Casefile True Crime - Case 09: Jonathan Luna

Episode Date: March 5, 2016

He was implicated in a case of missing money from a courthouse evidence vault. He was facing allegations of misconduct and illegal handling of a witness in a major drug trafficking trial, which lead to the judge ordering a federal investigation. One way to stop that federal investigation would be to come up with a quick plea deal to end the case. One problem, there was no way to do the plea deal without violating federal law. And unfortunately, for US assistant attorney Jonathan Luna things were about to get worse. Much, much worse. For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-09-jonathan-luna

He was implicated in a case of missing money from a courthouse evidence vault, though allegations of misconduct and illegal handling of a witness in a major drug trafficking trial, which led to the judge ordering a federal investigation. One way to stop that federal investigation would be to come up with a quick plea deal to end the case. One problem. There was no way to do the plea deal without violating federal law. And unfortunately, for US Assistant Attorney Jonathan Luna, this wasn't even the worst

of it. Not even close. Out of the housing projects in the South Bronx, New York City, described as some of the poorest neighborhoods in the country, came Jonathan Luna. Despite the nonstop violence, shootings, gangs and drugs that he grew up around, Jonathan somehow managed to avoid it all and become a bright, well-read student. Running and learning to better himself was Jonathan's drug of choice. He dedicated himself to school, saying that to be successful, you had to be educated.

In high school, he also developed the love of running and keeping fit. If he wasn't studying, he was running. To his own hard work and determination, Jonathan Luna overcame the poverty-stricken, drug-ridden, violent housing projects he was brought up in and went off to college. He was later accepted into the University of North Carolina School of Law. In 1992, he graduated from law school and won a clerkship with a US district judge in Greensboro, North Carolina. Soon after, he would go on to be hired as an associate at Arnold & Porter, a law firm

in Washington, DC. He then married the love of his life, Angela, in 1993. From 94 to 97, he worked as a staff attorney in the Federal Trade Commission Council's office. But he fell to calling towards prosecution, and in 1997, he took the assistant district attorney's job in Brooklyn. Then in 1999, he was hired as the assistant US attorney in Maryland, a federal prosecutor. When he won this job, he and his wife moved to Baltimore, where the US attorney's office

was located. Baltimore at the time was a city with a population of about 650,000 people. It's estimated that about 10% of that population were addicted to either crack or heroin. On average, the city had over 200 murders each year. It was a tough, violent city with a large drug problem. There was also widespread allegations from residents of corruption amongst the police and other city officials. Assistant US attorney Jonathan Luna handled tough cases.

He prosecuted drug dealers, bank robbers, pedophiles, murderers. But it was the investigation of two drug traffickers, Deon Smith and Walter Poindexter, and the star witness against them, Warren Grace, where we begin this bizarre story. At 21 years of age, Warren Grace had already served five years in prison on heroin and gun charges. It just so happened that he was selling drugs for Walter Poindexter when he was caught. Walter locked Warren and made sure he was as comfortable as possible when he was in prison.

He visited him regularly and was always sending him money. And when Warren was eventually released from prison, he went to live with Walter. And it didn't take long for him to get straight back into the drug trade. Walter Poindexter was a straight-level dealer. He had various runners working a corner for him. His main man being Warren Grace. But Walter had to source his drugs from somewhere, too. And that's where Deon Smith comes in.

Deon Smith was an independent rap music producer and an aspiring rapper himself. He was also a mid-level supplier of heroin. He had access to the higher-level dealers, the organized crime gangs, in New York. Deon would get his drugs from New York, Walter would then buy the drugs from Deon, which then he would on-sell to the street. On a bad day, Walter and Warren would make $1,000 to $1,500, but that was a bad day. Good days could be anywhere from $3,000 to $4,000. And of course, the best days of trade were the two days of the month that government

assistant checks were issued. Despite business being good, Walter Poindexter kept getting himself arrested. No major drug supply charges yet, but enough to keep him out of action for a little while. In a way, this was good news for Warren, because in Walter's absence, it meant he got to run the corner and make more money. That is, until Warren himself came unstuck and got arrested. On April 7, 2002, Baltimore police raided his house to find scales, heroin, and two guns.

