It’s rare for prosecutors to face real scrutiny. “Absolute immunity” allows them to pretty much skate away after maliciously prosecuting an innocent person.
And even when prosecutors are held accountable for their actions, the punishment is minuscule compared to what their victims endure. Take, for instance, Mike Nifong, the prosecutor who went after the Duke Lacrosse team in order to get re-elected. When the case fell apart, Nifong was disbarred and spent one day in jail. That, compared to the scorn, threats and condemnation of the lacrosse players he maligned.
Now we have Mary Kellett, the former assistant district attorney for Hancock County in Maine. In 2007, a man named Vladek Filler was accused of and charged with beating and sexually assaulting his then-wife for the previous two years. The two were locked in a bitter divorce when she made the accusation. She also claimed he molested their children.
Kellett prosecuted the case, and edited video of Filler’s wife admitting she only made the accusations to get custody of the children in the divorce.
Filler’s wife was being interviewed by police about her accusations against her husband. When the police officer left the room, the wife told her friend she accused Filler as her way of “fighting for the children” in the divorce. This friend then told her to cry when the officer came back, and she did.
Kellett didn’t turn over this part of the video to Filler’s defense despite requests from his attorney for the full video of his wife’s interview.
Without this portion of the video, Filler was convicted in 2009, but that conviction was vacated after the defense filed a motion for a new trial, claiming the prosecution made an improper argument to the jury. Before Filler’s new trial began, a divorce court discovered that his wife had abused the children, made false accusations of Filler’s abuse and even threatened to kill her husband.
Still, in 2011, Filler was convicted again of several assault charges against him. He eventually filed a complaint against Kellett, alleging she had withheld exculpatory evidence, which included the police interview and a 911 call from his wife just before she claimed he assaulted her in which she asked the dispatcher for help finding her cat.
In 2013, Kellett was sanctioned for her conduct during this case. She underwent remediation training and the Maine Board of Overseers determined she violated the rules of the bar. She was not disbarred. She’s the only prosecutor in Maine history to be sanctioned, even if her punishment was nothing but a few hours of training.
Filler was exonerated in 2015 and is now suing Kellett. She is appealing a ruling from earlier this year that allowed Filler’s case to move forward.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a “friend of the court” brief for Filler, arguing Kellett broke the law by withholding exculpatory evidence. Kellett now works in private practice and hasn’t been charged with any crimes.
Prosecutors should be held accountable when they pervert the justice system and punish innocent people. Prosecutors should not be above the law or be granted “absolute immunity” when they go after someone when the evidence suggests they are innocent.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
