Full Disclosure | E3 Exposing a Liar

December 13, 2022·35 min·2 clips

Prosecutor Elizabeth Lake told the jury: 'You have an officer who testified — that's it. End of inquiry.'

The warning comes first. Before the reporting picks back up, listeners hear that the story includes descriptions of assault and sexual violence tied to earlier allegations. Then the pattern gets harder to ignore. Two women had accused the same Phoenix police officer of sexual misconduct. He denied it. A jury believed him. His superiors backed him too, while allegations about misconduct and lying stayed out of view. Dave Biskabing found the pattern. His reporting looked at officers with bad records whose past conduct did not come up when their testimony mattered. The legal hinge is Brady. The host walks through Brady v. Maryland, the Supreme Court case requiring prosecutors and law enforcement to disclose evidence that could help a defendant. The point is simple. If an arresting officer has been caught lying, committing a crime, or raising integrity concerns, that can change how a jury hears the testimony. A defendant has a right to know that. Some prosecutors kept Brady lists, records of officers whose histories could undermine them in court. But the list did not save Frances. A cop with a history of lying testified against her, and his past stayed hidden. The episode sits with that failure: the rule was there, but the evidence was not disclosed. Frances went to jail. Biskabing's next question widens the story, asking how many officers moved between counties while misconduct histories failed to follow them.

As heard by us

A sober look at how hidden misconduct can survive inside the justice system.

An uneasy look at a hard legal question with real consequences: what happens when an officer's credibility should follow him, but does not. The episode is strongest when it moves from the allegation to Brady disclosures, then shows how those protections can still fail the people…

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Why you'd press play

You want the legal backstory behind a police credibility scandal.

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