Dan Saunders, who was a senior homicide attorney in Brooklyn at the time, declined to comment on this particular case, but in an interview he emphasized the importance of sharing such information no matter the timing.
"Whether a case is pending or the person has already been convicted or served their sentence, if we get something exculpatory, there's always an obligation to investigate it and turn it over," he said.
Feldman said Leeper never struck her as the kind of aggressive prosecutor so driven to win that he might break the rules to do so.
"It seemed to me that he was a very upfront guy," Feldman said. "He was not overly zealous; I didn't feel like he was out to kill like some of the other prosecutors out there."
Uncertain Fate
The April 8, 2014, proceeding before Brooklyn Judge Matthew D'Emic was brief, if momentous.
Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Mark Hale, in consenting to Jonathan Fleming's release from prison after 24 years, quickly laid out the rationale.
"The documentary evidence, and I'm talking specifically about the receipt from the Florida hotel and the interviews with the employees at the hotel2026was not available to the defense at trial," Hale told D'Emic. "We uncovered that in an investigation2026And it supports the defendant's alibi to such an extent that had it been available at the trial, the likely result of it would've been different. And for that reason we ask that the conviction be vacated."
D'Emic accepted a motion to dismiss Fleming's conviction, and pandemonium ensued in the courtroom.
Reporters from every major newspaper and television channel in New York were there to record an overjoyed Fleming celebrating with his family. His story went viral. A Wall Street banker started an Internet campaign that raised nearly $50,000 to help Fleming get back on his feet; the donations came from more than 600 people in at least 14 different countries.
But little was said about Leeper. Few news articles even mentioned his name. And he went on prosecuting a full load of cases.
Less than a month ago, at least five of his cases were moving toward trial, according to court records. They included the case against Magnan, the young man arrested with a casing in his shoe that matched a bullet in a murder victim's head, and another, thornier case involving the alleged murder of 50-year-old Robert Reichl.
According to 2013 news accounts, Reichl was lured to the roof of an apartment building in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn with the promise of sex for money. Allegedly, a group of men attacked him, stole his money, and pushed him off the roof. Three men have been charged in the crime, but at least two claim they're innocent.
Howard Greenberg, an attorney representing one of the accused, said he'd come to know and respect Leeper over the years. Greenberg said if Leeper is proven to have intentionally withheld evidence in the Fleming case, he will have no sympathy for him. But until then, Greenberg said he was not uncomfortable with Leeper continuing to try cases.
"He's a guy that I like and I have found to be above board," Greenberg said. "But let's put it this way, anyone who knew something like that was there and didn't turn it over is going to hell. I'm not pulling punches."
The lack of sanctions against New York prosecutors shown to have engaged in misconduct has been the focus of a ProPublica investigation for more than a year. The investigation found that such prosecutors almost never endure real punishment for their lapses, even when their misconduct is so egregious that it lands the innocent in prison.
Kenneth Thompson, Brooklyn's new district attorney, had pledged during his 2013 campaign that he would rehabilitate the office's reputation on wrongful convictions. And since taking the helm in January, he seems serious about keeping his word. He's vacated the convictions of six people prosecuted under Hynes and he's named some respected legal minds to establish his own version of the Conviction Integrity Unit. He has hired Ronald Sullivan, a Harvard legal ethics professor, to lead the effort.
But to date, there has been no word on Leeper's fate for his role in the Fleming case, a state of uncertainty that has only added to the confusion among his many admirers.
"I worked with him and for him, and I'd do it again," said one former colleague. "He was intelligent, he understood how to try cases, and he was fair 2014 never a win at all costs kind of guy."
For their part, Fleming's lawyers say Leeper's failure was grossly negligent, and blame for it is shared by everyone involved in the case.
"What I truly believe is that everyone on that side is at fault," said Taylor Koss, the former Brooklyn prosecutor and Leeper protégé. "If they had stood up to their ethical obligations, all of this information would've been sent over and all of this could've been avoided."
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