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When those sworn to uphold the law become the ones breaking it, justice itself is compromised. Join us as we examine shocking cases where the American legal system failed its citizens! Our countdown includes corrupt judges taking bribes, wrongful convictions, FBI agents working with criminals, and more shocking betrayals of public trust.
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00:00A Scranton jury. It convicted a former Pennsylvania judge in a so-called kids for cash scheme.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're breaking down cases that reveal what happens when power
00:11is abused within the very institutions meant to uphold fairness and truth.
00:15Officers in the Rampart Division are now accused of rigging deportation orders
00:19for suspected gang members or witnesses to police misconduct.
00:24Bribery behind the badge. The case of a corrupt California FBI agent.
00:30In one of the FBI's ugliest recent scandals, Babak Bromond, a supervisory special agent based in California,
00:37took at least $150,000 in cash and gifts, including luxury travel and a motorcycle,
00:43from Edgar Sargasyan, a Beverly Hills lawyer with ties to Armenian-organized crime.
00:49In return, Bromond searched FBI and law enforcement databases and funneled inside information
00:56to help Sargasyan and associates check whether they were under investigation and evade scrutiny.
01:02Jurors convicted Bromond in October 2022 of conspiracy, bribery, and unlawful monetary transactions.
01:09A judge sentenced him to six years in federal prison in February 2023.
01:14The case exposed how even a senior national security agent could be compromised by money and access,
01:20an institutional breach that demanded a hard reset on internal safeguards.
01:25Tennessee lawmakers caught in a corruption sting.
01:28The FBI agent from the Tennessee Waltz case tells us that any time he sees video of searches happening
01:33in the administration building, it reminds him of that investigation from 2003.
01:39Bribery, extortion, legislation to benefit a fake company,
01:43all part of a secretive undercover investigation into corruption at the state capitol.
01:48When the very individual's drafting laws engage in illicit activities,
01:52it exposes a fundamental flaw in the democratic process and the justice system it creates.
01:58Former Tennessee State Senator John Ford, a powerful figure in state politics,
02:04was convicted in 2007 on federal bribery and extortion charges
02:08as part of an FBI sting operation dubbed Operation Tennessee Waltz.
02:13You should have a, you should have a, you should have a, you should have a, there, all right?
02:18All right.
02:19And, uh, you need an envelope?
02:21You want an envelope?
02:21I don't want to leave.
02:22I don't want to leave.
02:22I don't want to leave.
02:23No, I don't want to leave.
02:23Ford accepted cash payments from an undercover agent posing as a representative
02:28of a fictitious company seeking legislative favors.
02:32This wasn't an isolated incident, but part of a pattern that saw several Tennessee lawmakers
02:37ensnared in the widespread corruption probe.
02:40Ford was eventually released from prison in 2012, five years after his initial conviction.
02:46The investigation eventually led to the arrests of a dozen people, including Senator Ford,
02:50multiple other state senators, a representative, and other government officials.
02:55Burns says most corruption cases are smaller, but this one was unusual.
02:59When you have the more systemic, where it's more expansive, those don't come around nearly as often.
03:06Kickbacks and Cronies – The Oklahoma County Commissioner's Scandal
03:10Corruption at the local level might sound less dramatic than federal scandals, but its
03:15pervasive nature can erode public trust just as deeply.
03:19In the 1980s, Oklahoma was rocked by a scandal involving nearly half of its 77 county commissioners,
03:26who were implicated in a widespread kickback scheme.
03:29These elected officials would conspire with road contractors, inflating prices for equipment
03:34and materials, then splitting the excess profit.
03:38The decades-long fraud siphoned millions of taxpayer dollars intended for crucial infrastructure
03:44projects, turning public service into a personal ATM for corrupt officials.
03:49Ultimately, the sheer scale of the scandal revealed a systematic weakness in oversight and
03:54accountability within the state's local governance.
03:57The fall of Philadelphia D.A. R. Seth Williams.
04:01Former Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams is sentenced to five years in prison
04:06after pleading guilty this summer to accepting a bribe.
04:09Today, a judge imposed the maximum penalty in that case.
04:12The integrity of the justice system depends on fair and impartial prosecutors.
04:17Yet in Philadelphia, the city's top law enforcement official betrayed that trust.
04:22Two-term district attorney R. Seth Williams was indicted in March 2017 on a 23-count federal
04:29corruption charge that included bribery, extortion, and honest services fraud.
04:34The first signs of trouble began in August of 2015 when federal agents subpoenaed records
04:39from his political action committee.
04:41Now, we jump ahead to this year.
04:44In January, Williams was fined $62,000 for failing to disclose gifts and sources of income.
04:50That was the largest ethics fine in city history.
04:54According to prosecutors, he accepted lavish gifts, a trip to Punta Cana, a Jaguar convertible,
05:01a custom sofa, a custom sofa, thousands in cash and checks in exchange for his agreement to perform
05:06official acts.
