Jeff Gordon: Agent, investigator, witness, "stalkee"

[Declan McCullagh]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,42962,00.html

   Bell Trial: Victim as Prosecutor
   by Declan McCullagh (declan at wired.com)
   
   10:35 a.m. Apr. 10, 2001 PDT
   TACOMA, Washington -- The government's prosecution of an Internet
   essayist accused of stalking federal agents raises unusual ethical
   questions because the alleged victim is also the chief investigator,
   experts say.
   
   Jim Bell is charged with two counts of trying to intimidate Jeff
   Gordon, an agent in the Treasury Department's tax administration
   office. Gordon conducted repeated investigations of Bell, including
   the current one, and is the government's chief witness and courtroom
   technical expert.
   
   Legal ethicists say that Gordon's deep involvement in a case in which
   he claims he feared for his life -- and the fact that as a prosecution
   witness he was not sequestered -- is uncommon during criminal trials.
   
   "It sounds very odd to me," said Robert Drinan, a professor of law and
   ethics at Georgetown University. "It sounds awful."

   "It doesn't quite add up.... It reminds me of a police officer suing
   his superiors, and getting himself assigned to the case," Drinan said.
   
   [...]