One of the nation’s most prolific federal narcotics prosecutors flouted ethics guidelines final 12 months when he drunkenly handed his business card to Florida police investigating a hit-and-run crash, a Justice Department watchdog discovered.
The discovering comes almost a 12 months after The Associated Press revealed body-camera footage following a Fourth of July crash in which Joseph Ruddy was accused of hanging one other automobile, leaving the scene and improperly looking for to leverage his position as an assistant U.S. lawyer in Tampa to blunt the fallout.
In the footage, a disoriented Ruddy may barely arise straight, slurred his phrases and leaned on the tailgate of his pickup to maintain his steadiness. But he was beneath management sufficient handy over his Justice Department credentials to officers from two jurisdictions dispatched to research the crash.
AP
“What are you trying to hand me?” a Tampa police officer requested. “You realize when they pull my body-worn camera footage and they see this, this is going to go really bad.”
A one-page abstract revealed Wednesday by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General would not title Ruddy however substantiated allegations that an assistant U.S. lawyer “engaged in misuse of position” when he supplied his work credentials unsolicited. And final 12 months, the Justice Department confirmed that it was referring Ruddy’s case to the inspector normal’s workplace.
Investigators additionally discovered that the assistant U.S. lawyer cited in their report “engaged in conduct prejudicial to the government” by driving drunk after which leaving the scene of a crash after hitting one other automobile. The report was referred to the Justice Department’s Professional Misconduct Review Unit for acceptable motion.
After the AP inquired about Ruddy’s work standing final 12 months, he was faraway from a number of circumstances however the Justice Department confirmed on Wednesday that he stays an assistant U.S. lawyer. Neither Ruddy nor his lawyer responded to messages looking for remark Wednesday.
“While we cannot comment on specific personnel matters, the Department of Justice holds all personnel, including its assistant U.S. attorneys, to the highest standards of personal and professional conduct,” the division stated in an announcement. “We take all allegations of misconduct by Department personnel seriously and take appropriate action where warranted.”
AP
Ruddy is thought in regulation enforcement circles as one of many architects of Operation Panama Express, or PANEX – a activity pressure launched in 2000 to focus on cocaine smuggling at sea, combining sources from the U.S. Coast Guard, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Historically, PANEX-generated intelligence contributes to greater than 90% of U.S. Coast Guard drug interdictions at sea. Between 2018 and 2022, the Coast Guard eliminated or destroyed 888 metric tons of cocaine price an estimated $26 billion and detained 2,776 suspected smugglers, a senior Coast Guard official stated in congressional testimony final 12 months. The bulk of these circumstances had been dealt with by Ruddy and his colleagues in Tampa, the place PANEX is headquartered.
A former Ironman triathlete, the 70-year-old Ruddy enjoys a status amongst attorneys for arduous work and toughness in the courtroom. Among his largest circumstances had been a number of the early extraditions from Colombia of high smugglers for the scary Cali cartel.
But nearly all of circumstances dealt with out of his workplace contain largely poor fishermen from Central and South America who make up the drug commerce’s lowest rungs. Often, the medication aren’t even certain for U.S. shores and the constitutional ensures of due course of that usually apply in prison circumstances contained in the U.S. are solely loosely noticed.
Despite his personal admissions and witness testimony, state prosecutors by no means charged Ruddy with hit-and-run and dismissed fees of driving beneath the affect with property injury – a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by as much as a 12 months in jail.
Ruddy, whose blood-alcohol stage examined at 0.17%, twice the authorized restrict, was as an alternative allowed late final 12 months to plead no contest to reckless driving, a second-degree misdemeanor, and given 12 months’ probation.
“We had no witnesses who could testify to seeing Mr. Ruddy behind the wheel during the incident, which is a key factor in proving DUI cases,” stated Erin Maloney, spokeswoman for the state lawyer’s workplace in Hillsborough County, which incorporates Tampa. “This outcome ensures the defendant is still held accountable.”
On the night time of his arrest, Ruddy was accused of sideswiping an SUV whose driver had been ready to show at a crimson mild, clipping a aspect mirror and tearing off one other piece of the automobile that lodged in the fender of Ruddy’s pickup.
“He never even hit brakes,” a witness advised police. “He just kept going and he was swerving all the way up the road. I’m like, ‘No, he’s going to hurt somebody.'”
When officers arrived at Ruddy’s residence in the Tampa suburb of Temple Terrace, they discovered him hunched over his pickup, holding his keys and utilizing the automobile for help, a police report stated. Officers famous that he had urinated on himself, was unable to stroll with out assist and failed a subject sobriety check.
“I understand we might be having a better night,” Tampa police patrolman Taylor Grant stated earlier than trying on the business card.
“Why didn’t you stop?” the officer requested.
“I didn’t realize it was that serious,” Ruddy stated in a slurred response.
“You hit a vehicle and you ran,” the officer stated. “You ran because you’re drunk. You probably didn’t realize you hit the vehicle.”
