![]() But the murder charge was a killer.Īuerhahn had a cooperating witness willing to testify about Ferrara's involvement in a murder. With a degree of candor that's disarming, Ferrara says, "there was so much evidence against me for lesser crimes" that he was inclined to reach a plea deal with the prosecutor in order to serve less time. Over a recent cup of coffee, Ferrara reflects: "I am what I am. You never, ever, ever expect a prosecutor - a fellow attorney - to do what Auerhahn is accused of. Paraded into court with a mob of Mafia soldiers attached arm and arm to federal agents, Ferrara was indicted for racketeering and related charges of extortion, gambling and murder. They dubbed him “Vinnie the Animal." And they caged him in 1989, after the FBI bugged a Mafia induction ceremony. Vincent FerraraĪuerhahn and the Organized Crime Strike Force considered Ferrara a very dangerous man. One of his targets was Vincent Ferrara, who was a "Capo" - a captain in the local Mafia - and an up-and-comer. ![]() attorney’s office and the war on organized crime, which, in Boston, meant the war against the Mafia. The roots of Jeffrey Auerhahn's current problems reach to the 1980s, when he joined the U.S. attorney could face potential suspension or disbarment by local authorities. Unsatisfied by the response of the Justice Department to the allegations against Auerhahn, Wolf has triggered local disciplinary proceedings. Mark Wolf is the chief judge of the federal Court of Massachusetts. One of several judges who now question whether the Department of Justice is capable of policing itself sits in Boston. He’s never been publicly reprimanded or disciplined by the U.S. They’ve called his behavior “outrageous," “egregious," "feckless" and “painting a grim picture of blatant misconduct." Yet seven years later, Auerhahn remains on the job as a federal prosecutor here in Boston. Yet both a federal judge and the federal Court of Appeals, in upholding the judge, found that Auerhahn, the career prosecutor, did just that. To do it when the charges involve murder is even worse. You can make no more serious accusation against a federal prosecutor than that he withheld evidence of a defendant’s possible innocence. "You never, ever, ever expect a prosecutor - a fellow attorney - to do what Auerhahn is accused of doing," he says. Grossberg still expresses amazement at what the court hearings uncovered. Grossberg knows the case well he represented one of two defendants who a federal judge found were deprived of their rights to a fair trial because of Auerhahn's misconduct. Attorney Jeffrey Auerhahn, who has become the local face of that problem for the Justice Department. Here in Boston, Grossberg is thinking about Assistant U.S. Grossberg is talking about the problem of misconduct and what he and some other attorneys and even some judges call the growing penchant by federal prosecutors across the country to withhold evidence from defendants. And if a prosecutor has all that power and is unethical, it just destroys the justice system." District Judge Emmet SullivanĪttorney Bernard Grossberg looks out on Boston Harbor and remembers what a lecturer once said in law school: "An ethical, competent prosecutor is worth a thousand defense lawyers. We must never forget the Supreme Court's direction that a criminal trial is the search for the truth. In this first report of a three-part series, we consider the crucial evidence that Auerhahn never turned over. Those critics question whether Justice can police itself. The case raises troubling questions from critics who worry that withholding evidence has become a tactic of some federal prosecutors. Worse, a judge ruled Auerhahn knew he lied - and covered it up. Auerhahn thought he had a smoking gun in a witness who testified that Ferrara ordered a hit. The operation was called “Tunnel Vision," which would prove a fitting description for Auerhahn's alleged rule breaking to bring down his target. Attorney Jeffrey Auerhahn joined Boston’s war on organized crime, he turned his focus to an up-and-coming mobster named Vincent Ferrara. Attorney Jeffrey Auerhahn on the Organized Crime Strike Force in the 1980s. Martin Coleman, now retired, who worked alongside Assistant U.S. Vincent 'The Animal' Ferrara is arrested in 1989 on racketeering and related charges. Twitter facebook Email This article is more than 13 years old.
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