Chandra Levy Sensation: Prosecutor Who Jailed Innocent Man for Murder Should Lose Her License for 60 Days, Ethics Board Claims
Aug. 1 2023, Published 8:05 a.m. ET
An ethics board recently argued that the prosecutor who jailed an innocent man for the 2001 murder of Chandra Levy should lose her license for 60 days, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a sensational development to come more than 22 years after Levy disappeared in May 2001, the District of Columbia Board on Professional Responsibility filed a 53-page report on Monday.
The board argued that Amanda Haines, the Washington, D.C. federal prosecutor who charged and convicted Ingmar Guandique for Levy’s murder in 2010, committed "grave" professional misconduct and should therefore lose her law license for 60 days, according to Reuters.
The District of Columbia Board on Professional Responsibility also argued that Haines "failed to uphold her duties" to “timely disclose evidence” to the defense lawyers who represented Guandique nearly 15 years ago.
“[Haines] failed to evaluate the evidence, as required by case law, from the perspective of defense counsel,” the committee wrote on Monday.
Meanwhile, Haines’ attorney insisted that the now-retired prosecutor was “innocent” and they were "encouraged by the Board’s finding that Ms. Haines did not commit intentional misconduct and its decision to reduce the proposed penalty."
A hearing committee initially recommended a 90-day license suspension for Haines last year for “withholding information from Guandique's defense lawyers” about “a key witness' prior interaction with law enforcement,” but the District of Columbia Board on Professional Responsibility proposed a shorter license suspension on Monday.
"At worst, Haines made a mistake,” Haines’ attorney, Sarah Fink, wrote in a response filing. “What she did not do was intentionally suppress evidence.”
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Levy worked as an intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C. when she suddenly disappeared in May 2001.
The 24-year-old California native’s remains were found in Rock Creek Park in 2002.
Levy was romantically linked to then-California Congressman Gary Condit at the time of her disappearance and subsequent death, although the married father-of-two denied allegations that he and Levy were engaged in an affair.
“I did not have a romantic involvement with her,” Condit said in 2016. “I was not involved in her disappearance in any way.”
Susan Levy, Chandra Levy’s mother, refuted Condit’s claims.
“There was definitely something going on between my daughter and him,” Susan Levy told People in October 2016.
Levy’s murder case remained unsolved until 2009 when Haines and fellow Washington, D.C. federal prosecutor Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez charged Guandique for the 24-year-old intern’s murder.
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Guandique was convicted for Levy’s murder in 2010 and was sentenced to 60 years in prison. He was freed from prison in 2015 when his case was dismissed after a new trial raised questions about the credibility of a jailhouse informant.
Guandique was deported to his native El Salvador in May 2017.
No other suspects have been charged in Levy’s death in the 22 years since she was murdered.
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