Judge Accused of Misconduct as Prosecutor

On June 19, 2003, Circuit Judge D. Warren Donohue vacated the conviction and granted Lynn a new trial, ruling that the defendant's lawyer's "performance at trial was deficient." Donohue wrote that "the state's key witness, the only witness linking [Lynn] to the crime, was extremely vulnerable to a cross-examination using the additional impeachment issues which a proper investigation would have uncovered." Appeals delayed the final order for a retrial.

In preparation for the new trial, Griffiths examined confidential informant reports for Sandy and other documents that he said had not been available to the initial defense lawyer.

Griffiths said that in May he was provided with a Sept. 27, 1997, note hand-written by Boynton when he was prosecuting the case. Griffiths says that in the note, Boynton summarized a phone conversation with the lead homicide detective on the case. Griffiths argues in his motion that the note is evidence that Sandy was paid for her cooperation in the case. The note has two exhibit numbers, raising the possibility that it has been provided to the defense in the past.

The note says that the homicide detective, Edward Tarney, told Boynton that when Sandy went to the courthouse to testify before the grand jury she was "ticked off." She wanted cash, but McCarthy, who was then a deputy state's attorney, wouldn't authorize it, the note says. Tarney, who is now retired, said Sandy wouldn't return his calls but spoke to Hamill because he "feeds" her money, according to the note. The last sentence in the note says: "Can she get $ for coming to meetings and [court]?"

The next day, Boynton, Hamill and Sandy met at a Rockville restaurant, where she was paid $100 after they discussed the homicide case and spoke about drug investigations, according to a police record.

An earlier informant payment report, filed June 21, 1994, says that Sandy accompanied narcotics and homicide detectives to Prince George's County, where she identified Lynn. She was paid $200, including $100 by homicide detectives, who were later reimbursed by the narcotics division, according to a police report. At the time of the trial, Sandy had been paid about $3,250 for informant work over 3 1/2 years, according to a court filing.

Police supervisors generally approve an amount of money to be paid to informants in intervals. The $200 payment was part of $1,000 approved to be paid to Sandy for her help in narcotics investigations.

When the case goes to trial this month, in addition to a full-court attack on the credibility of the state's witness, prosecutors will have to wrestle with one additional complication: Joseph Kopera, the ballistics expert who testified in the case, committed suicide in March after a Baltimore lawyer discovered that he had lied about his qualifications.