Veteran Miami prosecutor quits after judge’s rebuke over conjugal visits for jailhouse informants

By JOSHUA GOODMAN
Associated Press

MIAMI, Florida (AP) — A veteran prosecutor in Miami has quit after a judge found that state investigators manipulated witnesses by providing conjugal visits and other favors to jailhouse informants in exchange for their testimony in a high-profile death penalty case against a local gang leader. Michael Von Zamft has led some of the biggest murder cases in the Florida state attorney’s office in Miami. He resigned following a stunning rebuke by a judge who disqualified him and a younger prosecutor from the resentencing trial of a notorious gang leader and convicted murderer. Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson said she found evidence of “witness testimony manipulation” and “severe recklessness” by prosecutors stretching back to the case’s origins 24 years ago and continuing today.