05:08Williams was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison in October of 2017.
05:13The scandal exposed how the power of the prosecutor's office can become a tool for personal gain
05:18and erode public confidence in justice.
05:21I wasn't convicted of a bribery, accepting bribes, but they're gifts I should not have accepted.
05:26I should have reported all of the gifts, and I accept the responsibility for that.
05:33Prosecutorial misconduct in the trial of Senator Ted Stevens.
05:36That closely contested Senate race in Alaska appears to be over.
05:40The Associated Press projects that Republican Ted Stevens has lost his bid for re-election
05:44just weeks after being convicted on federal ethics charges.
05:47Even seemingly successful prosecutors can reveal deep-seated corruption
05:51when justice is ultimately perverted by those wielding the power of the state.
05:56The 2008 conviction of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, then the longest-serving Republican in Senate
06:02history, on charges of making false statements, became a notorious example of prosecutorial misconduct.
06:09The 85-year-old Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in history,
06:13was convicted with wiretapped phone conversations.
06:16We ought to really lay low right now because this grand jury's meeting...
06:20Convicted of hiding $250,000 worth of gifts and home renovations.
06:25The conviction was later overturned when a federal judge found that prosecutors had deliberately
06:30withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense.
06:33His attorney said Stevens never should have been prosecuted in the first place.
06:37The jury verdict here was obtained unlawfully.
06:41The misconduct of the prosecutors was stunning to me.
06:43This stunning reversal led to a rare public apology from the attorney general
06:48and an internal Justice Department investigation that detailed a pattern of systemic negligence
06:54and intentional concealment.
06:56The government's egregious actions denied Stevens a fair trial, exposing how even federal prosecutors
07:02can undermine the very justice they're sworn to uphold.
07:06Attorney General Eric Holder promised to drop all charges, saying it is in the interest of justice
07:10to dismiss the indictment and not proceed with a new trial.
07:14The 1999 Tulia Sting operation that destroyed dozens of lives.
07:19I was still asleep.
07:21And I answered the door and there's two cops.
07:23I mean, everybody had guns pulled.
07:25I opened the door and he said, Billy, we got a warrant for your arrest.
07:27I said, huh?
07:28For what?
07:29They said, uh, for a controlled substance.
07:31And they said, well, you have a delivery of a controlled substance.
07:35And I said, to who?
07:36The small town of Tulia, Texas, became a sobering symbol of racial injustice and law enforcement
07:42malfeasance in the late 1990s.
07:44In 1999, roughly 10% of the town's black population, 47 individuals, were arrested on drug charges
07:52based solely on the uncoraborated testimony of an undercover officer, Tom Coleman.
07:57Coleman, later exposed as an unreliable informant with a record of misconduct, offered inconsistent
08:04accounts and no physical evidence.
08:06In a letter to the Tulia Herald, Coleman wrote he was only trying to protect decent citizens
08:11from drug dealers.
08:13With the ACLU and NAACP lawsuit pending, Coleman, the sheriff, and the district attorney refused
08:19to speak with 2020 on camera.
08:22They deny the charges in the civil rights lawsuit.
08:24And McEachern told our local affiliate that they checked Coleman out before they hired him.
08:29The resulting convictions led to lengthy prison sentences, devastating an entire community.
08:35And what were you charged with?
08:37Delivery, three counts, controlled substance to an undercover Tom Coleman.
08:45Delivery of 3.1 grams of cocaine.
08:49And they gave me 60 years.
08:50They said, I sold them three eight bottles of powder cocaine, manufactured and delivered.
08:55That was until overwhelming proof of fabrication and racial bias prompted then-Texas Governor Rick Perry
09:01to pardon 35 defendants in 2003.
09:05Corruption on the 1965 Oklahoma Supreme Court.
09:09For years, Oklahomans had selected their judges through a party election system, Republican and Democrat.
09:15There had been charges of corruption throughout that time.
09:19And in 1960s, Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Innes Corn, who was 80 years old at the time,
09:27testified that he had taken a $150,000 bribe to fix a tax case.
09:31When the highest judicial body in the state is compromised, the entire framework of justice risks collapsing.
09:37In 1965, Oklahoma was rocked by a scandal that exposed widespread bribery within its own Supreme Court.
09:45Three justices, including the Chief Justice, were implicated in accepting cash bribes and other favors
09:51in exchange for influencing court decisions, particularly those involving oil and gas cases.
09:57Well, I was embarrassed to find out that our Supreme Court had been taking payoffs.
10:05We'd been through the grace of wrath, and now we've got a Supreme Court taking payoffs.
10:11Which, for those of us who were young lawyers, was just horrible.
10:19This elaborate scheme revealed how judicial integrity could be bought and sold,
10:24effectively auctioning off justice to the highest bidder.
