Policy

Carmen Ortiz Blew a Gang Arrest By Nabbing Wrong Person

The prosecutor in the Aaron Swartz case is not only cruel, but also incompetent

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Carmen Ortiz is not having a good month. The US Attorney who was in charge of the ridiculous Aaron Swartz prosecution—and now has over 50,000 people asking the White House to fire her—now will have to deal with an official investigation by Congress into that particular case. A bipartisan pair of Congressional representatives, Darrell Issa and Elijah Cummings—who are basically the top dogs from each party on the House Oversight and Government Reform committee—have officially kicked off their investigation. …

But, of course, that's not all that is weighing on Carmen Ortiz. Last week, we noted, she lost a highly questionable case in which it appears she tried to seize a family-owned motel based on some trumped up charges concerning drug deals, even though there weren't that many drug problems there (less than others in the area) and the owners of the motel had worked with law enforcement to try to crack down on them.

And… that's not all. Today there's news of an even bigger embarrassment as it appears that Ortiz had to go to court to admit that her office arrested the wrong man in a gang takedown a few weeks ago. Basically, her office is coming to the conclusion—weeks later—that one of the guys arrested may just look like the guy they wanted.