He was also charged with aiding and abetting. This was bad news for Warren. Very bad news. Given his history and what he had just been caught with, he faced at least 40 years in prison, 30 without the possibility of parole. He was facing the very real possibility that he wouldn't see the streets again until he was in his mid-50s. That wasn't a very exciting prospect for Warren, but he'd been keeping an ace up his sleeve

in case he ever found himself in a bad position such as this. He had information about the murder of Alvin Jones. A murder committed by his good friend Walter Poindexter. In 2001, before Walter was arrested, one of his drug houses was robbed. Word got back to him that Alvin Jones was the man responsible. Walter's retaliation was swift and brutal. He filled him full of bullets. So not only was it a murder, it was a drug-related murder, meaning Walter Poindexter would go

to prison without the chance of ever getting out and could even face a death penalty. Not only was Warren Grace happy to give up his friend for murder, he was also more than happy to talk to the police about the drug syndicate he was a part of. Baltimore police contacted the FBI and they couldn't resist the opportunity. Locking up a rap music producer for drug supply and clearing a drug-related shooting they were in. The FBI agent in charge of the case was Agent Steve Skinner from the Baltimore Field Office. He quickly filled in Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Lunar about what they had.

Lunar quickly arranged for Warren to be brought into his office, along with Agent Skinner, to discuss what he knew. Warren knew how it worked. He had information, but that information wasn't going to be for free. So in order to show just how cooperative they were willing to be, Lunar dropped the aiding and abetting charge that Warren was facing. And just like that, his 40-year term dropped down to 30. But that was just the beginning.

If he worked with the government, cooperated with the FBI and testified truthfully, he would be granted further reductions in sentencing. The FBI took over the case and filed Warren's charges in a federal court where they had control. On May 31, 2002, Warren pled guilty to the gun and drug charges and he was released to a halfway house to work undercover with Agent Skinner and the FBI, whilst he was awaiting his sentencing. How well the case was built against Smith and Poindexter and how well he testified would ultimately lead to a greater reduced sentence.

And he even got paid for his trouble. As part of the deal, Warren Grace had to agree not to use a firearm, not to use drugs, and not to leave the halfway house without the approval of the FBI. He also had to wear a monitoring device. They didn't take Warren long to break every one of those rules. In fact, he would go right back to drug dealing and to shooting up the neighborhood. He even removed his monitoring device at times. Agent Skinner effectively turned a blind eye to all of this and even took active steps

to ensure Warren's release wasn't revoked. He knew what he was up to, but he left him out on the street putting the community at risk anyway. He just wanted him to get to Poindexter and Smith. That's all he cared about. Warren Grace was basically free to do what he wanted with the blessing of Agent Skinner. To build their case, the FBI wired Warren up and recorded his conversations with Deon Smith.

They got plenty of conversations nailing Smith for drug trafficking. And it wasn't long before Walter Poindexter was released from his current sentence either. And they got plenty of incriminating evidence against him on tape too, thanks to Warren. The FBI would also conduct surveillance and observe some drug transactions taking place. They gave Warren money to buy the drugs. The deal was recorded. Then he would hand the drugs over to the FBI to be ended up as evidence. Whilst the FBI used Warren Grace to build their case, Jonathan Luna was busy prosecuting

other cases. In September 2002, he prosecuted notorious bank robber Niko Brown. Niko Brown was being defended by Kenneth Ravenel, who would also later represent Deon Smith. On the 16th of September 2002, $63,123 was wheeled into the courtroom, sealed into three separate bags. The money was seized from the safe of Brown's accomplice. It was wheeled into the court, shown to the jury and judge, and ended into evidence. At the conclusion of the court day, the money had to be taken to the evidence fault in the

courthouse. Jonathan Luna and the FBI agent in charge of the case were responsible for escorting the money to the vault. On the 26th of September, 10 days later, once the trial was concluded, the judge ruled all the evidence could be returned. And it was here that it was discovered that a bag of the money was missing. The bag missing contained $38,100. And what was significant about that bag was that it contained all of the money that the

FBI couldn't identify or couldn't trace back to a bank that it was stolen from. Agents in charge of the case from the FBI Baltimore Field Office were officially the ones responsible for the money and to ensure it's safekeeping. So who do you think was handed the investigation to find out what happened to the missing money? The Baltimore FBI Field Office, of course. It's not known if the money ever made it into the vault. If it didn't, that would indicate that Jonathan Luna played a part in its disappearance. But it's more than possible the money was stolen from the vault at a later time.

