WASHINGTON — A D.C. Appeals Court board has recommended the lead prosecutor in the 2010 trial over the killing of Chandra Levy be suspended from practicing law in the city for 60 days, determining she withheld “crucial” evidence from defense attorneys.
The D.C. Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility ruled Tuesday that Amanda Haines, a former assistant U.S. attorney, kept information from defense attorneys about a key government witness who testified at trial against the man authorities say killed the 24-year-old former Federal Bureau of Prisons intern in Rock Creek Park.
The board sent the recommendation to the D.C. Court of Appeals, whose judges make the final decisions on disciplinary actions involving attorneys in the nation’s capital. An attorney for Haines said she disagreed with the board’s finding and planned to “continue to fight to clear Ms. Haines’s name.”
Levy’s 2001 disappearance captured national attention after it became public that she had an affair with Rep. Gary A. Condit, D-Calif., who was married and 30 years her senior. Her skeletal remains were found in Rock Creek Park about a year later.
In 2009, authorities charged Ingmar Guandique with her murder, in part based on information from his cellmate, who claimed to have heard Guandique confess to the killing. Guandique, a former gang member and undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who had been convicted of assaulting two women in the Northwest Washington park, denied any involvement in Levy’s death.
He was convicted in Levy’s killing following the 2010 trial.
But authorities say prosecutors did not reveal to defense attorneys that the cellmate had previously spoken to authorities about his own gang involvement, which would have contradicted his assertion at trial that he had never cooperated with investigators previously in cases.
Guandique’s conviction was overturned two years later, and in 2016, just months before a new trial was about to begin, a new team of prosecutors dropped the charges against him. He was deported to El Salvador.
Prosecutors are required to disclose to defense attorneys all evidence they obtain in a case, particularly when it could help a person’s defense.
At a series of hearings in 2021, Haines repeatedly denied withholding her star witness’s background from defense attorneys from the District’s Public Defender Service.
The board determined otherwise – though it noted it was not convinced her actions were intentional. Haines was facing a maximum six-month suspension of her ability to practice law.
“By withholding crucial evidence, albeit based upon a mistaken and unreasonable understanding of that evidence, she failed to uphold her duties. Her inactions set in motion a cascade of events that underscore the importance of deterring such misconduct,” board member Robert L. Walker wrote in the 53-page decision.
Similar allegations against Haines’s co-counsel, Fernando Campoamor-Sánchez, were dismissed.
Haines, 61, who specialized in cold homicide cases in the District’s U. S. Attorney’s Office for 25 years, retired from practicing law in 2021.
One of Haines’s attorneys, Sarah R. Fink, said her client complied with her duties.
“Ms. Haines is innocent, so we are obviously disappointed with the Board’s decision,” Fink said in a statement. “But we’re encouraged by the Board’s decision to overturn the Hearing Committee’s finding that Ms. Haines intentionally withheld exculpatory evidence and its decision to reduce the proposed penalty. This case is not over.”
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