A6 SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2016
Prosecutors: Stats dont tell full story
U.S. ATTORNEY FROM A1
The attorney gen-
eral is appointed by the
president, with Sen-
ate confirmation, and
oversees U.S. attorneys,
but he or she cannot
fire them. The president
appoints U.S. attorneys
to four-year terms with
the Senates approval,
and the president can
remove them.
The result is that
a crime that federal
prosecutors handle
in one district might
be declined or left for
state or county prosecu-
tors elsewhere. While
some districts focus on
intensely local issues
such as illegal immigra-
tion along the South-
west border or wildlife
protection in Western
Louisiana others
pursue national or even
international crimes
such as telemarketing
fraud and cybertheft, the
Trib found.
Choices to make
The disparities mean
some people have gotten
away with federal crimes
without being charged
by U.S. attorneys, experts
said.
It has to be true, said
James Eisenstein, a Penn
State University profes-
sor emeritus of political
science and criminology.
There are lots of
crimes around, and a
small proportion of them
come to the attention
of the authorities. Of
those cases, you cant
prosecute all of them,
he said.
The top federal
prosecutor for Western
Pennsylvania said tough
choices must be made.
We are judicious and
selective in implement-
ing our resources to
enforce the federal law in
an appropriate, sensible
way, said David Hick-
ton, the U.S. attorney
based in Pittsburgh. So
we dont enforce every
statute against every
miscreant every time.
That is not possible, and
that is not what the sys-
tem is designed to do.
U.S. attorneys in
Toledo and the rest
of the Northern Ohio
district declined three-
fourths, or 75.5 percent,
of the drug trafficking
complaints presented
there during the past
decade the highest
rate of any of the 94 fed-
eral districts, the Tribs
investigation revealed.
Just across the state line
in the Eastern Michigan
district, the Detroit-
based U.S. attorneys
office declined just 16.6
percent of such cases.
In southern California,
the declination rate on
drug trafficking com-
plaints was 1 in 50, or
1.9 percent.
Federal prosecutors
in Northern Ohio have
made major drug cases a
priority, focusing largely
on heroin, said spokes-
man Mike Tobin. Postal
2 of 4 agents captured before they could take part in attacks
TERROR FROM A1
to Europe with the refugees,
an ISIS commander said in an
interview over an encrypted
data service. Some of our
brothers have fulfilled their
mission, but others are still
waiting to be activated.
The accounts of the two men
who landed in Leros with plans
to die in France, only to stop
short of their goal, expose the
weaknesses in a haphazard sys-
tem that has produced risks of
unknown dimensions.
The Greeks failed in protect-
ing the borders into the EU,
said a senior European intel-
ligence official who, along with
11 other senior European, U.S.
and Arab officials interviewed
for this story, spoke on the con-
dition of anonymity.
And we all failed by not
pushing hard enough to estab-
lish that security, he said.
In September, just a few
weeks before the four men
landed on Leros, they were
invited to attend a secret meet-
ing in a central Syrian city
controlled by the Islamic State.
Two of them the ones
who would blow themselves
up outside the Stade de France
were later glorified in an Is-
lamic State video as unnamed
Uneven prosecution
Firearms/triggerlock
If youre a convicted felon carrying a
firearm, its better to get caught
on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe
than in California.
PROSECUTION RATE
Nevada EasternCalifornia
24.4% 84%
Illegal immigration
These cases
dominate the five
districts that run
along the Mexican
border, from
Southern California,
to Southern Texas.
Together, those
districts prosecuted
712,124 cases,
accounting for
90.2 percent of
immigration
prosecutions
nationwide.
PROSECUTION RATE
SouthernCalifornia
99.3%
Arizona
98.6%
NewMexico
99.8%
WesternTexas
99.6%
SouthernTexas
99.3%
Nationalaverage
88.9%
Sources: Tribune-Review research and Department of Justice
Why cases are turned down
Insufficientevidence
Prioritizationoffederalresourcesandinterests
Matterreferredtoanotherjurisdiction
Legallybarred
Alternativetofederalprosecutionappropriate
Service incidents might
account for the high
declination rate, he said,
noting that about 20
times a week, the office
seizes mailed mari-
juana without charging
anyone.
