Judge Removed and Barred in Georgia

Who says some judges aren't ignorant, rude, and unprofessional?

Here's an amazing news story of a high-school educated probate judge, Kenneth E. Fowler (pictured), in rural Georgia who got sacked this week.

Law. com reports:

 The Supreme Court of Georgia on Monday ordered the permanent removal of a Twiggs County probate judge from the bench and barred him from ever holding or seeking judicial office. In an 11-page ruling, the court unanimously found that Twiggs County Probate Judge Kenneth E. Fowler had violated the state's judicial canon of ethics and that his conduct "shows that he is simply unwilling to live up to his legal and ethical responsibilities as a judge." 

The high court also dismissed Fowler's contentions that any judicial misconduct in which he may have engaged stemmed from unintentional errors and a lack of legal education. Fowler has a high school education, which is all that the state mandates for probate judges in its less populated counties. Instead, the Supreme Court found that Fowler had demonstrated judicial incompetence, disregarded the law, taken actions that eroded public trust and confidence in the judiciary, engaged in behavior inappropriate for a judge and showed a lack of judicial decorum and temperament.

"His ignorance of the law is inexcusable, and his abuse of his judicial office unacceptable," the court opinion stated. "Indeed, we cannot expect that members of the public will respect the law and remain confident in our judiciary while judges who do not respect and follow the law themselves remain on the bench."

Tossing the Key Away in Michigan

A federal appeals court struck down the decision to release the final five so-called Michigan Militia members. Once a hot issue, the national media has ignored the story since the case started to crumble.

U.S. Attorneys under the Obama Administration are following the steps of Rove Republican Racket and arresting people because of their political views and hateful speech. 

The Associated Press reported:

Five members of a Midwest militia charged with conspiring to rebel against the government and use weapons of mass destruction will remain in jail while awaiting trial, an appeals court said Tuesday, reversing a decision by a federal judge. Each man is dangerous and "no conditions of release will reasonably assure the safety of the community," two judges on the three-judge panel said. During a series of raids in late March, authorities arrested nine members of a southern Michigan group called Hutaree. The government claims they were scheming to kill a police officer, then attack law enforcement who attended the funeral, in the first steps toward a broader rebellion.

Over prosecutors' objections, U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts had said they could await trial at home under strict conditions, including electronic monitors. The government later dropped its opposition to releasing four but took her decision on the other five to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Defense lawyers say the men legally possessed weapons and that any talk of killing people was simply stupid, hateful speech with no specific targets planned.

Can of Worms Explodes

Our friends at Pittsburgh Post Gazette  have opened a delicious can of worms and the Rove Republican Racket should begin to sweat.

It appears U.S. Attorneys from around the country were racking up frequent flyer miles at the expense of Uncle Sam.

Even the Main Justice blog site has picked up the story.

The Post Gazette writes:

Mary Beth Buchanan spent more than half of her eight years as U.S. attorney in the Western District of Pennsylvania on the road, racking up at least 347 trips that cost taxpayers more than $450,000. Ms. Buchanan, a Republican who stepped down in November, a year after a Democrat won the White House, and other U.S. attorneys often were permitted to sign off on their own travel and then get rubber-stamp approval from the Executive Office of United States Attorneys. In March, however, the Department of Justice under the Obama administration changed those regulations after reviewing travel by all 93 U.S. attorneys. The department now requires approval for out-of-district travel from the director or deputy director of the executive office. "The previous policies and procedures were admittedly inconsistent," said department spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz. "Changes to the process were made to ensure full compliance with departmental travel policies and procedure and to strengthen controls and oversight of U.S. attorney travel."

The change of regulations is not the story. The real story is where, why, and when did these Rove Republicans travel? Was it political work? Were they justified in traveling so much or were they sightseeing at taxpayer expense?

It's time for the Congressional Oversight Committees to issue subpoenas and make these free-spenders pay.

Supreme Court Disbowels Honest Services Law Half-Way

Breaking News:  U.S. Supreme Court weighs in on Rove Republican Racket's strongest weapon to incarcerate Democrats: the "Dishonest" Honest Services Crime.

