UM Grace Case

Perjury, perjury, perjury. The act of knowingly lying under oath.

Perjury has been rampant throughout the government’s case, W.R. Grace lead attorney David M. Bernick told a packed courtroom Monday morning in a special hearing to consider defense motions to dismiss the case for prosecutorial misconduct. The jury is not in court today.

According to Bernick, the prosecution team misconstrued evidence and befriended a key witness – actions that were kept hidden from the jury and the defense teams. Government attorneys had a special relationship with Robert Locke, a former W.R. Grace employee and a central witness in the case. Locke and several government employees concealed that relationship, Bernick said.

In a slide show presentation, he began to pinpoint alleged incidences of perjury committed, Bernick said, by several different witnesses for the defense.

The government met 20 times with Locke, “a multiple of what was disclosed” by government attorneys, Bernick said.

Locke, who worked with Grace from 1974 until 1998, felt the company treated him unfairly. He’s been trying to sue the company and his last supervisor, defendant Robert Bettacchi, for the last 10 years.

“He had an ax to grind,” Bernick said. “He wanted to be part of the team” that prosecuted Grace.

In Locke’s testimony, which began on March 23^rd, he said the government offered him immunity if he would be a witness in their case. It’s an option that would’ve guaranteed Locke’s safety and insured that he could never be punished for actions he’d taken in the past while working for W.R. Grace.

But he didn’t take it.

The government attorneys told him not to, Bernick said, because he would be more credible if he testified without personal motives. But Locke was told he would be safe from criminal prosecution even if he turned down the immunity.

Locke’s relationship with government attorneys became so apparent, Bernick said, that an IRS attorney advised attorney Kevin M. Cassidy not to get so close to his witness.

“Locke was a groomed insider, prepared to come forward,” Bernick said. He pointed out that when the government questioned Locke, they never explained they had a special relationship.

During Locke’s testimony, Bernick asked him if he was representing the government. Locke said, “No.”

“We now know that was completely and utterly false,” Bernick said. “There was perjury after perjury after perjury from a man whose text was groomed from beginning to end, whose role was absolutely central to the case.”

But Locke’s instances of alleged perjury weren’t the only ones, Bernick said.

Dr. Aubrey Miller, a government toxicologist, also gave a false testimony under oath, Bernick alleged. Even the government misconstrued statements when it “cherry-picked” certain evidence to show the jury, Bernick said, quoting from a memo entered into evidence.

“Are there any other outright perjuries? We don’t know,” Bernick said in the steady rhythm of a metronome, as if each word were followed by a period. “We. Don’t. Know.”

Bernick said he and his team of defense attorneys have remained calm and pressed on, even though perjury has been “virtually everywhere” in the prosecution’s case.

“There has been no table pounding, no hyperbole, not even a motion. Why?” He said. “Because this case has totally exposed all strategies of the defense. The bell can never be un-rung.” He said the defense remains ready and eager to present its side of the story, but that first it must ask that the entire case be dismissed.

– Carly Flandro (posted 11:45 a.m.)