said he ran a police department computer check of the car's license plate, entering this: YBI99I. However, when Gersten reported his car stolen to Coral Gables Police, he gave them the plate number JLW3OY, which was the correct plate number.
"Thus, Garcia's report that he was able to identify Gersten's stolen car through a computer check cannot be true. It is not plausible that he entered the number YBI99I into the computer and learned that this was Gersten's car, a car that had been correctly reported as having the JLW3OY tag," the committee report noted.
The report noted that even some state prosecutors on the case seemed to be unduly biased against Gersten throughout the investigation.
"For example, prior to a Feb. 3, 1993, article in The Miami Herald, Michael Band of the State Attorney's Office made the following on-the-record statement: 'As far as I'm concerned, Keswick is still a potential defendant for the theft of Gersten's car,'" the report said. "Band could not, however, have been oblivious to the fact that more than six months earlier his colleague Mary Cagle had closed the auto theft case against Keswick."
The committee report pointed out that Band's personal feelings about Gersten were most apparent in a statement he made in 1994: "Frankly, I think Dade County is a lot cleaner and prettier place without him."
"This type of statement, which certainly indicates a personal bias against Gersten, is consistent with the numerous failures to follow leads exculpatory to Gersten," the report said.
Conclusive evidence of misconduct?
"Joseph Gersten was a very successful politician. He was, however, also very abrasive. He generated strong passions and he had his share of detractors and enemies," said the committee report.
However, if there was a personal bias against Gersten -- as it appears there was, the report says -- "and this led to selective use of information to harm him, such conduct should not be condoned.
"The public is already too cynical when it comes to law enforcement. Although exposing this type of conduct does not restore confidence, it does at least show that when the government acts inappropriately, and that conduct is identified, it will not go unremarked and unpunished," the report said.
If government officials abused their positions to destroy one man, there is a responsibility to right that wrong and to ensure that others do not suffer the same fate, the committee said.
"In a prospective sense, it is important that the same abuses are not allowed to occur again. In a retrospective sense, one can only wonder if others were similarly harmed. … It should be the goal of government to ensure that everyone is treated fairly by the government."
Jon E. Dougherty is a staff reporter and columnist for WorldNetDaily, and author of the special report, "Election 2000: How the Military Vote Was Suppressed."
