Melissa Meister Quoted by Law360 on DOJ’s Listening Problem in Trials

Former federal prosecutor Melissa Meister told Law360, in a story about the Department of Justice’s losing a major antitrust case, “I don’t think DOJ did a good job of listening regarding the evidentiary problems that were in the case.”

Prosecutors persisted in the face of two hung juries in an antitrust case about price fixing in the chicken industry, even after the judge told prosecutors to “reflect” on the limits of the evidence. “The judge tried to point that out,” Meister said.

A former assistant U.S. attorney and trial attorney with the DOJ’s civil fraud section, Meister also noted that the DOJ failed to enlist the aid of local federal attorneys. The local assistant U.S. attorneys are “another avenue of fresh eyes that DOJ can take advantage of,” Meister said. “They do know their courts, and they know their juries.”

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