 The LA Times hits it on the head:

[I]t is often the least sympathetic defendants who end up seeking and winning redress from the U.S. Supreme Court. In this case, Skilling challenged one of the laws used to convict him, which allows people to be prosecuted for fraud for "depriving another of the intangible right of honest services" — an ill-defined concept that has been taken to mean, in effect, the failure of politicians or corporate executives to act in the best interests of their constituents, shareholders or customers. The law, Skilling argued, was impermissibly vague and left too much discretion to prosecutors.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court agreed — up to a point — ruling that the law went too far and setting a specific limit on its application. Although the justices declined to invalidate the law, preferring to "construe" it rather than "destroy" it, they did conclude that it fails to adequately define the behavior it prohibits. Instead of overturning the law, they limited its application to cases in which the fraud involves kickbacks or bribery paid to a third party.

It would have been preferable if the court had overturned the much-overused law entirely and left it to Congress whether to rewrite it. But the decision correctly identified the flaws in the law, which was so broadly worded that any businessman or politician who deceived his company or constituents about almost anything could be snared. Fraud and corruption must be vigorously prosecuted, but this law allowed prosecutors to make criminal charges out of questionable but not necessarily illegal activities; ultimately, the law meant whatever a judge or prosecutor decided it meant. Justice Antonin Scalia was right that the law "invites abuse by headline grabbing prosecutors in pursuit of local officials, state legislators and corporate CEOs who engage in any manner of unappealing or ethically questionable conduct."

Closing the Book in Northern Mississippi

With the headline, "Scruggs Investigation Over," and sub-headline, "Closing Book in Bribe Scandal," the Jackson, Mississippi Clarion Ledger declared the Rove Republican Racket's largest and most famous  investigation and prosecution of some of the wealthiest Democratic boosters ever is finally over. 

Dickie Scruggs, the once famous and one of the wealthiest trial attorneys in Mississippi, and his Democratic friends were cleverly set up and stupidly ate the bribery bait of a questionable state judge, who happens to be a Republican. Scruggs and friends were prosecuted and all of them went to jail.

Jim Greenlee, the former Bush-Rove appointed U.S. Attorney of the Northern District of Mississippi, prosecuted Scruggs and friends. Greenlee, who left in disgrace and scandal last January after being involved in a racial profiling case, used the power of his office to investigate, intimidate, retaliate against, and scare other prominent Democrats, even some innocent folks associated with Scruggs.

But Greenlee is gone. Gone with the winds of change.

So, finally yesterday, those left behind in Oxford saw the light: no evidence and no political support. Thus, with newly discovered courage, they closed the politically-charged investigation.

The Ledger writes:

Federal prosecutors have ended their criminal  investigation into political operative P.L. Blake in the judicial bribery scandal that imprisoned former trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs, according to those close to the probe. The decision to drop the case involving Blake means  the federal investigation into Scruggs and others officially has ended. Contacted about the decision, Blake's attorney, Doug Jones of Birmingham, confirmed the matter involving his client had been closed, saying prosecutors declined to prosecute.  "We obviously are very pleased," he said, adding that he felt with a fair review of the evidence that  prosecutors would make the right decision.

Judicial Record "Rife with Error"

Although we have no sympathy for sexual predators, we also have no sympathy for judges that railroad a conviction and trample on the rights of the accused.

A decision by a Texas Court of Appeals shows how the rights of  the accused were tossed aside in a case from Mineola, Texas, even though there was sufficient evidence to convict the perverts without having to engage in prosecutorial or judicial misconduct.

Luckily for us, the two sexual predators will be re-tried.


KMOO radio reports:

The 14th [Texas] Court of Appeals overturned the convictions of Patrick Kelly and Jamie Pittman  on Thursday and ordered that the two men be retried. Writing the opinion for the court in Pittman's case, Justice Tracy Christopher said the trial court "permitted the State to try [Pittman] for being a criminal generally, rather than for the offense for which he was indicted." In Kelly's case, Christopher calls the record, "rife with error." The opinion accused the trial court, overseen by District Judge Jack Skeen, of adopting "ad hoc" rules, that "operated to assist the State in proving its case, while impeding [Kelly's] ability to defend himself. Christopher did note that the evidence in Kelly's case is, "legally sufficient" to support the conviction.

Lone Star Judicial Misconduct?