10 days had passed before anyone had noticed it missing. That's a lot of time for somebody to arrange to take it. And many people came and went from the vault. The story was leaked to the media soon after. The media reported that more than $36,000 was missing. They didn't have the exact figure. So from that point on, it was reported and became public belief that $36,000 was stolen. The case came to be known in the papers as the missing $36,000.

The FBI conducted their investigation. They interviewed everyone involved. Everyone from the judge down was interviewed. The FBI was eager to dodge any blame for the missing money. They had to try and lay the blame somewhere else. This created tension between the Baltimore FBI Field Office and the Baltimore US Attorney's Office. Meanwhile, the FBI's investigation into Deon Smith and Walter Poindexter continued.

It didn't come to an end until May 13, 2003, when they raided Deon Smith's Stash House records and arrested both Deon and Walter. Both were charged with trafficking heroin. Walter was also charged with murdering Alvin Jones. Although the murder trial would be conducted separately, Deon and Walter were to be tried together on the trafficking charges. And if the murder of Alvin Jones was brought up, that would be unfair to Deon, as he had nothing to do with it, and it would more than likely result in a mistrial.

So the prosecution had to be careful not to mention the murder in the drug trafficking trial. Jonathan Luna still had the file paperwork to the court about the murder, and he made sure to include just how much information they had to prove the murder was drug related. He threatened Walter with the death penalty. They had tape conversations detailing the murder, they had Warren's testimony, and they also had other witnesses. This was important because with a drug related murder, no plea deal could be negotiated.

Jonathan Luna was required under federal law to prosecute it. The joint trial for Deon and Walter's trafficking charges began on the 1st of December 2003. Jonathan Luna failed to mention that Warren Grace had repeatedly violated the terms of his plea agreement. They also failed to disclose he was a paid informant. This information should have been provided in discovery, but it wasn't, and it would have serious consequences. Warren Grace was called to the stand to testify the first day of trial, and he failed in the

witness box. Mumbling his answers and being unclear with things, he was a bad witness. In fact, it was so bad the judge called an early end to the day to allow Luna to work with him overnight. It was hoped that maybe he would be a little more useful in the witness box the following day. Despite Luna not disclosing any of the information about Warren to the defence, somebody had tipped them off, and before the day ended, the defence team raised the issue with the

judge that they had information suggesting Warren Grace had repeatedly violated the terms of his plea agreement by dealing drugs and engaging in violent behaviour, and that Agent Skinner had effectively turned a blind eye. It was an even more hot topic than usual because at this very moment, a congressional investigation was being conducted into the FBI's criminal mishandling of informants. Imagine how nervous the FBI agents involved in this case, Agent Skinner being the main one, and Jonathan Luna himself were feeling when the defence team raised this. It was career ending stuff.

Probably when the judge asked to say a copy of the violation's report. That was a big problem. Because there wasn't one. Day one was a shocking start for Luna, and it didn't get much better on day two. At the start of the day, Warren Grace got back into the witness box and detailed the heroin operation of Dionne Smith and Walter Poindexter. But again, Warren struggled. He couldn't quite seem to lay the groundwork that Poindexter and Smith were involved in

a conspiracy together to traffic heroin. Luna goes on to pull a very surprising move. He gets Warren to testify the violations that he committed against his plea deal. Obviously sweeping the violations under the rug hadn't worked, so Luna decided to come out swing. He decided he wanted to show the jury he was not trying to hide anything. Luna was described as a sharp attorney, experienced in criminal trials. But in this case he seemed anything but.

He was scolded by the judge on more than one occasion for things like inappropriately trying to get evidence in and for forgetting to bring evidence to the court, forgetting other files. It seemed like it was lost. It was a very un-Luna-like performance. With Warren's plea violations now on record, it created the opportunity for their defense. They filed a motion to have all charges dismissed. But the judge refused. Warren's credibility was shot, and Luna and the FBI were in trouble for trying to keep

it quiet, but there was still the issue of the hours of tapes detailing Deon and Walters drug trafficking activities. The judge wasn't ready to dismiss just yet. But the defense kept arguing the issue, and Luna ended up lying. He said he did in fact hand the documents over detailing the violations, and he can't explain why the defense is saying they didn't get them. But the defense weren't having any of it. They kept hammering the point of misbehaviour and a cover-up by Luna and Agent Skinner.

