Joyce’s lawyers say feds fishing
Attorneys for former state Sen. Brian Joyce say federal prosecutors are trying to improperly dig for evidence as part of their attempt to have one of his high-powered lawyers booted from his public corruption case.
Prosecutors argue that attorney Howard M. Cooper should be disqualified from representing Joyce because he was “enlisted” to make “false representations to the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission” designed to hide the fallen politician’s alleged criminal conduct.
They argue that Judge
Nathaniel M. Gorton should allow Cooper to be subpoenaed, and that his documents should be analyzed behind closed doors to determine whether any attorneyclient privileged materials should be turned over to prosecutors under the crime-fraud exception to the rule.
But Joyce’s defense team argued that prosecutors were essentially fishing for evidence against their client and are simply looking for answers to
“unanswered questions” regarding the case.
“There is a fundamental flaw in the government’s understanding of how discovery works,” said Max D. Stern, one of Joyce’s attorneys, adding later that he has never seen prosecutors use a subpoena to get information that they could not normally get through the regular discovery process.
Earlier this month, the Boston Bar Association, the ACLU, the Massachusetts Bar Association and the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers wrote briefs supporting Joyce’s position, arguing that disqualifying his attorney would have “far-reaching negative implications.”
Gorton did not make a ruling on the situation yesterday.