Miami-Dade judge disqualifies 2 prosecutors over alleged misconduct

MIAMI – After alleged prosecutorial misconduct surfaced in the case of Liberty City’s John Doe gang boss, a Miami-Dade judge disqualified two prosecutors from the case.

In an order signed on Wednesday, Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Andrea Wolfson disqualified Miami-Dade State Attorneys Michael Von Zamft and Stephen Mitchell.

To support her decision, Wolfson cited instances Von Zamft allegedly engaged in “witness manipulation tactics,” and “evidence regarding over 20 years of allegations of misconduct.”

Wolfson also cited Mitchell’s decision to follow “Von Zamft’s lead without concern for the consequences,” and Corey Smith’s right to a “fair” resentencing trial.

Wolfson described Von Zamft as a “highly trained lawyer” who had a “prosecutorial philosophy of winning at all costs.” He was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1973.

“The court heard from Mr. Von Zamfts own mouth why he and his counterpart must be disqualified from this case,” Wolfson wrote citing recorded jail calls the defense played in court.

Wolfson took issue with a jail call on Aug. 2, 2023, between Von Zamfts and LaTravis “Trav” Gallashaw, an inmate she described as “a convicted murderer in a case that involves witness elimination.” Von Zamfts told Gallashaw he had “been trying to arrange with corrections” for him “to be in the courtyard” with witnesses.

Wolfson reported that after listening to the recording she identified “two glaring instances of misconduct” and could not “help but wonder how many more instances of misconduct would have been unearthed had there been more time for the defense to investigate.”

Wolfson wrote that although witnesses testified “about favors granted … including, food, drink, tobacco products, visits from friends and family, and even conjugal visits,” she refused to go down “a rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland.”

Wolfson also wrote that the law of disqualification was not “a punishment” for the prosecutors’ alleged “past wrongdoing,” but a way to prevent “future prejudice” in Smith’s case.

THE EVIDENCE

Wolfson cited an amended discovery exhibit as evidence of the alleged collaboration. She wrote it surfaced after there were “about 150 boxes of discovery somewhere in storage” and the county ”haphazardly scanned” the records to create a digital record.

“It is unclear what the State Attorney’s Office has in its possession,” Wolfson wrote.

Bronwyn Miller, a former Miami-Dade assistant state attorney who serves as a judge on the Third District Court of Appeal, testified she filed the amended discovery exhibit.

“The first time that document was ever even discussed was during the hearing,” Wolfson wrote.

The judge also cited five letters that the State Attorney’s Office sent to the U.S. Attorney’s Office from 2000 to 2002 including two signed by Von Zamft.

“Von Zamft said they were false,” Wolfson wrote adding Retired Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Agent Howard Green and Attorney Bill Howell, a retired assistant state attorney, both testified the content of the letters was true.

THE CASE

Changes in death penalty law prompted the resentencing trial decades after Smith, 51, was convicted of four murders related to the gang, which detectives said distributed cocaine, crack cocaine, and marijuana from 1994 to 1999 in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood.

In 1997, Cynthia Brown was the only one who identified Smith as a suspect in the murder of a 19-year-old rival. Before she could testify, police officers found her dead in a motel room. Without her, the case fell apart.

In 1998, bullets struck Angel Wilson, the girlfriend of Smith’s rival, 16 times while she was in her car, and her lungs were riddled with metal fragments from the car door’s metal.

In 2000, a Miami-Dade grand jury indicted Smith. Prosecutors charged him for the murders of Brown, Wilson, Leon Hadley, and Jackie Pope.

In 2004, Smith was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder. He received sentences of life in prison for the murders of Pope and Hadley and sentences of death for the murders of Brown and Wilson.

Smith was also convicted of conspiracy to engage in a criminal enterprise, engaging in a criminal enterprise, conspiracy to traffic in marijuana, conspiracy to traffic in cocaine, four counts of conspiracy to commit murder, and two counts of manslaughter for the deaths of Melvin Lipscomb and Marlon Beneby.

In 2010, Smith filed a motion for collateral relief after a death sentence has been imposed and affirmed on direct appeal and the case is pending.

Gallashaw, 46, who was released from prison in 2012, has been at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center since 2017.

Judge cites transcript of jail calls

Wolfson cites a recorded jail call between Von Zamfts and Gallashaw discussing witnesses in the case.

This is a developing story.