The Rove Republican Racket likes to be tough on Democrats and others they perceived as criminals. Before George W. Bush became Idiot-in-Chief, he was Governor of Texas, a state known to execute people like flies.

Now a Rove Republican Judge in Texas is being ripped to shreds for her alleged judicial misconduct in Texas. The Associated Press reports:

The top criminal judge in Texas was left waiting Friday to find out if a disciplinary panel would recommend her removal from the state's eminent death-penalty court after charges she closed her courtroom to a death row inmate's last-minute appeal. Judge Sharon Keller declined to comment after a five-hour hearing before the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, where state investigators argued she is "not the right person" to lead the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals if she can't admit to wrongly turning away a condemned inmate's attorneys the night of his execution. The panel adjourned without a decision and offered no timetable for a ruling. Keller, a Republican elected to the court in 2006, faces five counts of judicial misconduct.

"She is the public face of criminal justice in the state of Texas," said Mike McKetta, the attorney leading the state's case against Keller. "She has violated a mandatory principal, a duty of her office, in one of the most time-sensitive and irreversible circumstances."

More Trumped-Up Charges in Michigan

The Rove Republican Racket used politics and hysteria to throw political opponents in jail. Now, sadly, the Obama Administration is doing the same in Michigan.

As we reported last month, Obama's U.S. Attorney in Detroit has thrown the book at nine members of the so-called "Michigan Militia," which is made up of right-wing nutballs who appear to be weekend paintball/gun-shooting enthusiasts.

With federal prosecutors scrambling, the case has been crumbling and four members have since been released from custody.  A district judge wanted to release all nine members because the evidence was weak, but the feds appealed. Five members still sit in prison awaiting the appeal court's decision.

Earlier this month, the three-panel appeals court heard the arguments. The La Crosse Tribune reported:

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Moro Nesi told the judges that the indictment against David Stone, which charges him with conspiracy to commit sedition, includes counts of making and attempting to make illegal explosive devices. Nesi also said Stone led training sessions on how to use the weapons. "He led these occasions and he was the one on more than one occasion using the illegal explosive devices," she said, adding that Stone talked of killing people. Stone's attorney, William Swor, denied that Stone built explosive devices and said the prosecution had no evidence to back that up. He also said Stone has "no criminal or violent history of any kind."

Even though it appears none of these defendants have had a real criminal or violent history, the politics of lynching these so-called "extremists" has caused the feds to only scramble in the wrong direction. On June 2nd, the feds filed more ridiculous and trumped-up charges. The Associated Press reported:

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday filed additional weapons charges against several Midwest militia members who are accused of conspiring to wage war against the United States. The new indictment alleges possession of illegal machine guns or short-barrel rifles by the group's leader, David Stone, sons David Stone Jr. and Joshua Stone, and a fourth man, Joshua Clough.

Ticket-Fixing Illinois Judges

Who says judges, prosecutors, and other law enforcement officials DON'T think they're above the law?

The Rove Republican Racket created an atmosphere of elitism during the Rove-Bush-Cheney Administration that impaired the impartiality of the U.S. Department of Justice and trickled down to local prosecutors and judges.

Both judicial and prosecutorial misconduct have risen in the past decade and today we share a story from the Land of Lincoln, the capital of the State of Illinois. The Springfield State Journal Register reports:

A pair of Sangamon County judges are suspected of fixing a traffic ticket, and the case has been turned over to the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, which could result in discipline ranging from reprimands to removal from the bench. Associate Judge Judge Robert Hall on June 7 dismissed a Leland Grove ticket issued a month earlier to the 16-year-old daughter of Associate Judge Christopher Perrin. Police say the teen failed to heed a road-closed sign.

Hall initialed a court document indicating the state’s attorney’s office had moved for dismissal, and the docket on the circuit clerk’s website shows the ticket was dismissed for insufficient evidence. However, the docket also shows that no prosecutor was present when the case was dismissed, and State’s Attorney John Schmidt confirmed Tuesday that his office did not seek the dismissal. Schmidt said he told presiding Judge Patrick Kelley of the problem last week, as soon as a prosecutor discovered it while reviewing dockets. In a written statement, Kelley said Hall dismissed the case of his own accord after speaking with Perrin.

