“Today’s dismissal of the criminal charges against Joseph Baptiste and Roger Boncy is the result of recently discovered contemporaneous communications about calls recorded on December 19, 2015 between defendant Boncy and an undercover FBI agent. These communications were never disclosed to the prosecutors on the case prior to the evening of June 23, 2022. Moreover, the FBI does not have the original recordings it made of the December 19, 2015 calls.
These defendants were first tried and convicted in 2019. The trial judge vacated their convictions pursuant to Rule 33 for ineffective assistance of counsel. The First Circuit affirmed the granting of a new trial. In preparation for that retrial, and in response to requests from defense counsel, the FBI gave the recently discovered materials to the prosecutors late last week and we promptly produced them to defense counsel the next day.
As the government, our charging decisions deeply impact people’s lives. We have an obligation to provide all discoverable evidence in our possession to the defense. That is a core principle of the criminal legal system. After a careful review of this entire matter, we dismiss these charges in the interest of justice.”