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Ethics

Prosecutor ‘poisoned the morale’ of DA’s office with fake harassment texts, disbarment order says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 10, 2025, 9:32 am CST

A former prosecutor in Colorado should be disbarred for faking four texts that she attributed to a co-worker, including one referring to her as a “sex doll,” according to a Dec. 31 hearing board opinion.

Yujin Choi of Denver fabricated the texts in October 2022 to make it appear that the co-worker was harassing her and then “doubled down on that deceit” by intentionally altering evidence, according to the hearing board, which is part of the Colorado Supreme Court’s Office of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge.

Choi allegedly doctored cellphone records and repeatedly deleted the texts. She claimed that her cellphone stopped working when she accidentally dropped it in the bathtub and asserted that her laptop also broke when she accidentally spilled water on it.

“In our view, this narrative is not plausible,” the opinion said.

Choi “pursued a personal vendetta” against the co-worker, criminal investigator Dan Hines, “by launching an informal smear campaign” for reasons “that remain opaque to us,” the hearing board said.

The New York Times, Law360, the Denver Post and Ars Technica (via the Legal Profession Blog) have coverage.

Choi, who was admitted to practice in May 2019, can appeal the decision. She was a deputy district attorney in the Denver district attorney’s family violence unit before she was fired for the alleged misconduct.

Choi sent the four texts to herself, changing the name in her cellphone to make it appear the co-worker was the sender, the hearing board concluded. It was the second time that she had accused Hines.

The first time, in 2021, Choi claimed that Hines had made an inappropriate remark in June 2021, and that he later sent a text that she considered to be harassing. An investigation was closed as unsubstantiated. Hines was nonetheless transferred within the office and told to avoid contact with Choi.

The texts at issue in the ethics opinion surfaced in October 2022. Choi was at a bar with friends when she showed them a text. It read: “Yujin, please stop talking about what I didn’t do to our colleagues. You are using your looks against innocent people. If you want to act like a sex doll to get a sugar daddy … fine, but that will not be me.”

Choi claimed that there were three more texts, all from Hines. They read, “Don’t be stupid,” “Let’s talk,” and “I’m sorry, hope you have a nice weekend.”

By disseminating the texts to co-workers and supervisors, Choi “perpetrated a false and harmful narrative that Hines had sexually harassed her by sending her these messages,” the opinion said.

Choi said she didn’t want the matter investigated, but her supervisors felt a duty to do so and required cooperation. When Hines was confronted with the texts, he logged in to his Verizon account to provide cellphone records and offered his iPhone for investigation. There was no indication that Hines sent the texts, the hearing board said.

Official records obtained directly from Verizon indicated that Choi sent and received the fourth text message in the Hines text thread at the time that she claimed to have received it, leading the hearing board to conclude that she also sent the first three messages. The first text displayed a time stamp indicating that it was sent more than 40 minutes after Choi texted a supervisor about it.

The damage included harm to Hines’ reputation and betrayal of co-workers who advocated for her during the investigation, the decision said.

Choi “poisoned the morale of the DA’s office, contributing to an environment in which victims feared they might be disbelieved and others feared they might be wrongly accused,” the hearing board said. “Further, her actions called into question whether the evidence in the criminal cases she prosecuted was genuine,” tarnished the reputation of prosecutors, and potentially undermined the credibility of sexual harassment victims.

A counselor had diagnosed Choi with post-traumatic stress disorder and vicarious trauma caused by Choi’s emotionally taxing work in the family violence unit. Her lawyers did not immediately respond to ABA Journal emails seeking comment.

Hines told the Denver Post that he “wouldn’t wish this upon anybody,” and he was “living in hell” after Choi’s first accusation. He has sued the Denver district attorney over the handling of the investigation.

The district attorney’s office later determined that Choi’s casework was in “excellent order” with no evidence of fabrication, a spokesperson told the New York Times. The office also thinks that the investigation was properly handled, the spokesperson said.

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Judiciary

Prosecutor who sent nude photos to federal judge ‘felt trapped,’ thought she had no choice, cited letter says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

December 11, 2024, 2:57 pm CST

An assistant U.S. attorney in Alaska said she felt “completely powerless” when then-U.S. District Judge Joshua M. Kindred of the District of Alaska asked for nude photos around the same time that he allegedly texted her about holding grudges and his power to help her win a nomination to the federal bench, according to documents unsealed Monday.