The defense then tried their luck for a mistrial, and the judge said he would consider it overnight. A mistrial wasn't as good as a dismissal, because with a mistrial, a new trial could start over again at a later date. And Walter and Deon would have to stay in prison until that new trial started. Later that night, once day two of the trial had concluded, the defense were tipped off with further information. And the next day, December 3rd, 2003, they threw the trial. They withdrew their application for a mistrial and argued for a full-blown dismissal.

They now had information Luna and the FBI had conspired with the judge to block him issuing a warrant for Warren Grace over his plea deal violations. Despite these allegations, the judge refused to dismiss the charges. There were still the tapes, after all. The trial continued, and Warren Grace got back into the witness box, and they now go through the tape recordings. When he finished his testimony, the defense selected to delay their cross-examination of him.

The judge ordered Warren not to talk about his testimony or his violations or any other issues in the case with either Luna or the FBI until he had been questioned by the defense. Agent Skinner then took the stand, and another cat is let out of the bag. Skinner admitted in the box that Warren was a paid informant. The defense still weren't aware of that, and they couldn't believe what they were hearing. They made another objection, yet more information that wasn't disclosed to them that should have been, but the judge overruled and just wanted to keep the trial moving forward. Skinner then went on to detail the violations committed by Warren, trying to avoid any blame

or any knowledge before getting into the actual evidence against Deon and Walter. At the conclusion of Skinner's testimony, the defense successfully argued for a federal court inquiry into the mishandling and cover-ups involving Warren Grace. The judge ordered the FBI, Luna, and the US Attorney's Office be investigated. Anxious for that not to happen, Luna came up with a plea deal. He discussed the deal with the defense attorneys in the lunch break. The lawyer for Point Dexter demanded the murder charge be dropped as part of the deal. So the deal offered was about 10 years in prison for Smith, who was facing 30, and 15

years in prison for Point Dexter, who was facing the possibility of the death penalty or at least life without. Although the defense had exposed some serious issues with the handling of the case, they knew it was a great deal for their clients, as there was still the issue of their clients being recorded on tape with the drug trafficking. It was hard to make those recordings go away, and the judge had already denied a dismissal twice because of those tapes. When the deal was taken to Smith and Point Dexter, they couldn't say yes quick enough.

They knew how lenient the deal was. Luna agreed to the request to drop the murder charge, but the problem was he couldn't. It was against the law. The murder charge was drug-related, and no plea deal could be negotiated. Federal rules. Luna must prosecute a drug-related murder. But Luna's neck depended on the plea agreement going ahead. So did the necks of a few of his work colleagues in the U.S. Attorney's Office, and a few

necks at the FBI Baltimore Field Office as well. And the neck of one judge. But Luna had already placed too much in the court file, detailing just how related the drugs the murder of Alvin Jones was. It was too late to make that disappear. But Luna agreed to the deal anyhow. When court resumed after launch, Luna informed the judge that they had come to an agreement They approached the bench, and the judge said that he wanted it signed in writing before

he sent the jury home. It's here that Point Dexter's lawyer questions if Luna could even make the deal happen, given the issue of the murder charge. But Luna says to the judge that he will be able to take care of it. Until it was in writing though, the judge wanted to move forward with the trial. At the conclusion of the third day's evidence, the judge instructed Luna to either have the plea agreement signed off in writing, or to come to court the next morning with his next witness ready to go.

After court concluded, Luna got to work on the deal, trying to work out how to make the murder of Alvin Jones go away, so it could cover up the scandal and impending investigation in a federal court. Luna couldn't approve the deal himself either, it had to be signed off by his superiors. So how did Luna make the evidence that it was a drug-related murder disappear? Well, he couldn't. It was too late. There was no way Luna could make this plea agreement lawfully, unless he lied and said

there was no evidence it was a drug-related murder. Luna would be badly exposed if he went down that path though. It wouldn't take much digging to show that it was a lie. And if he was caught lying on an official court document, that would mean his career would be over. He would never practice law again. Luna obviously struggled back and forth with this throughout the afternoon and into the night.

