Dr. Arthur Jordan – The Latest

As I mentioned in a post earlier this month, Dr. Arthur Jordan, who is a professional witness of sorts in the government’s pharmaceutical fraud cases, is scheduled to testify this coming week in our sleepy little hamlet. Here’s the latest:

Following the Eleventh Circuit decision last month in United States v. Ignasiak, _ F.3d _, 2012 WL 149314 (11^th Cir. 2012), the government disclosed in a local pharmaceutical fraud case, United States v. Hung Ly, 4:07-286-WTM (the documents are on PACER) all of the documents about Dr. Jordan’s misadventures with guns, a U.S. Marshal’s badge and statements on federal forms, that Judge Martin exposed in an opinion a month ago. Judge Martin plainly wrote that Dr. Jordan “engaged in criminal conduct . . . on nine separate occasions, used a counterfeit badge and his United States Marshal credentials to pose as an on-duty U.S. Marshal in order to carry firearms on commercial airplanes while on personal travel.” Id., at *15. The opinion continued that Dr. Jordan’s conduct resulted in “multiple violations of 18 U.S.C. §§ 912 and 1001 and 49 U.S.C. § 46505 . . .” Id.

Trial in the Ly case is scheduled to start tomorrow. The government after disclosing the documents about Dr. Jordan, then moved to prohibit the defense from using Dr. Jordan’s past criminal conduct to impeach his testimony at trial. Shortly thereafter, the government and defense counsel reached a stipulation regarding impeachment of Dr. Jordan, but U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore, Jr., would have none of it. Judge Moore entered an Order noting that a “government’s witness’s use of a counterfeit badge on nine separate occasions, which could have been charged as nine separate felonies, is highly relevant impeachment evidence – it was described in precisely this fashion by the Eleventh Circuit . . . [and] represents some of the ripest fruit borne by the tree of impeachment and this Court will not prevent it from being offered to the jury.”

Following the entry of that Order on February 15, the government has attempted to jettison Dr. Jordan as a witness and replace him with another expert. The defense has opposed that attempt. I’ll be stunned if the government puts Dr. Jordan on the stand, but will update tomorrow.