We dont generally de-
cline big cases from the
DEA, FBI or whoever,
Tobin said. Were doing
heroin cases nonstop.
Eastern Michigan
faces significant large-
scale drug trafficking
organizations that are
also engaged in gun
violence, spokeswoman
Gina Balaya said. The
district is a source for
heroin, prescription
pills and other danger-
ous drugs, providing a
pipeline to other states,
she said.
Uneven prosecution
Statistics alone do
not tell the full story,
Hickton said. Prosecuto-
rial decisions vary based
on criminal threats and
the level of interaction
with local prosecutors,
he said.
militants from Iraq. The other
men were Mohamed Usman, a
Pakistani who claims to be 23,
and Adel Haddadi, a 28-year-old
Algerian.
Haddadi had been on the
watch lists of Algerian intel-
ligence for his activities; Us-
man was suspected of links
to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a radical
Pakistani terror group tied to
the 2008 siege of Mumbai, ac-
cording to two senior European
security officials.
To get as far as Leros, the four
men were spirited out of Syria
and into Turkey, where they
made their way to the coast.
From there, they told investiga-
tors, they boarded a smugglers
raft laden with migrants. The
vast majority of asylum seek-
ers leaving Turkey were arriv-
ing on Greek islands some of
which are a 30-minute boat ride
away. The numbers of arrivals
were so large, in the thousands
per day, that Greece could not
handle the caseloads.
On the morning of Oct. 3, the
four terrorists tried to blend
in with the migrants who had
come ashore that day.
When their turn came, the
two Iraqi militants showed
authorities doctored Syrian
passports, according to the
classified French files obtained
Depending on which of the 94 U.S. attorney districts a crime
occurs in, some crimes draw more prosecutions than others.
Drug trafficking
If you get caught trafficking drugs in
Toledo, in the Northern Ohio district,
youre likely better off than if you are
north of the city in Eastern Michigan.
PROSECUTION RATE
Northern Ohio
24.5%
Lake
Tahoe
Nev.
Calif.
Ariz. N.M.
Texas
El Paso
Financial institution fraud
Its better to get busted for
check kiting in Chattanooga,
Tenn., which is in the states eastern
federal district, than across the
state line in Georgia.
PROSECUTION RATE
EasternTennessee NorthernGeorgia
12.2% 64.7%
Top 5 reasons federal prosecutors gave for declining
to pursue charges between 2005 and 2015:
NUMBER OF TIMES USED
61,126
28,609
17,109 Source: Tribune-Review analysis of Department of Justice data
Federal prosecutors
in South Carolina, for
example, declined 11
percent of counterfeiting
and forgery complaints
compared with a
declination rate of 64
percent in eastern North
Carolina. While state
prosecutors in South
Carolina have long back-
logs and fewer resources
for taking counterfeiting
cases, North Carolina
has a state law that over-
laps with the federal one
and a higher rate of local
enforcement, a Justice
Department spokesman
said.
Nevada has the most
firearms complaints in
the nation and the high-
est declination rate at
75.6 percent. Every com-
plaint gets entered into
the system, and federal
prosecutors work with
local district attorneys to
decide which cases each
will take based on federal
interest, severity of the
offense and the defen-
dants criminal history,
said Daniel Bogden, the
U.S. attorney for Nevada.
by The Post. Remains of the
documents found near their
bodies at the Stade de France
suggested they had come from
a cache of more than 3,800 pass-
ports all authentic seized
by the Islamic State in its major
advances in Syria in 2013.
The mens claims of being
Syrian asylum seekers were
not seriously questioned by the
EU border agency Frontex or
the Greeks. Along with dozens
of other migrants who landed
that day, they were not detained
and merely told to leave Greece
within six months.
