The Cannibal Cop ruling has some of Bernie Madoff’s former cronies licking their chops.
After being convicted for taking part in the Ponzi monster’s plot, five ex-staffers are hungry to try the defense tactic that got former Officer Gilberto Valle sprung from jail.
Andrew Frisch, a lawyer for former Madoff operations chief Daniel Bonventre, wrote Manhattan federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain a letter Tuesday on behalf of his client and other ex-staffers convicted in March for their role in Madoff’s epic $65 billion rip-off.
They had previously filed papers seeking acquittal by accusing Assistant US Attorney Randall Jackson of “prosecutorial misconduct” during their trial.
Frisch is trying to strengthen that argument by claiming that the judge in Valle’s trial addressed similar claims against Jackson when opting Monday to overturn Valle’s March 2013 conviction of conspiring to kidnap and eat women.
“The same prosecutor crossed the line . . . and subverted the efforts for a fair trial,” Frisch wrote to Swain.
Judge Paul Gardephe’s 118-page ruling in Valle’s case didn’t address Jackson by name but noted “the government tended to undermine or contradict the court’s prior rulings and jury instructions, raising concerns about whether … the jury’s verdict was the product of unfair prejudice.”
But Gardephe also made clear that his opinion “makes no finding” as to “whether the government’s arguments to the jury, justify a new trial” for Valle. That decision he reached through different factors.
During the trial of the ex-Madoff staffers earlier this year, defense lawyers objected when Jackson compared the defendants to bank robbers and drug dealers who left behind bullet casings and fingerprints.
They also objected to Jackson’s reference to criminal behavior in “The Godfather” films during closing arguments, saying it had nothing to do with the case.