The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office has told prosecutors that a pair of public defenders are under investigation for possible witness tampering and has asked the court to remove the duo from a 2020 murder case for trying to intimidate a key witness from testifying.
The motion, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court last month, came less than a week after the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s office tried unsuccessfully to remove state prosecutor Shawn Abuhoff from the same case for allegedly trying to intimidate the same witness.
Prosecutors now claim the attorneys defending the alleged murderer hired a private investigator who tried to rattle the state’s key witness by impersonating a police officer and calling her a “rat” as the two sat in a car near her apartment. One of the public defenders, the state claims, listened in on a cellphone for at least part of the conversation.
The latest tit-for-tat between prosecutors and defense attorneys has escalated a simmering feud between the two public legal entities in which both parties have threatened to, or attempted to, have each other removed in several high-profile cases over the past few months.
The competing legal motions — which have nothing to do with guilt or innocence — have triggered trial delays and only served to heighten anxieties for those involved in the trial, according to some legal experts.
“The fighting back and forth is not helpful,” said former Miami-Dade prosecutor and civil rights attorney Melba Pearson. “That’s because who gets caught in the middle are the victims and the defendants.”
Stems from prosecutors removed from case
The wrestling match between the two sides began in March when state prosecutors Michael Von Zamft and Stephen Mitchell were removed from one of the court’s most high-profile cases, the re-sentencing of gang leader Corey Smith, convicted of four murders and suspected of taking part in others.
READ MORE: Miami-Dade prosecutor removed from murder case a paradox: Hero to some, villain to others
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Andrea Wolfson was incensed at a jailhouse phone call by Von Zamft in which he appeared to be coaching an informant and telling him to get his expected testimony in line with other jailed witnesses. Mitchell, Wolfson said, was removed for his defense of Von Zamft’s conduct.
Since that ruling, the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers has put together a binder listing instances of what it perceives to be prosecutorial misconduct by the state attorney’s office dating back a decade. Association members have also met with State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and demanded reform.
Defense attorneys have also requested the removal of either the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office or specific assistant state prosecutors in other high-profile cases since Von Zamft’s removal. Included among them are the murder trial of OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney and the prosecution of two former Hialeah police officers charged with kidnapping and beating a well-known homeless man.
New claims of witness tampering
The latest salvo by the state attorney came on the heels of a failed attempt last month by Assistant Miami-Dade Public Defender Natalie Ender to have Abuhoff removed from the murder trial of Jamal Marcus Pratt. Pratt, 37, was charged with second-degree murder after allegedly shooting a man he was fighting with, three times in early January 2020 in Liberty City.
READ MORE: Judge denies misconduct charge, refuses to remove state prosecutor from 2020 murder case
Ender claimed Abuhoff and a police officer showed up near key witness Bridet Lampley’s home and banged on the window of a car she was seated in to try and intimidate her. But Judge Wolfson denied the motion, saying it appeared to be a “crazy” coincidence that the prosecutor showed up at the same time Lampley was speaking with private investigator Pedro Fernandez. Lampley allegedly witnessed the killing and is scheduled to testify at trial.
The state quickly turned the tables, claiming to the court that Fernandez purposely tried to portray himself as a cop to Lampley. He also showed mugshots of her after a recent arrest to her neighbors to try and intimidate her and told the witness while inside the vehicle that she didn’t have to testify, court records show.
Abuhoff also says in the complaint that much of the conversation inside the vehicle took place with Assistant Miami-Dade Public Defender Lauren Dawson listening in on her cellphone. He said he could hear her voice while he knocked on the car window to get Lampley’s attention.
He’s asked that Ender and Dawson be removed from the case.
“Their actions of tampering with a witness have made them witnesses themselves and created conflicts that this court can not ignore,” Abuhoff wrote in the complaint.
The complaint was followed this week by an email from Miami-Dade State Attorney Deputy Chief Christine Zahralban to prosecutors warning that Ender and Dawson were under criminal investigation and that the office was “in the process” of deciding whether to file charges.
“Please make sure that the record reflects that the defendant has promptly been advised that the attorney is under criminal investigation and has a pending/possible criminal charge and that the attorney might have a conflict in her representation,” Zahralban wrote.
The Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office had not responded to requests for comment by Friday afternoon.
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