Retired Judge to be Tried for Perjury, Admits Letting Witness Lie to Protect Paid Informant
A retired Michigan judge has been ordered to stand trial along with two Detroit-area police officers and Wayne County’s former chief drug prosecutor, who has also retired, for allegedly encouraging witness lies in a 2005 trial in a major cocaine case.
Allegedly told by the prosecutor, Karen Plants, that false evidence was being offered to protect a confidential paid informant in a case over a 100-pound cocaine bust that at least peripherally involved a Mexican cartel and a 47-kilo deal, then-Wayne Count Circuit Judge Mary Waterstone cooperated in concealing information from the jury and defense counsel, according to the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News.
She is charged with felony misconduct in office for allowing the perjury; the other defendants face obstruction charges. However, her lawyer, Gerald Evelyn, argued that Waterstone lacked requisite criminal intent, as the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission agreed when it reprimanded her for the admitted conduct.
But “we do not condone, we do not permit, we do not conceal perjury,” said Detroit 36th District Court Judge David Robinson Jr., as he ordered Waterstone today to stand trial on four counts of misconduct in office.
“Our whole system is aimed at one thing: Letting those people who sit in the jury box see the facts, the truth,” he continued. “It is a fundamental part of my job, and we do not conceal perjury. We have the prosecutor of the case walk into your office and tell you we have perjury here, and you don’t tell the other side. You don’t tell the jury.”
An Associated Press article provides additional details.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Prosecutor, Judge & 2 Cops Charged By Mich. AG in Detroit Perjury Case”