10:27The scandal led to impeachments, resignations, and criminal convictions,
10:31sending shockwaves through the state, and forcing a fundamental re-evaluation
10:36of its judicial ethics and oversight processes from the top down.
10:40The system was fixed by basically scrapping political party elections.
10:46And in 1967, Oklahomans voted in a new system.
10:51And under this new system, all local judges would be elected
10:55in non-partisan elections.
10:57The political party affiliation cannot even be listed on the ballot.
11:02The Kids for Cash juvenile justice scandal.
11:04Prosecutors say that Mark Chivarella accepted millions in bribes and kickbacks
11:09for putting juveniles into detention centers.
11:12Those for-profit detention centers were owned by friends.
11:16Few judicial scandals in modern American history were as brazenly unethical as Kids for Cash,
11:23a case where two Pennsylvania judges lined their pockets by sentencing children to jail.
11:28In 2008, Luzerne County judges Mark Chivarella Jr. and Michael Conahan
11:33were found to have accepted nearly $3 million in kickbacks
11:37from the developer and owner of two privately run juvenile detention centers.
11:42In return, they deliberately sentenced thousands of children,
11:46some for minor infractions, to these facilities,
11:49often without due process or legal representation.
11:52I think that we had a conspiracy of silence going on in Luzerne County.
11:56Marsha Levick, the public interest lawyer who helped break the case.
11:59There were officers of the court, there were members of the district attorney's office,
12:03members of probation, private lawyers, public defenders who were in the courtroom every day.
12:09The judges' avarice stripped vulnerable minors of their freedom and futures,
12:14all to line their own pockets.
12:16The systemic corruption, driven by pure greed, represented a grotesque perversion of justice,
12:22resulting in the vacating of over 4,000 juvenile convictions.
12:26They basically said that, you know, I'm just going to get a slap on the wrist,
12:30that I shouldn't waste money on a lawyer.
12:32Jamie Quinn was 14 when she was sent to Judge Mark Chivarella because of an after-school fight.
12:38Did you hurt her badly? Did she have to go to the hospital?
12:40No.
12:41Was she injured?
12:42No.
12:42I honestly expected that I was going to get lectured and get probation at the worst.
12:47The Rampart scandal, LAPD's culture of corruption.
12:51Add another 9 to the list of cases thrown out because of the LAPD corruption scandal,
12:55plus a staggering estimate of how much the resulting lawsuits could cost the city.
13:00That's a huge mess.
13:01That description of the Rampart police corruption scandal given today by District Attorney Gil Garcetti.
13:07Nine more criminal convictions thrown out today.
13:10The Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart division became synonymous with widespread police corruption and brutality in the late 1990s.
13:17The scandal centered on the anti-gang crash unit, whose officers engaged in a litany of illegal acts, including planting evidence, fabricating witness testimony, unprovoked shootings, dealing drugs, and committing perjury.
13:31Officer Rafael Perez, a key figure, exposed the depth of the corruption in a plea bargain, leading to the overturning of numerous wrongful convictions and costing the city over $100 million in settlements.
13:44I lost my family, my home, cars, clothes, everything.
13:49Garcia says ex-Rampart police officer Rafael Perez framed him.
13:53He showed me some cocaine and told me that if I didn't give him some information on who was selling firearms or who was selling certain amounts of drugs and so forth, that I was going to go to prison.
14:06This systemic breakdown of law enforcement ethics revealed how a unit meant to combat crime could in itself become a criminal enterprise, shattering public trust and exposing deep institutional flaws within one of the nation's largest police forces.
14:21The case of Walter Rivas, a father of two who's no angel, but his lawyers say he was framed and a tainted conviction was overturned just two weeks ago.
14:29Yet Rivas remains in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center. He could be deported to El Salvador as soon as tomorrow.
14:59In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers were wrongfully convicted of a brutal attack on a white woman in New York City's Central Park.
15:21Despite weak physical evidence, conflicting and coerced confessions, and a rush to judgment fueled by media frenzy,
15:28they were sentenced to lengthy prison terms. It took more than a decade for the truth to emerge,
15:33when a serial offender confessed to the crime and DNA evidence corroborated his account, leading to the boy's exoneration in 2002.
15:42This profound miscarriage of justice laid bare the devastating consequences of prosecutional overreach, prejudiced policing,
15:50and a judicial system that failed to protect the innocent.
15:52Well, you apologize for the Central Park Five. They've been exonerated, there have been videos and movies shown about the case,
16:00and you came out with a full-page ad saying that they should die, that they should have a death penalty.
16:05Why do you bring that question up now? It's an interesting time to bring it up.
16:09You have people on both sides of that. They admitted their guilt.
16:12Which case do you believe left the deepest mark on America's legal system?
16:16Are there any cases of corruption that we missed?
16:18Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
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