The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ordered oral arguments on Thursday, July 13 at 10 AM, following the submission of a legal brief by the Yale Law School Appellate Clinic in litigation concerning missing evidence, voice recordings made by Dawn Pasela and documents shifted from the US Attorney’s Office in Cleveland to a multi-jurisdictional Task Force location before criminal trials, Viola v. Department of Justice, et. al., case # 22-2186. The Court will livestream these oral argument on its YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLSXp4JMYiFc7BHD_ln3d-w.After the argument, the audio will be posted at: https://www.ca3.uscourts.gov/oral-argument-recordings.

Tony Viola was tried twice on identical charges by a federally funded Mortgage Fraud Task Force on allegations he duped banks, including JP Morgan Chase, into making 'no money down' mortgage loans.  Following a conviction in federal court, Tony proved his innocence at a second trial in state court, on identical charges, prosecuted by the same prosecution team, using evidence prosecutors said didn't exist, but that was given to Viola by the Task Force's Office Manager, Dawn Pasela.  Ms. Pasela offered to testify about prosecutorial misconduct, but was found dead in her apartment shortly after her scheduled testimony, but no investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death has ever taken place.

This public records litigation was initiated in 2015 to obtain proof that federal prosecutors possessed exculpatory evidence before Viola’s first trial, shifted those materials to a federally funded and staffed Task Force location, then claimed that the government was not obligated to search for records it placed there.  During this litigation, both the Justice Department and the FBI each admitted making false statements about evidence and records, then asked the lower court to vacate earlier rulings in the government’s failure.

In 2022, Task Force Chairman Donald Cleland stated under oath that he directed Ms. Pasela to remove hard drives from the Task Force that contained evidence in over 1,000 criminal cases and later went missing. Also, in 2022, the Justice Department blamed former federal prosecutor Mark Bennett for false statements about evidence.  Bennett was fired by the Justice Department and is currently undergoing disbarment proceedings, Disciplinary Counsel v, Bennett, case number 2022-034; DOJ Inspector General Report Number 21-005.

For additional information, please visit www.FreeTonyViola.com