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More testimony in Secret Service lawsuit
More details in the lawsuit alleging that the U.S. Secret Service discriminated against African American agents by creating a “racially hostile atmosphere.”
Carrie Hunnicutt, the Secret Service inspector in charge of searching for all paper documents related to the promotion of black agents, testified today that the service conducted a “good-faith search” of every office to locate paper records sought by plaintiffs.
“I thought this was a good-faith search world-wide of every Secret Service office that pertained to the court ordered request,” said Hunnicutt of the search ordered by U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson on December 21, 2007. “They searched everywhere.”
But E. Desmond Hogan, a Hogan & Hartson lawyer representing the plaintiffs for free, attempted to poke holes in that assertion.
Hogan asked how the search could be thorough when the head of the Buffalo field office failed to search for “even one piece of paper” according to Hunnicutt’s own questionnaire evaluating the extent to which the service conducted its search.
In another example, Hogan asked how it could be a complete search when some senior officials did not even respond to all of Hunnicutt’s questions about their search.
Robinson held the hearing in an effort to determine whether she should sanction the government a 4th time for failing to produce evidence and credible testimony in the discovery process. Legal experts say it is extremely rare for a judge to sanction the government so many times.
Hunnicutt tried several times to defend the service. At times, she offered a defense of the search without answering the question posed by Hogan.
At one point, Robinson threatened to strike her entire testimony from the court record if she did not start answering the questions posed by Hogan.
Given Hunnicutt’s doctorate degree and senior job with the service, Robinson said she had “no doubt” that Hunnicutt understood Hogan’s questions.
At times, Hunnicutt responded with long periods of silence before answering.
Hogan asked Hunnicutt why she deliberated so long before answering his questions in stark contrast to her speedy response to the lawyers representing the service. At times, he said, she took in excess of a minute to respond.
Hunnicutt said she needed more time to answer Hogan’s questions because she did not think he would allow her to elaborate or explain her answers.
Michelle Johnson, an assistant U.S. Attorney, allowed her to expand on her responses.
Robinson continued the hearing until later this month.
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