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Lawyers: Gov. hasn’t turned over staff misconduct records in inmate’s slaying of CO

Attorneys for Jessie Con-Ui are still at odds with prosecutors over the release of records needed to prepare his defense

By Roger DuPuis
The Times-Leader

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Attorneys for Jessie Con-Ui, the federal inmate accused of killing a corrections officer from Nanticoke, are still at odds with prosecutors over the release of records needed to prepare his defense.

Chief among those documents, defense attorneys argued in federal paperwork filed Tuesday, are records concerning staff misconduct at the Canaan Federal Correction Complex near Waymart, where victim Eric Williams worked.

The attorneys’ filing also included a confidential report, prepared by a defense investigator, containing allegations of staff misconduct made by more than 40 inmates, including physical, verbal and emotional abuse.

Con-Ui, who faces the death penalty, stands accused of killing Williams, 34, in a premeditated February 2013 attack. According to the indictment, Con-Ui stabbed Williams with a sharpened weapon and struck him repeatedly.

Tuesday’s filing was submitted by defense attorneys Mark Fleming of San Diego, California, James Swetz of Stroudsburg and David Ruhnke of Montclair, New Jersey.

Con-Ui’s lawyers say he “must be allowed to investigate the incidents of staff misconduct at USP Caanan to determine whether the prevalence of misconduct fomented an environment in which an otherwise quiet and respectful inmate might lose control and lash out violently against a guard.”

Con-Ui is a convicted murderer and drug dealer from Arizona.

According to an FBI report filed in the case, Con-Ui said “I am sick of all your people’s disrespect” as he was taken from his cell.

One of the lieutenants, according to a prisoner identified only as Inmate 34 in the defense investigator’s report, arrived at the scene of Williams’ killing and yelled, “I’m going to kill the mother [expletive] when I find out who did this.”

Con-Ui has since been transferred to the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado, according to the Bureau of Prisons website.

Records battle

The lawyers pointed out that the government has argued against the release of staff misconduct records, calling them “overbroad, irrelevant and immaterial, and [are] not likely lead to information that would significantly” aid Con-Ui’s case.

The defense counters that statements from other Canaan inmates “provide disturbingly similar accounts of widespread staff misconduct and mistreatment of inmates,” who describe “how the conditions created by the staff at USP Canaan led to high levels of stress, fear and tension in C-Unit at the time of Officer Williams’ death.”

They further suggest that such records could assist the court “in determining whether the information may lead to evidence that, in a penalty phase, might cause a juror to consider imposing a sentence less than death.”

Defense attorneys also took aim at statements made by prosecutors during a March 5 conference call, in which they say the government replied that having to produce five years’ worth of staff misconduct records would create undue burden for the Bureau of Prisons.

The lawyers argue that the government has been ordered to disclose similar materials in other cases.

Other documents

Tuesday’s filing also outlines the status of other requests made by the defense. Among them:

• Also unresolved, the defense says, is its request for any reports or notes generated by the BOP regarding Williams’ killing.

“The government insists that no after-action inquiry was conducted by the BOP after Officer Williams was killed,” the defense says, but notes that “this would be a departure from the normal protocol following the death of a correctional officer at the hands of an inmate.”

“Minutes from a March 19, 2013 meeting with the warden of USP Canaan strongly suggest that there was an investigation,” the defense argues, and “that the investigation resulted in over one hundred recommendations for changes at the prison.”

As evidence, of this, the lawyers add, the minutes confirm that “changes are taking place because of what was submitted.”

• The defense says the government has refused to disclose a complete copy of post-orders for C-Unit.

“The defense must examine the complete post-orders to determine when Officer Williams last reported to the Control Center and whether the Control Center followed the correct procedures,” the lawyers wrote.

• The government has not yet disclosed the C-Unit lieutenant logbook for six months following Williams’ death, the defense says.

• The defense also wants the government to confirm whether any attempt was made to videotape a meeting between Con-Ui and chaplain Ngozi Osuji at USP Allenwood within days of the incident.

They also want all notes or emails which include any reference to the meeting, adding that a March 1, 2013 memorandum prepared by USP Allenwood Warden Donna Zickefoose directed conputer services to “retract an email from [Chaplain] Ngozi Osuji from all In Boxes and Sent boxes” that pertained to Con-Ui.

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