The Indictment alleges they concealed evidence from the defense and presented false evidence to the court:
The indictment alleges that Convertino and Smith concealed photographs of a key site from the defendants and others at trial, and presented false testimony indicating that they were unable to obtain photographs of the site. According to the indictment, Smith testified falsely at trial the he had not and could not take photographs of Queen Alia Hospital. In fact, the indictment alleges that at the time Smith testified, he had already taken photographs of the site and, when they did not come out well enough, he asked colleagues to take additional photographs of the site for Convertino. The indictment charges that Convertino received the additional photographs of the site, but concealed them from the defense and others.
Convertino is also charged with obstruction of justice in another case in which he allegedly gave false information to a judge to obtain a lesser sentence for a cooperating individual.
Convertino is also charged with obstructing justice in a second criminal case, United States v. John Doe, in which it is alleged that Convertino presented false information in a sentencing hearing in order to obtain an unusual downward departure for a defendant, from a guidelines range of 108 to 135 months imprisonment to just eight months with credit for all of it already served.
At the sentencing hearing, the judge told Convertino, the defendant and the defense attorney: "I have never seen such a gross disparity between the sentencing guidelines and the Rule 11 plea agreement. So I must have some very good reasons for the difference."
According to today's indictment, as part of satisfying the judge's demand at the sentencing hearing, Convertino falsely suggested that the original narcotics prosecutor had doubts about the accuracy of the amounts of drugs attributed to the defendant. The indictment also charges that Convertino misled the court about the nature and extent of the defendant's cooperation with the government.
TalkLeft covered the Detroit terror trial and Convertino extensively. See here here and here as background.
