PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Kudos to Mr. Fuller for risking his livelihood for principle - and for truly acting as an officer of the court. We could use more like him!
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "“They found nine cases. Then Shawn, rightfully, says we can’t stop at five years,” Koplow said. Upon finding the results, Fuller wanted to go back to see who else this may have happened to. But before he could do that, Fuller’s attorney says that he had been fired for harassment. The jury found he was wrongfully terminated and did not harass any coworkers. Koplow says it was clear the jury found the timing suspicious. “Does one need to go to law school to put two and two together? I don’t think so. And also, why hasn’t the City of Scottsdale gone back since then. I mean obviously they don’t want the answer,” Koplow said.
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STORY: "Jury awards former Scottsdale City Prosecutor 5 million after wrongful termination," by Reporter Sarah Robinson, published by AZ Family, on May 16, 2024.
GIST: "A jury awarded a former City of Scottsdale prosecutor more than $5 million.
The jury found that Shawn Fuller was wrongfully terminated by the city in 2020 after being falsely accused of gender discrimination. His lawyer says Fuller’s firing happened while auditing Scottsdale’s DUI case management.
Fuller says he found nine Scottsdale DUI cases where defendants’ blood tests came back negative for drugs and alcohol, but they weren’t made aware of their results.
He says those nine people pleaded guilty even though the tests cleared them.
DUI attorney Lawrence Koplow, who was in the courtroom during this trial, tells Arizona’s Family that he believes the jury made the right call based on the evidence.
Koplow, who was not involved in this case, says what was revealed in this civil lawsuit should be a glaring red flag for the people of Scottsdale.
“Some of these people were sentenced. Some of these people went to jail,” Koplow said.
He says the trial showed the allegations of harassment and gender discrimination against Fuller were vague at best and pointed to the timing of his termination as suspicious.
The City of Scottsdale disagrees.
Scottsdale hired Fuller as a city prosecutor in 2019 but was fired three months later. Court documents show that when starting with the city, Fuller was allegedly made aware of a rumor and began an audit.
“The rumor was that the office was not disclosing exculpatory lab reports to defendants in DUI cases,” said Joshua Carden, Fuller’s attorney.
Fuller’s five-year audit also found that allegedly city paralegals—not attorneys—were showing up to arraignments for DUIs
Koplow says paralegals cannot represent people charged with crimes or offer legal advice. He says this is a severe ethics violation, and that’s not all.
“But it’s not every person. It’s usually unrepresented people. It’s usually people who don’t have the money to hire private counsel,” Koplow said.
The lawsuit claims those represented by the paralegals would plead guilty despite not having a positive drug test, which Koplow says is typically the primary evidence used in these cases.
“They found nine cases. Then Shawn, rightfully, says we can’t stop at five years,” Koplow said.
Upon finding the results, Fuller wanted to go back to see who else this may have happened to.
But before he could do that, Fuller’s attorney says that he had been fired for harassment. The jury found he was wrongfully terminated and did not harass any coworkers.
Koplow says it was clear the jury found the timing suspicious.
“Does one need to go to law school to put two and two together? I don’t think so. And also, why hasn’t the City of Scottsdale gone back since then. I mean obviously they don’t want the answer,” Koplow said.
The City of Scottsdale provided this statement on the lawsuit:
“The City of Scottsdale is incredibly disappointed by the jury verdict in this case and will appeal. The city categorically denies any wrongdoing. During his three months of at-will employment, Mr. Fuller’s conduct generated numerous complaints from different staff who worked in his office. An outside independent investigator sustained several allegations of misconduct in violation of city administrative regulation. As a result, his employment was terminated. The independent investigator’s report was produced, as Arizona law requires, pursuant to a public records request. The city knows it acted appropriately in this employment matter, and is confident that this ruling will be successfully appealed.”
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
——————————————————————————— untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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