United States v. Joseph Isgro Raymond Anderson Jeffrey S. Monka

Joseph Isgro, Raymond Anderson and Jeffrey Monka (“defendants”) were indicted by a grand jury on government charges that they were involved in a complex scheme to promote certain musical artists illegally through the use of “payola” — payments/bribes to officials at local radio stations — using money allegedly derived from narcotics trafficking. Subsequently, citing prosecutorial misconduct before the grand jury and in pretrial proceedings, the district court dismissed the indictment with prejudice. In so doing, the district court invoked both the defendants’ right to a constitutionally sound grand jury process and the court’s inherent right to supervise judicial proceedings.

The government appeals, arguing that its conduct did not justify a dismissal of the indictment. We reluctantly agree. Based on recent Supreme Court case law, we find that the district court erred in dismissing the indictment, and we now reverse.

BACKGROUND

Defendants were indicted by a grand jury on November 30, 1989. The indictment contained 57 counts, most of which named Isgro. The indictment charged Isg-ro with RICO violations, mail fraud, various conspiracies, payola, filing of false income tax…