Marshals want inspectors’ IDs shielded in Salemme trial
Calling it “a question of life and death,” the U.S. Marshals Service is imploring the judge overseeing the stalled mob murder trial of Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme and Paul Weadick to reconsider allowing extreme measures in her courtroom to shield the identities of two witness-security inspectors expected to testify.
“It is a question of life and death,” the marshals said in a filing yesterday.
U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs has scheduled a hearing on the motion for tomorrow morning.
Harvey Smith, a special assistant U.S. Attorney from Washington, D.C., is being brought in to plead the marshals’ position.
The trial, meanwhile, was canceled yesterday and today, despite a full lineup of anticipated government witnesses. No explanation has been given. Prosecutors complained to Burroughs last week that the proceeding was falling behind and in danger of stretching out to mid-June.
Burroughs last month denied the government’s request that screens be set up between the witness stand and the public when the inspectors were testifying, saying the plan was “broader and more cumbersome than necessary” and could impinge on Salemme’s and Weadick’s right to a fair trial, even though they and the jurors would not have their views blocked.
Burroughs did rule “the inspectors may testify using a pseudonym,” and that sketch artists will not be permitted to draw them. Cameras are already banned in federal court.
But in the latest filing, the marshals contend, “Witness Security Inspectors work undercover. They meet frequently with witnesses who are protected because they testified against criminal organizations, national gangs, terrorist groups, or other organizations with national reach and the resources and willingness to kill those who oppose them.
“If a person from, or acting in concert with, one of these groups was able to identify and follow a Witness Security Inspector, that would endanger the life of the Witness Security Inspector, the people protected by the Witness Security Inspector, and other people who work for the Witness Security Program.”