A Phoenix FBI agent was arrested this week on charges related to his having an affair with the wife of a man that the agent had once arrested. The agent saw the husband’s case through to a prison sentence. Having your paramour’s husband behind bars for 18 months does reduce the odds of trouble from the husband. However, the story alleged by the Justice Department in its indictment goes downhill from there, from a law-enforcement-integrity perspective. After the hubby was released from prison, the agent allegedly fed information to authorities on the husband’s involvement in an armed robbery of a Radio Shack. Fifteen years was the penalty for the hubby.
But the indictment just gets better and alleges more – that the agent used his position to see to it that the wife’s (and the husband’s) son, who apparently had a hand in the Radio Shack heist, could turn state’s evidence and get a favorable plea deal. Ah, the old trick of sending the husband up the river and reforming the son. It’s not the stuff of an Austen novel. But it is a conflict of interest.
And conflicts are managed quite easily: Don’t! or Disclose! It just doesn’t help your case in court to confess that you are dating the defendant’s wife. So, the rule for all law enforcement agents is quite simple: No fraternizing with the spouses of suspects.
The agent’s lawyer has responded, “He is not charged with peccadilloes on his part. The government will finally show what evidence they have, which I’ve been asking for for a year and a half.” Nope, the charges are not for peccadilloes. The agent is charged with making false statements and witness tampering.
Even if the criminal case is not there, one has to wonder, “What was this guy thinking?” As the Coen Brothers wrote in “O, Brother, Where Art Thou?”: “It’s a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart.” But, true love aside, a conflict is a conflict is a conflict. And when we don’ worry about conflicts, obstruction and tampering may lie ahead. Narrow the dating pool just a bit to exclude the wives, husbands, and children of suspects. In fact, extend it out to the family tree. Law enforcement carries its risks, but dating does not, so long as agents do not mix their personal lives with those of their suspects. They could end up suspects themselves.
See Justice Department Release 08-073, May 29, 2008, www.usdoj.gov.
About mmjdiary
Professor Marianne Jennings is an emeritus professor of legal and ethical studies from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, retiring in 2011 after 35 years of teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in ethics and the legal environment of business. During her tenure at ASU, she served as director of the Joan and David Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics from 1995-1999. In 2006, she was appointed faculty director for the W.P. Carey Executive MBA Program. She has done consulting work for businesses and professional groups including AICPA, Boeing, Dial Corporation, Edward Jones, Mattel, Motorola, CFA Institute, Southern California Edison, the Institute of Internal Auditors, AIMR, DuPont, AES, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Motorola, Hy-Vee Foods, IBM, Bell Helicopter, Amgen, Raytheon, and VIAD.
The sixth edition of her textbook, Case Studies in Business Ethics, was published in February 2011. The ninth edition of her textbook, Business: lts Legal, Ethical and Global Environment was published in January 2011. The 23rd edition of her book, Business Law: Principles and Cases, will be published in January 2013. The tenth edition of her book, Real Estate Law, will also be published in January 2013. Her book, A Business Tale: A Story of Ethics, Choices, Success, and a Very Large Rabbit, a fable about business ethics, was chosen by Library Journal in 2004 as its business book of the year. A Business Tale was also a finalist for two other literary awards for 2004. In 2000 her book on corporate governance was published by the New York Times MBA Pocket Series. Her book on long-term success, Building a Business Through Good Times and Bad: Lessons from Fifteen Companies, Each With a Century of Dividends, was published in October 2002 and has been used by Booz, Allen, Hamilton for its work on business longevity. Her latest book, The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse was published by St. Martin’s Press in July 2006 and has been a finalist for two book awards.
Her weekly columns are syndicated around the country, and her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Reader's Digest. A collection of her essays, Nobody Fixes Real Carrot Sticks Anymore, first published in 1994 is still being published. She has been a commentator on business issues on All Things Considered for National Public Radio.
She has served on four boards of directors, including Arizona Public Service (1987-2000), Zealous Capital Corporation, and the Center for Children with Chronic Illness and Disability at the University of Minnesota. She was appointed to the board of advisors for the Institute of Nuclear Power Operators in 2004 and served on the board of trustees for Think Arizona, a public policy think tank. She has appeared on CNBC, CBS This Morning, the Today Show, and CBS Evening News.
In 2010 she was named one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders in Business Ethics by Trust Across America. Her books have been translated into four different languages. She received the British Emerald award for authoring one of their top 50 articles in management publications, chosen from over 15,000 articles.
Personal: Married since 1976 to Terry H. Jennings, Maricopa County Attorney’s Office Deputy County Attorney; five children: Sarah, Sam, and John, and the late Claire and Hannah Jennings.
