FBI Misconduct

This report is a detailed case review outlining FBI misconduct and questionable investigative practices in the case against Joseph Maldonado-Passage, commonly known as Joe Exotic. The report focuses heavily on the conduct of Agent Matthew Bryant and raise numerous concerns about potential Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) violations, including inappropriately assisting confidential human sources (CHSs) with local legal issues, using a personal phone for official business, and allegedly violating a court order by communicating with a witness during the trial. Furthermore, the documents confirm that evidence integrity was compromised, citing instances of edited or altered text messages and inadequate evidence collection procedures, while also questioning the credibility and motives of key witnesses who appeared to have personal grudges or agendas against Maldonado-Passage.

FBI Misconduct Joe Exotic Case.pdf

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There are serious concerns regarding the mishandling and integrity of evidence collected during the Joe Exotic investigation involving Agent Matthew Bryant, suggesting a pattern of disregard for proper procedures and the potential intentional manipulation of facts to support a pre-determined conclusion.

The issues surrounding the integrity and mishandling of evidence fall broadly into three categories: compromised electronic communications (texts and recordings), improper collection procedures for electronic evidence, and questionable handling of physical evidence (the euthanized tigers).

1. Compromised Integrity of Electronic Communications (Texts and Recordings)

The integrity of many electronic conversations used in the case is significantly questioned because the materials provided often appeared altered, incomplete, or unauthenticated:

• Edited and Altered Text Messages: Documents containing text conversations, such as those between James Garretson and Agent Bryant, were reviewed and appeared to be "edited, altered, and/or unprofessionally redacted". Specific issues noted included text "balloons" that were "clearly misshapen possibly having been erased with a photo editing program".

• Lack of Authentication and Context: Many documents provided appeared as transcriptions rather than actual electronic downloads from a phone. This lack of proper extraction meant that the source of the information, the time, dates, or the originating phone were often missing. This context omission led the reviewer to state, "There is nothing certifying the integrity of the contents of this document".

• Disjointed Conversations: The text conversations frequently did not make sense, appearing "cut and pasted in the wrong order" or as if much of the original conversation had been removed, bringing the reliability of the evidence into question.

• Condoning Fake Evidence: Agent Bryant ultimately condoned Jeff Lowe's plan to use a "faked text" appearing to be from Alan Glover to deceive Maldonado into making admissions. This admission by Lowe brought into question the integrity of all text conversations provided by Lowe and others.

• Incomplete Audio Recordings: Multiple phone calls and in-person conversations recorded by witnesses Jeff Lowe and James Garretson were incomplete, often starting mid-conversation and ending before the conclusion. This practice of taking "selected pieces out of context puts the integrity of the information in doubt". The lack of complete, supervised recordings raised concerns about whether conversations were staged or if portions were intentionally omitted.

2. Improper Evidence Collection Procedures

The sources heavily criticize the methods used for collecting and preserving electronic evidence, asserting that proper protocol was ignored, which compromised evidential integrity:

• Failure to Use Certified Extraction Methods: Communications, especially texts, should have been electronically extracted from the source devices by appropriately trained personnel to preserve their integrity for evidential purposes. The reliance on transcriptions or screenshots without certification shows a failure to take steps to ensure the integrity of electronic evidence.

• Improper Transfer of Recordings: Agent Bryant’s method of acquiring recordings from Confidential Human Source (CHS) James Garretson was criticized. Garretson stated that Bryant would take the "little wheel out of the recorder" and plug it into his laptop, or Garretson would email recordings to Bryant. This process is described as "incorrect procedure" and "not proper handling of electronic evidence" (ELSUR material).

• Bypassing FBI Protocol: The FBI typically utilizes a dedicated service for consensually monitored phone calls where the entire conversation is recorded off-site and properly preserved, ensuring it cannot be edited. The reliance on CHSs making recordings themselves without investigator supervision meant no steps were taken to ensure evidence integrity.

3. Mishandling of Physical Evidence and Intentional Bias

The handling of the physical evidence related to the animal cruelty charges was tied directly to Agent Bryant and the prosecution's alleged strategy to prejudice the jury:

• Incomplete Collection of Tiger Carcasses: Following the excavation, investigators only took the heads of six euthanized tigers as evidence, pursuant to a consent to search signed by Jeff Lowe.

• Obstructing Exculpatory Evidence: The critical issue in the animal cruelty charge was not if Maldonado euthanized the animals, but why. Without the entire carcass, investigators could not determine if the tigers were diseased or had physical issues necessitating euthanasia.

• Intent to Prejudice the Jury: The reviewer concluded, based on training and experience as a former FBI Evidence Response Team member, that there was "no logic in not taking the entire carcass" and that the instruction to take only the heads must have come from a superior or an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA). This intentional evidence limitation appears to have been carried out because finding justification for the euthanasia would have eliminated the ability of the prosecution to influence the jury on the "admittedly 'weak' murder for hire charges". Agent Bryant confirmed this tactic to Jeff Lowe, stating they wanted to introduce pictures of the tiger dig to get "some jurors' heartstrings bleeding... And they might be prejudicial where we're weak on the murder for hire".

Summary of Mishandling in Context of Misconduct

The issues of evidence integrity are presented as a central component of Agent Bryant's misconduct, which critics argue demonstrates a bias toward achieving a conviction rather than seeking impartial facts:

• Bryant is accused of investigating "with the goal of finding and fitting the facts to his foregone conclusion".

• Evidence was "collected and used when it fits and ignored or discarded when it does not". This is exemplified by the acceptance of questionable CHS evidence (edited texts, incomplete recordings) and the selective collection of the tiger carcasses.

• Agent Bryant's willingness to use evidence (the tiger photos) specifically to create prejudice highlights ethical issues and potential misconduct.

• Furthermore, Bryant and Garretson strategically worked to exclude Jeff Johnson as an adversarial witness by misrepresenting his alleged threats, focusing only on threats Johnson allegedly made against Garretson ("beating his ass") while omitting the part where Garretson conspired with Johnson to kill Jeff Lowe, showing a lack of integrity in reporting to influence court decisions.