A federal judge, stacking two boxes of jail records on his bench Tuesday, said he has ordered a top federal prosecutor to explain next week why the materials were not turned over for a probe of the Rukn case as he ordered 1 1/2 years ago.
U.S. District Judge James Holderman said he was “flabbergasted” to learn last week that the Metropolitan Correctional Center had compiled 37 logs concerning activities on the 6th floor where El Rukn government witnesses were housed.
“That’s a lot of material to overlook,” said Holderman, who plans to question Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Shepard about why the records were not produced in April 1992 as Holderman ordered.
In ordering retrials for 13 Rukn defendants, Holderman and two other federal judges have ruled prosecutors covered up drug use by two key witnesses in the MCC as well as other benefits that went unreported.