Morrison's Hypocrisy is 542 Times Greater

Acting U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of Indiana Timothy M. Morrison, a Bush leftover, has shown his enormous political hypocrisy today.

As a Rove Republican Racket member, Morrison looked the other way when high-donating Republicans from Indiana fleeced and robbed Ohio retirees of over $200 million in an alleged Ponzi scheme. Morrison let the Republican masterminds of this scheme keep their cash and assets and even hold an Estate Sale.

Now comes news today that Morrison has used the full weight of his office to come down on a city clerk in Brownstown, Indiana who padded her checks and was overpaid $369,000 in a three and a half period.

Mind you, a crime is a crime is a crime.

However, why would Morrison so aggressively prosecute a small town city clerk who was using the extra cash to pay for the treatment of a mentally ill and drug addicted child (who has since died) but on the same hand let two nouveau-riche Republicans completely off the hook even though they allegedly SWINDLED 542 TIMES MORE MONEY than the clerk?

Well, you see, the city clerk was a Democrat.

Goodbye Dolores!

Breaking News from the San Jose Mercury News:

In a stunning outcome determined only after the counting of late ballots Friday, veteran prosecutor Jeff Rosen (pictured) has succeeded in unseating his boss, District Attorney Dolores Carr — the first time in at least eight decades that a challenger has wrested the office from an incumbent. But Carr will continue to lead the office until early next year, raising the question of how she will deal with a largely mutinous staff of prosecutors in the next seven months, given that most supported Rosen.

The historic upset came after Rosen, 42, spent months relentlessly attacking Carr's ethics and judgment while offering himself as a reform-minded and ethical alternative. Carr, 56, tried to keep the focus on Rosen's lack of management experience, but voters apparently took more stock in Rosen's vow to be "a DA for the people" who would restore public trust in an office plagued by Carr's controversial missteps and questionable decision-making. "People really value high ethics and integrity in a DA," Rosen said. "The experience that really mattered was my experience as a tough, fair prosecutor."

Carr conceded Friday afternoon, about 90 minutes after elections officials released updated election returns. With 444,220 votes counted, Rosen won 224,399, or 50.5 percent; Carr had 49.4 percent. There are still an estimated 7,600 ballots left to count in the race, but Rosen is leading by 2,854 votes, a gap even Carr recognized she was unlikely to overcome.

Incumbent Rove Racket DA Losing in Silicon Valley

Dolores Carr, (pictured) the witch of Silicon Valley, the Queen of the Rove Republican Racket, the soon-to-be-former District Attorney of Santa Clara County, California is losing a heated race to retain her job as the top prosecutor.

Carr alienated many when she hit the nuclear button in January and boycotted a judge who lambasted prosecutorial misconduct by one of Carr's Assistant District Attorneys.

The San Jose Mercury News writes this morning:

In a startling development, Santa Clara County's most competitive race is still being bitterly fought today, with no clear winner emerging for district attorney. Veteran prosecutor Jeff Rosen is holding a razor-thin lead over District Attorney Dolores Carr, 50.61 percent to 49.39, with all precincts reporting. However, there are still several thousand mail-in ballots still not counted. If Rosen wins, it would be the first time in at least 83 years that a challenger has wrested the office from an incumbent district attorney. Even if he only comes close, it would be extraordinary. Sitting district attorneys are usually invincible in Santa Clara County, but Rosen has built his campaign on Carr's missteps and controversial decisions.

Carr, a former judge, has been criticized for intervening on behalf of a campaign contributor's client; for failing to see the potential conflict in her husband's financial involvement with a murder victim's family, and for boycotting a judge who found that a prosecutor committed misconduct. Carr's decision not to charge anyone for the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old girl at a De Anza College baseball players' house party three years ago also was controversial. The issue resurfaced recently when documents in the girl's civil case against some of the players showed that Carr's office did not test all of the evidence in the criminal case.

"Shameful" Conduct in Brooklyn, New York

Last month, we posted a breaking news item about alleged prosecutorial misconduct in Brooklyn that was viewed at the time as possibly freeing a murderer.

