You really don’t want to tick off Emmet Sullivan. Thundering from the federal bench last week, he sure sounded ticked off.
“I think that it’s really unfortunate that the citizens of the District of Columbia have to pay for these types of shenanigans,” Judge Sullivan said. “and that’s putting it mildly.”
The “shenanigans” referred to how the city and the police department managed to lose so much evidence in the case involving the arrest of some protesters — and hundreds of bystanders — at Pershing Park during the 2002 meetings of the World Bank.
Police reports of the day’s actions, the “running resumes?” Gone.
Radio tapes from the day in question? Missing hours of chatter.
E-mails to and from the police department? Disappeared.
“It raises serious questions about when, if ever, can anyone ever trust their government,” Sullivan said. “These are serious, serious problems.”
When Sullivan refers to “their government,” he’s referring to his government. The esteemed federal judge is a home boy in the truest sense.
Sullivan grew up in the Brookland neighborhood, not far from Catholic University. His parents taught in the D.C. public schools. He went to McKinley High, where he was a respected intellectual rather than a jock. He graduated from Howard University in 1968 and Howard Law in 1971. He did a year in the D.C. streets working for legal services before he went into private practice.
Three different presidents put Sullivan into three different judgeships: Ronald Reagan appointed him to Superior Court; George Bush (41) moved him up to the federal court of appeals; Bill Clinton nominated him to the federal district court in 1994.
From the streets of his home town to the federal bench, friends and lawyers have learned one thing: “Don’t cross the dude.”
Federal prosecutors crossed Sullivan when they went after former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens for corruption. After listening to months of testimony, Sullivan threw out the case against Stevens and put the prosecutors in the dock for shoddy legal work. So D.C. lawyers trying to defend the cops must have wet their pants when Sullivan said last Wednesday: “This case is taking on a new identity, and it sounds more and more like the civil counterpart of Ted Stevens.”
The case is relatively simple: cops swept up innocent bystanders during the protest and threw them in jail. Charles Ramsey, chief at the time, apologized. Hundreds sued the city, and many settled for monetary damages. But 400 others are still in court. And the city had botched the case. And ticked off the judge.
The city might be wise to settle the cases, which will now cost many millions in fees alone, but Sullivan might impose sanctions on the city and call in investigators to find the “missing” documents.
He will want to find who lied to him, and when, and about what. “He’s going to find out,” says a lawyer who’s followed Sullivan. “And there will be hell to pay.”
E-mail Harry Jaffe at [email protected]
