Federal Prosecutors’ Actions “Shock The Conscience,” Says Judge

In throwing out fraud charges against the owner of a Maryland pharmacy chain, a federal judge decried prosecutors’ actions as being so out of line they “shock the conscience of this court.” U.S. District Judge George L. Russell III said the federal prosecutors presented “significant” false testimony, failed to disclose evidence and destroyed evidence. Reddy Annappareddy, head of Pharmacare and Caremerica, was charged with health care fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was convicted in 2014. He then hired new lawyers, who sought to dismiss the case because federal prosecutors misinformed jurors, destroyed evidence, and presented false evidence at trial, showing what one filing calls “a pattern of outrageous prosecutorial misconduct.” Annappareddy’s “constitutional rights were violated, and they were violated by the mistakes the government made,” Russell said.