Tonight, breaking news again. The New York Times reports:

Facing questions about whether a high-ranking prosecutor’s actions during a murder investigation and trial constituted misconduct, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office agreed on Tuesday to allow a man imprisoned in that case to have his murder conviction vacated and his record cleared with the assurance that he will not be retried. The agreement means that the man, Jabbar Collins, who 15 years ago was sentenced to 34 years to life in the murder of a Brooklyn landlord, will be freed later this week — the culmination of years of his own legal efforts to bring light to prosecutorial misconduct that he said deprived him of a fair trial. 

The decision also spares officials from the Brooklyn district attorney’s office — most notably the hard-charging prosecutor who oversaw the case, Michael F. Vecchione [PICTURED]— from being compelled to testify about the allegations of misconduct during a habeas corpus hearing that was set to resume this week. The deal amounted to a rare and embarrassing admission by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office — which had initially insisted that Mr. Collins be retried — that the case had been mishandled. Judge Dora L. Irizarry, of the United States District Court in Brooklyn, lamented that in agreeing to free Mr. Collins, the district attorney’s office had avoided a hearing that would have offered greater transparency into the case’s “troubling history.” “It is indeed beyond disappointing, it is really sad that the district attorney’s office persists in standing firm and saying that it did nothing wrong here,” the judge said. She described the handling of the case by the district attorney’s office as “shameful.”

Rove Racket Victim Sues Ex-U.S. Attorney in Mississippi

Former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz, Jr. and his wife are suing former U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton of the Southern District of Mississippi for invasion of privacy and last month they won a major decision in the case.

Lampton became a high priest in the Rove Republican Racket after he had targeted and prosecuted Diaz not once but twice, and lost both times. Diaz, a prominent Democrat, has since sought justice against Lampton personal vendetta against him.

Coincidentally, Lampton was going to be fired by the Bush administration in 2005 but saved his scalp when he started targeting and prosecuting Democrats.

In this case, after losing both trials, Lampton foolishly handed over Diaz's confidential and personal income taxes to a state commission, where Lampton's cousin worked.

The Sun Herald reports:

Dunn Lampton’s former position as a U.S. attorney does not give him immunity from a lawsuit in which former state Supreme Court Judge Oliver Diaz Jr. and his wife, Jennifer, accuse Lampton of invading their privacy and disclosing confidential information, a federal judge has ruled. “The times that someone has been allowed to sue a U.S. attorney in the history of the United States are extremely rare, and this is one of them,” Diaz said Thursday. Dunn Lampton had asked that the lawsuit against him be thrown out because federal prosecutors have immunity from prosecution. U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan denied his request. Jordan found a criminal investigation of Diaz had ended, and Lampton was acting outside the scope of his prosecutor’s job, when the alleged misdeeds occurred.

[After losing his criminal case against Diaz,] Lampton then filed a complaint against Diaz with the state’s Judicial Performance Commission. The Diazes allege he gave the commission confidential tax records the U.S. Attorney’s Office had secured during the criminal investigation. Leslie Lampton, Dunn Lampton’s cousin, served on the commission and was involved in the investigation. When the Diazes learned the commission had their tax records, they requested the documents be returned. Commission attorney Darlene Ballard instead sent the records back to Lampton. The commission complaint against the Diazes was dismissed in December 2008.

“In the present case, (Dunn) Lampton provided the tax records to the commission after Diaz was acquitted,” Jordan wrote in his order. “The prosecution was over; the conduct was neither part of his prosecutorial function nor part of his role as an advocate.”

Shocking Choking Chicago Public Defender

We end the week with a unbelievable but true story that happened yesterday in Chicago.

From the ABA Journal:

An Illinois prosecutor was hospitalized today after an assistant public defender allegedly choked him in a court hallway in Chicago following a courtroom dispute over setting a hearing date in a post-conviction murder case. Police said an unidentified assistant Cook County public defender put a 50-year-old Cook County prosecutor into a "choking headlock" this morning at the criminal courthouse at 26th and California, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. "He had his hands wrapped around his throat and was just kind of riding him down the wall," an unidentified source told the Chicago Tribune.