The assistant U.S. attorney’s allegations were revealed after Senior U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernández of the District of Oregon unsealed his September order granting a new trial to a cyberstalking defendant. Kindred presided in the case, and the assistant U.S. attorney described as “AUSA 1” had some prosecution involvement.

“The specific, unusual and highly troubling facts of Judge Kindred’s interactions and relationship with AUSA 1 give rise to at least the appearance of impropriety,” Hernández wrote when he granted the new trial.

Hernández also unsealed a defense brief that cited the prosecutor’s August letter detailing her relationship with Kindred. The brief does not indicate the recipient of the letter but says it appears to be in response to Kindred’s July resignation and the filing of motions by the defense counsel.

Then-U.S. District Judge Joshua M. Kindred of the District of Alaska. (Photo by Snickers2686, PD US Courts, via Wikimedia Commons)

Reuters and Law360 have coverage, while the Volokh Conspiracy published part of the opinion.

Kindred abruptly resigned from the federal bench in July after he was referred to the U.S. Judicial Conference for possible impeachment. The judicial council of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco had requested the resignation after concluding that Kindred created a hostile work environment for his law clerks and had a “sexualized relationship” with one of them.

The May judicial council report also mentioned the federal prosecutor who sent nude photos to the judge.

A defense motion for a new trial in the cyberstalking case included information said to have been in the letter from “AUSA 1.” The redacted letter was disclosed to the defense by a federal prosecutor tapped to review Kindred’s cases and whether recusal might have been required.

Before she sent the photos, “AUSA 1” said, Kindred sent texts saying he found her attractive, and he had recommended her for a federal judgeship. Shortly before that, Kindred allegedly texted “AUSA 1” about anger issues and holding grudges.

Her letter said she felt pressured to send the photos, according to the defense motion.

“I felt trapped and believed I had no choice,” she wrote. She thought that she “had no other option because he has the power to ruin not only my career but my personal life, as well.”

The prosecutor made the accusations after saying in an earlier letter that her relationship with Kindred was purely professional, according to Hernández’s order.

The cyberstalking defendant was tried and convicted a second time last month, according to a Dec. 6 press release.

Brian Tucker (Boone County Jail).

A Kentucky man is behind bars after threatening to kill a local judge and prosecutor, authorities in the Bluegrass State say.

Brian Tucker, 48, stands accused of retaliating against participants in a legal process, according to Boone County court records.

The arrest occurred on Nov. 27. The criminal case stems from a long-ago fire at the home of one of the defendant’s friends. The knock-on effects of that blaze have plagued Tucker’s life for several years.

Inset: One of the social media posts that Jordan Stroh made about Donald Trump supporters (Facebook/WXIN/Hancock County Deputy Prosecutor). Background: Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at an election night watch party, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).

A deputy prosecutor in Indiana has been fired for voicing her disdain with Donald Trump voters on social media — writing on Facebook after the election that they “disgust” her and “clearly don’t respect” human beings — in addition to sharing posts about them being Nazis, according to her boss.

“If you voted for Trump, please unfriend me,” wrote Jordan Stroh, former deputy prosecuting attorney for the Hancock County District Attorney’s Office, in a Facebook post cited by District Attorney Brent Eaton this week in her termination letter, which was obtained by local CBS affiliate WTTV and local Fox affiliate WXIN.

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Prosecutors

Longtime prosecutor resigns after judge tosses him from case, citing Perry Mason-type revelations

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 14, 2024, 10:09 am CDT

Longtime Miami-Dade County, Florida, prosecutor Michael Von Zamft has resigned after a judge disqualified him and a colleague from the resentencing of an alleged gang leader convicted of four murders.

Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson of the 11th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida in Miami-Dade County said newly discovered evidence suggested that witness testimony had been manipulated in the prosecution of gang leader Corey Smith, and that jailed witnesses had been granted favors, including conjugal visits, for their cooperation.

Wolfson also cited a recorded phone call between Von Zamft and a jailed witness that could be viewed as a “cryptic message” about eliminating an unreliable witness, although the judge did not accept that interpretation.

The Associated Press, the Miami Herald, Local10.com and Law.com have coverage of Wolfson’s March 6 decision.

“On television, Perry Mason, defense attorney extraordinaire, always managed to find the smoking gun at the end of every episode,” Wolfson wrote. “In real life, this happens very rarely. It happened here.”

