KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A judge found that a federal prosecutor in Kansas with a history of questionable conduct committed misconduct in a drug case, prompting a sharp reduction in the defendant’s sentence.
U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Crabtree ruled last week that Assistant U.S. Attorney Terra Morehead did not provide evidence to the defense attorney for Jay Giannukos, 49, who was convicted of drug and counterfeiting charges.
Morehead has been previously accused of concealing evidence and threatening witnesses. She was the prosecutor in Wyandotte County in 1994, when Lamonte McIntyre was wrongly convicted in a double murder and spent 23 years in prison before he was released.
Morehead was recently moved from criminal to civil cases in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Kansas City, Kansas.
In the latest case, Morehead did not provide the defense with information about a witness’s full criminal history or a video that called into question the witness’s credibility, the judge found.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and Morehead did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Crabtree wrote that Morehead had “failed in her duty to do justice,” and the misconduct was the reason he reduced Giannukos’ sentence from 20 years to nine years, according to a transcript of the May 10 federal court hearing.
During the trial, a key witness who survived a suicide attempt while in federal prison in Leavenworth told the jury he fell over a railing.
Morehead didn’t admit until the sentencing phase of the trial that there was a video showing the man tried to kill himself.
Crabtree said Morehead failed to be truthful about the witness’s attempt to take his life.
Morehead’s history of questionable conduct goes back decades.
A federal judge in 2017 found Morehead committed misconduct as a federal prosecutor during the Lamont McIntyre case when she threatened a witness and belatedly disclosed evidence.
And earlier this year, a man told The Star that Morehead pressured him into lying on the stand in a 2009 drug case. He said his testimony helped send an innocent woman to prison for eight years.
Morehead was also involved in wrongdoing in 2016 when federal prosecutors in Kansas City, Kansas, routinely accessed calls between defendants and their defense attorneys in violation of their rights. A federal judge held the office in contempt.