Classified records show the
Iraqis who claimed to be Syrian
and who still have not been
identified quickly traveled
over land to Serbia, where they
registered Oct. 7 at a refugee
camp in Presevo. By November,
they had linked up with the
other assailants involved in the
Paris attacks.
On Nov. 13, they became the
only non-European born at-
tackers to take part in a series
of assaults in which nine men
killed 130 people at several loca-
tions in Paris.
Like the two Iraqis, Usman
and Haddadi produced falsi-
fied Syrian documents that
senior European intelligence
officials think came from the
EasternMichigan
83.4%
Mich.
M The predictability of
Toledo
Ohio
Arlington
Tenn.
Chattanooga
Melbourne
Vero Beach
Health care fraud
Its worse to get caught for health care fraud in Vero
Beach, Fla., than 35 miles up the road in Melbourne.
Federal prosecutors in South Florida, which includes
Vero Beach, have been tougher on health care fraud
than anywhere else in the country.
PROSECUTION RATE
SouthernFlorida
74.7%
99,055
We jointly decide with
our task force partners
who can get the best
bang for the prosecu-
tion buck, Bogden said.
Our numbers are going
to look a bit skewed, but
each of those firearm
cases is being given at-
tention.
Prosecutors in the
Middle Florida district
prosecute civil cases
of health care fraud as
well as criminal cases,
which is one reason
their declination rate on
criminal cases is higher
than southern Florida,
spokesman William C.
Daniels explained.
The types of health
care fraud cases prose-
cuted in (Middle Florida)
are often complex, labor
intensive and time-
consuming to pursue.
Despite these variables,
the (district) remains
committed to working
with its partners to in-
vestigate and prosecute
these types of cases,
Daniels said.
U.S. attorneys need
the freedom to assign
same Islamic State stash of
seized passports. But when
questioned by Frontex, the
two men, unlike the Iraqis,
crumbled.
Usman, a Pakistani, did not
speak Arabic well quickly
betraying his claim to be Syr-
ian. Haddadi knew almost
nothing about Aleppo, the city
he said was his birthplace.
Under EU guidelines, the
most the agency could do was
pass them to the Greeks. So
thats what they did, and the
local authorities promptly
lumped them in with a then-
surging backlog of migrants
who were using fake docu-
ments to enter the system.
In what became a customary
practice in Greece, Usman and
Haddadi received suspended
three-month sentences and an
order to leave the country with-
in a month. It didnt matter
how or which way they went.
Upon gaining their freedom
on Oct. 28, Haddadi, the more
senior of the two, quickly sent
a text via the messaging app
WhatsApp to their ISIS handler
in Syria.
We need money, it simply
said, according to intelligence
officials with access to the
pairs phone records.
That money arrived via the
Simple drug possession
A person caught with drugs in Arlington, Va.,
is more likely to face federal charges of
simple drug possession than someone
arrested in the District of Columbia.
PROSECUTION RATE
EasternVirginia DistrictofColumbia
99.4% 26.7%
Washington
Va.
a people can understand
N.C. Counterfeiting
and forgery
S.C. Counterfeiters in Myrtle
Myrtle Beach face a tough
Ga.
Beach criminal path compared with
those caught just across
Fla. the state line in North
Carolina.
PROSECUTION RATE
SouthCarolina
EasternDistrict
ofNorthCarolina
89% 35.7%
MiddleFlorida
38.7%
E. DENISE SHEAN | TRIBUNE-REVIEW
171,324 You could have
a difference in
Youngstown,
Ohio, from New
Castle, where the
U.S. attorney in
Cleveland
would do it en-
tirely different
than me. Or not.
Its the way its
supposed to be.
David Hickton,
U.S. Attorney for
Western Pennsylvania
resources where they
are most needed based
on regional priorities,
Eisenstein and other
legal experts said.
The top prosecutor
in each district sets
guidelines for what types
of cases to pursue and
thresholds such as
the amount of money
stolen or drugs discov-
ered that must be met
before bringing charges.