Wolfson tossed Von Zamft from the case, saying he had a “prosecutorial philosophy of winning at all costs.” She also disqualified a second prosecutor who “emphatically argued” that no unethical conduct had happened, she wrote. But she rejected a request to disqualify the entire Miami-Dade state attorney’s office.

Smith was being resentenced because he was sentenced to death in two of the murders based on less-than-unanimous juror votes, a practice that was banned in a 2017 Florida law.

Wolfson cited evidence supporting disqualification presented in a multiple day hearing “regarding over 20 years of allegations of misconduct” in the case.

Wolfson said the state’s treatment of discovery in the case “has been questionable throughout the litigation process.” Multiple representations by Von Zamft regarding discovery “can best be described as the continuous movement of the goal line away from the defense team,” she said.

She also cited evidence of witness coordination.

Three cooperating witnesses had testified that they had been taken to the Miami Police Department’s homicide unit to coordinate testimony in the Smith case. One of those witnesses had first made the claim in a January 2023 affidavit, but he changed his story after meeting with two prosecution investigators allegedly sent by Von Zamft.

Further evidence included a recorded August 2022 phone call between Von Zamft and a co-defendant, Latravis Gallashaw, who became a cooperating witness. During the call, they discussed problems with witnesses in the Smith case.

Gallashaw asked whether Von Zamft had considered “rehabilitating” an inmate named Jones. Von Zamft said there had been a problem with Jones’ contradictory statements. Von Zamft said he was trying to arrange a prison courtyard meeting between Gallashaw, Jones and an inmate who was a witness in another case, but his request was turned down.

“But the gun did not stop smoking there,” Wolfson said, carrying on her Perry Mason reference.

In the call, Von Zamft complained that Tricia Geter, a cooperating witness and Smith’s former girlfriend, was unpredictable. She gave full and complete testimony in the prior trial, however, he said.

“If I call her and she refuses, then I will find a way to make her unavailable, and then I can read her whole testimony,” Von Zamft said.

“You would want to do that?” Gallashaw asked.

Von Zamft replied that he didn’t want to do it.

“I’d rather she testified and did a good job. But can I count on it? No,” Von Zamft said.

Wolfson said the phone call “totally and completely corroborates Ms. Geter’s testimony that she got mad at Mr. Von Zamft in 2023 after he told her that if she was dead, he would simply read her prior testimony into the record.”

“It is important to reiterate the context of the interaction between Mr. Von Zamft and Mr. Gallashaw,” Wolfson wrote. “Mr. Gallashaw is a convicted murderer in a case that involves witness elimination. Mr. Von Zamft, a highly trained lawyer, knew who he was talking to. At best, Mr. Von Zamft’s use of the words ‘make her unavailable’ is reckless considering the audience.

“To be clear, this court does not believe that Mr. Von Zamft was sending a cryptic message to Mr. Gallashaw to eliminate Ms. Geter. However, reasonable minds may reach a different conclusion based on the totality of circumstances in this case.”

Geter told the Miami Herald that she fears for her life because of threatening messages that she has received. She learned of the phone call about making her unavailable about two weeks ago.

“Why would you tell him you don’t want me available?” Geter asked in a newspaper interview with the Miami Herald. “It’s unethical that this officer of the state attorney’s office would be conspiring with a known killer.”

Wolfson sent a copy of her opinion to the Florida Bar. Von Zamft told the ABA Journal that because the matter has been referred to the bar, his attorney has instructed him not to comment.

Nathan Wade appears during a Fulton County court hearing on Feb. 15, 2024. (Law&Crime Network)

“We’re private people,” special prosecutor Nathan Wade testified during a hearing examining several aspects of his disputed romance with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis early Thursday afternoon. “Our relationship wasn’t a secret, it was just private.”

The dispute, however, is not about the existence of that relationship — the basic fact was acknowledged by the pair in court filings earlier this month. The judge overseeing the case, rather, is concerned largely with when the relationship went from platonic to amorous. And, on that question, there are now two starkly contradictory accounts.

Wade, for his part, insisted under oath on Thursday that he and Willis did not become romantically entangled until 2022.

But Wade, the lead prosecutor in the racketeering (RICO) and election subversion case against Donald Trump and others, taking the stand at all was a significant procedural victory for co-defendant Michael Roman and his attorney, Ashleigh Merchant. As the state has roundly complained in both the courtroom and court filings, opposing counsel being forced to testify by the defense is considered something of an anomaly and rarity for a criminal proceeding in the United States.