Another unidentified source said the public defender "just lost it and shoved him against the wall" and put his stunned opposing counsel into a headlock after the prosecutor responded unsympathetically to the public defender's complaint about a status date, the Tribune says. An unidentified bystander told the Sun-Times the public defender said he was sick of being mocked by the prosecutor. The public defender, who sources said handles appellate matters, is being held as a suspect in a misdemeanor simple battery case, the Sun-Times states. Accounts differ concerning how seriously the unidentified prosecutor might be injured; however, it appears that the prosecutor may have been taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital simply for observation.One of two Cook County sheriff's deputies who broke up the fight in the courthouse's first-floor main hallway sustained a minor back injury, the Tribune reports.

Choreographed Political Show in Orange County

In March, we reported about David R. Hunt (pictured), the City Attorney from Newport Beach, California, suspected at the time of beating his wife.

Now comes word that the agent of the Rove Republican Racket, in the heart of Republicanville, is off the hook.


In a choreographed effort that only Republicans could pull off, the Orange County prosecutors declined to prosecute citing "lack of evidence" while the local  Newport Beach City Council "unanimously" reinstated Mr. Hunt.

So much for his wife's bump on her head!

The Daily Pilot reports:

Two months after placing him on paid administrative leave following his arrest on suspicion of felony spousal abuse, the Newport Beach City Council voted 6 to 0 Wednesday to allow City Atty. David Hunt to immediately return to his job.  In addition, the Orange County district attorney's office announced the same day that it has decided not to file charges against him. I'm obviously pleased by the decision, but I'm also thankful and grateful for the objective analysis of the council and thorough investigation by the D.A.," Hunt said by phone Wednesday afternoon. "My family and I agree with the decision that this crime was not committed and none of us wanted to see a conviction."

Mississippi Judge Gives Rove Racket the Finger

The Rove Republican Racket is stronger than ever in Mississippi. And they are embittered as ever.

Last week, Judge Larry Buffington, a Democrat aligned with former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz, Jr., bluntly told the Racket and its goons to "move on," politely giving them the finger.

Readers may recall that former Justice Oliver Diaz, Jr. was a siting judge who was dragged through the Mississippi mud and brought to trial twice by the Rove Republican Racket. Diaz was acquitted twice. Sadly, he lost re-election after the Racket smeared his good name.

Last year, Buffington helped Diaz get a low-paying job that will help Diaz qualify for a state pension. He was a year short of qualifying.

The Racket went after Buffington, leaking the appointment. Buffington tried to find out who leaked the information, issuing subpoenas, and a Republican stooge filed a complaint since it was beyond Buffington's authority to do so.

At the end, Buffington was slapped on the hand and will probably be fined $100. The Jackson Clarion Ledger reports:

The Commission on Judicial Performance said Thursday it found Buffington lacked authority to command Supervisors Pete Lowery and Randy Moore to appear before him to answer questions about who leaked to the media his appointment of a former state justice as a Simpson County Youth Court public defender. "Judge Buffington admitted that he had failed to comply with the law when issuing the subpoenas, but did not care," the commission report said. The commission is recommending to the state Supreme Court that Buffington be assessed $100 court cost with the reprimand.The state's highest court has ultimate say on punishment for judges. Reached Thursday evening via phone, Buffington said of the commission's recommendation: "It's fair. It's time to conclude this and move on." In January 2009, Buffington ordered the Simpson County Board of Supervisors to hire Oliver Diaz Jr. as a Youth Court public defender at $400 a month, plus state retirement.

Raising the White Flag in California

We hope all our readers had a great Memorial Day Weekend. We were at Dewey Beach, the nation's summer capital, when this news broke on Saturday.

The Rove Republican Racket raised a white flag on a story we've been following since last year.

The Associated Press reports:

Federal prosecutors said Friday they won't appeal the dismissal of criminal charges against the founders of high-tech chipmaker Broadcom, ending an embarrassing chapter for the government during which a judge blasted prosecutors for "shameful" misconduct and a lack of evidence. The government decided not to appeal the cases against Henry T. Nicholas III and Henry Samueli, U.S. attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek said. Prosecutors also withdrew their appeal of U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney's dismissal of former Broadcom human resources director Nancy Tullos' guilty plea to obstruction of justice. The announcement wipes away the last vestiges of a massive and high-profile criminal and civil prosecution of Broadcom's top leadership on allegations of stock option backdating that fell apart under judicial scrutiny.