LOS ANGELES : Drug Charges Dismissed in Woman’s 1991 Conviction
A Los Angeles federal judge Monday dismissed drug charges against a woman convicted in 1991, upholding an appeals court’s ruling that a prosecutor’s misstatements to a jury denied her due process of law.
The action by U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie was prompted by a 1993 reversal by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which lambasted the prosecutor and the U.S. attorney’s office for failing to properly supervise him.
The appeals court gave Rafeedie the option of retrying the case or throwing out the charges. Rafeedie said he was bound by the appeals court’s finding of flagrant misbehavior by Assistant U.S. Atty. Jeffrey S. Sinek that resulted in substantial prejudice to defendant Chake G. Kojayan.
Kojayan was arrested in Los Angeles in June, 1991, with $100,000 of heroin, according to authorities.
Kojayan’s lawyer, Ronald J. Nessim, tried to persuade jurors that because a key player in the drug deal, Krikor Nourian, had not testified, they could infer that his testimony would damage the government’s case.
Sinek replied that jurors should make no such inference. He said that although Nourian had been arrested, he had a right to remain silent. That was untrue, the appeals court ruled.
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