Elite prosecutor misused position by offering Justice Department card in DUI stop, watchdog finds

MIAMI (AP) — One of the nation’s most prolific federal narcotics prosecutors flouted ethics rules last year when he drunkenly handed his business card to Florida police investigating a hit-and-run crash, a Justice Department watchdog found.

The finding comes nearly a year after The Associated Press published body-camera footage following a Fourth of July crash in which Joseph Ruddy was accused of striking another vehicle, leaving the scene and improperly seeking to leverage his position as an assistant U.S. attorney in Tampa to blunt the fallout.

In the footage, a disoriented Ruddy could barely stand up straight, slurred his words and leaned on the tailgate of his pickup to keep his balance. But he was under control enough to hand over his Justice Department credentials to officers from two jurisdictions dispatched to investigate the crash.

“What are you trying to hand me?” a Tampa police officer asked. “You realize when they pull my body-worn camera footage and they see this, this is going to go really bad.”

A one-page summary published Wednesday by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General doesn’t name Ruddy but substantiated allegations that an assistant U.S. attorney “engaged in misuse of position” when he provided his work credentials unsolicited. And last year, the Justice Department confirmed that it was referring Ruddy’s case to the inspector general’s office.

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Investigators also found that the assistant U.S. attorney cited in their report “engaged in conduct prejudicial to the government” by driving drunk and then leaving the scene of a crash after hitting another vehicle. The report was referred to the Justice Department’s Professional Misconduct Review Unit for appropriate action.

After the AP inquired about Ruddy’s work status last year, he was removed from several cases but the Justice Department confirmed on Wednesday that he remains an assistant U.S. attorney. Neither Ruddy nor his attorney responded to messages seeking comment Wednesday.

“While we cannot comment on specific personnel matters, the Department of Justice holds all personnel, including its assistant U.S. attorneys, to the highest standards of personal and professional conduct,” the department said in a statement. “We take all allegations of misconduct by Department personnel seriously and take appropriate action where warranted.”

Ruddy is known in law enforcement circles as one of the architects of Operation Panama Express, or PANEX — a task force launched in 2000 to target cocaine smuggling at sea, combining resources from the U.S. Coast Guard, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Historically, PANEX-generated intelligence contributes to more than 90% of U.S. Coast Guard drug interdictions at sea. Between 2018 and 2022, the Coast Guard removed or destroyed 888 metric tons of cocaine worth an estimated $26 billion and detained 2,776 suspected smugglers, a senior Coast Guard official said in congressional testimony last year. The bulk of those cases were handled by Ruddy and his colleagues in Tampa, where PANEX is headquartered.

A former Ironman triathlete, the 70-year-old Ruddy enjoys a reputation among attorneys for hard work and toughness in the courtroom. Among his biggest cases were some of the early extraditions from Colombia of top smugglers for the feared Cali cartel.

But the majority of cases handled out of his office involve mostly poor fishermen from Central and South America who make up the drug trade’s lowest rungs. Often, the drugs aren’t even bound for U.S. shores and the constitutional guarantees of due process that normally apply in criminal cases inside the U.S. are only loosely observed.

Despite his own admissions and witness testimony, state prosecutors never charged Ruddy with hit-and-run and dismissed charges of driving under the influence with property damage — a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison.

Ruddy, whose blood-alcohol level tested at 0.17%, twice the legal limit, was instead allowed late last year to plead no contest to reckless driving, a second-degree misdemeanor, and given 12 months’ probation.

“We had no witnesses who could testify to seeing Mr. Ruddy behind the wheel during the incident, which is a key factor in proving DUI cases,” said Erin Maloney, spokeswoman for the state attorney’s office in Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa. “This outcome ensures the defendant is still held accountable.”

On the night of his arrest, Ruddy was accused of sideswiping an SUV whose driver had been waiting to turn at a red light, clipping a side mirror and tearing off another piece of the vehicle that lodged in the fender of Ruddy’s pickup.

“He never even hit brakes,” a witness told police. “He just kept going and he was swerving all the way up the road. I’m like, ‘No, he’s going to hurt somebody.’”

When officers arrived at Ruddy’s home in the Tampa suburb of Temple Terrace, they found him hunched over his pickup, holding his keys and using the vehicle for support, a police report said. Officers noted that he had urinated on himself, was unable to walk without help and failed a field sobriety test.

“I understand we might be having a better night,” Tampa police patrolman Taylor Grant said before looking at the business card.

“Why didn’t you stop?” the officer asked.

“I didn’t realize it was that serious,” Ruddy said in a slurred response.

“You hit a vehicle and you ran,” the officer said. “You ran because you’re drunk. You probably didn’t realize you hit the vehicle.”

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Mustian reported from New York. Contact AP’s global investigative team at [email protected].