Is there a “liars list” used by some Maryland prosecutors to weed out police officers who have perjured themselves from the ones whose testimony will be reliable in court? That issue is discussed by Baltimore Sun columnist Gregory Kane. Two Baltimore detectives face a police department inquiry about whether one or both falsified information in a warrant affidavit. Should the detectives belong on the liars’ list? “I’ve heard of the list,” said Margaret Mead, lawyer for the suspect in the disputed case. “But as far as a physical list that I’ve seen? No. But I understand it does exist.”
Mead caught the not-so-minor error of a car’s arrival at a police station three hours before the search warrant was signed. You’d think cops would know that lawyers – who have gone through four years of college, three years of law school and have passed the bar exam – would pick up on things like that. Margaret Burns, a spokeswoman for the state’s attorney’s (prosecutor’s) office, said, “We have a list internally that’s maintained by a division chief regarding police misconduct. If a police officer is under investigation for perjury and is a potential witness, we give that information to defense attorneys. It’s part of the rules of discovery.”
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