Those decisions affect
the types of matters
the FBI, Drug Enforce-
ment Administration
and other federal law
enforcement agencies
same method often used by
migrants a wire from Tur-
key to Greece. Now flush with
cash, the men continued their
journey.
They were only 25 days be-
hind their Islamic State com-
rades traveling to Paris.
They received fresh orders
to stay put.
The men entered Austria
without passports and offered
fake names, while this time
claiming to be from their real
countries. On Dec. 4, both ap-
plied for asylum in Austria,
then took up residence in a
teeming refugee center a
converted truck storage depot
about a mile from the Ger-
man border.
Their phone records show
they had begun reaching out to
contacts across Europe a list
that, investigators say, included
other newly arrived migrants
and longer-term immigrants
tied to the regions criminal
underworld.
European authorities initi-
ated a massive investigation
after the Paris attacks and were
beginning to retrace the at-
tackers steps. After finding a
Syrian passport at the Stade
de France, investigators ran
fingerprints and discovered
that two of the dead men had
present to prosecutors.
On the one hand, you
can say, Its one country
and we should have uni-
form justice, Eisenstein
said. On the other hand,
you say, Its a diverse
country and you ought
to take into account local
culture and local condi-
tions.
But uneven pros-
ecution undermines
public trust in the justice
system, said Anthony C.
Thompson, clinical law
professor at New York
University School of
Law.
justice is very important
for our democracy,
Thompson said. That
that they will be charged
and treated similarly for
similar conduct is very
important. When you be-
gin to change that based
on a political party in
the White House or ... the
policies of a unique, indi-
vidual U.S. attorney
and maybe that persons
political ambition it
gets worse.
The public has few
ways of judging how U.S.
attorneys make their
decisions. The Justice
Department withholds
the names, ages and
addresses of victims and
suspects from its Nation-
al Caseload Data, citing
a Freedom of Informa-
tion Act exemption for
unwarranted invasion of
privacy.
Federal prosecutors
must state why they de-
clined to pursue charges
in each complaint. Docu-
ments the Trib reviewed
showed that during the
past decade, the reason
most often cited was
weak or insufficient evi-
dence. The second most
common reason was
prioritization of federal
resources and interests.
Beyond that, prosecu-
tors provide few details.
All of that means the
public has little ability to
judge whether prosecu-
tors are acting judicious-
ly or following personal
biases and whims, said
Cassia Spohn, a criminal
justice professor at Ari-
zona State University.
Sort of the black box
or the great void in our
knowledge is prosecuto-
rial decisions and how
they make those deci-
sions, Spohn said. We
know that theyre moti-
vated by convictions, by
the likelihood of getting
a conviction, and they
dont want to lose. But
beyond that, its kind of
a giant black hole. ... We
cant hold them account-
able for the decisions
that they make.
Coming Monday:
Prosecution priorities in
Western Pennsylvania.
Andrew Conte is a member of the
Tribune-Review investigations team.
Reach him at 412-320-7835 or
andrewconte@tribweb.com. Brian
Bowling is a Tribune-Review staff
writer. Reach him at 412-325-4301
or bbowling@tribweb.com.
arrived in Greece as Syrian mi-
grants on Oct. 3. With the aid of
German and U.S. intelligence, a
manifest of the days migrant
arrivals including photos
was run through databases
and a face-recognition system
of known radicals and Islamic
State terrorists, according to a
senior European intelligence
official.
The searches returned two
hits men also claiming to
be Syrian who had arrived
that day, leading authorities to
Salzburg.
During 150 hours of inter-
rogation, both men told their
stories. They are being held in
an undisclosed jail in Austria.
Based on their testimony, in-
vestigators are pursuing vari-
ous leads that have led to the
arrest of two migrants in the
Salzburg camp where the men
were living.
Officials expect that the two
men will ultimately be extra-
dited to France to stand trial
in connection with the Paris
attacks.
They are sad because they
are still alive, because they feel
they should have been mar-
tyrs, a European security of-
ficial said. They are sad they
did not die with the others in
France.