He stayed in his office working on the deal for hours. He sought the help of his work colleague, assistant US Attorney James Warwick. He then made a quick trip home for dinner before returning to his office to keep working on the deal. He worked all the way up to just before midnight. He completed the deal for Deion Smith easily enough, but he couldn't complete the deal for Walter Poindexter. Right before midnight Luna left his office, with Walter Poindexter's deal still unfinished,

only half completed on his computer. Luna left his seeing glasses and his mobile phone on his desk. It is unknown if Luna was alone or if there was somebody else with him. Despite being a federal building, security wasn't that high. Actually, it was described as being virtually nonexistent at the time. There were no security cameras inside to show what happened. But we do know that at 11.38pm Luna's car is recorded leaving the building. We don't know if he was alone in the car or not, but interestingly Luna needed his glasses

to drive and they were up on his desk in his office. Luna's car started to head out of town. In fact, it actually headed out of the state. This was the beginning of an extremely strange journey that would go through four states before the night was out. He headed out of state and drove into Delaware. At 12.57am Luna or somebody using his car withdrew $200 from an ATM at the rest stop in Delaware.

As luck would have it, the security cameras weren't working at the time this withdrawal was made. This Delaware stop was about halfway to Philadelphia and Philadelphia prison is where Warren Grace was being held. That may have something to do with what was headed in that direction. Luna's trip to Delaware was recorded on his electronic toll tag, but after his withdrawal of the $200, the remaining tolls of Luna's journey were paid with cash. At 2.37am Luna's car entered the New Jersey turnpike.

This is one hour and 40 minutes since the ATM withdrawal, but this journey would only take about 45 minutes, so there is close to an hour missing. Shortly after heading into New Jersey, the car headed west towards Pennsylvania. Luna's car enters the Pennsylvania turnpike at about 2.47am. A turnpike is a toll road for those who might be unaware. At 3.20am Luna's debit card is used again, this time to buy a petrol at a rest stop on the Pennsylvania turnpike. And wouldn't you know it, the security cameras failed to capture anything yet again.

At 4.04am Luna's car left the Pennsylvania turnpike at exit 286. The toll booth ticket was later found to have a small spot of Luna's blood on it. This journey was bizarre and made no sense at all. Was somebody deliberately trying to make it confusing to throw investigators off? About two miles from the turnpike, Luna's car was found abandoned in an isolated area off a dirt road near a warehouse used by a drilling company. The drilling company was still in operation, but it wasn't open at night time, so it was a quiet area, nobody was around.

Tire tracks show Luna's car was first behind the warehouse, and this is where it was thought that Luna was left for dead. He had been stabbed 36 times, stabbed wounds all over his body, including his back and extensive defensive wounds on his hands. There was a large pool of blood on the floor in the back seat of the car, but there was also blood on the driver's side door. So this is where it was thought Luna may have been left for dead in the back seat, but he managed to get into the driver's seat to try and get away.

The car drove from the warehouse, a short distance over to a nearby creek. And that's where I thought Jonathan may have got out of the car to try to run. His body was found face down in the creek, right next to his car. Despite his extensive wounds, the actual cause of death was drowning. Jonathan Luna was still wearing his courtroom business suit, shirt and tire, overcoat and his court shoes. His courthouse ID badge was still hanging around his neck. The car was still running, and there was about $30 scattered throughout.

Luna was found about 5.30am that morning, the 4th of December, when employees from the drilling company started to arrive to work. That morning was also day 4 of Point Dexter's and Smith's trial. Court started at 9.30am. It still wasn't known by those involved in the case that Luna had been killed. Assistant US Attorney James Warwick, who Luna had spoken to the night before about the deal, appeared in court on his behalf. He apologized to the judge for Luna's absence and said they didn't know where he was.

The office was still trying to track him down. However, he had some knowledge of the case and was prepared to act on Luna's behalf. Warwick rushed ahead with the play agreement, despite Luna's absence. Warwick ran up to Luna's office to try and find the play deals. He found Smith's completed, but Point Dexter's was still unfinished on the computer. So Warwick took it upon himself to finish it and return to the court with the two completed, signed off play deals. Without Luna couldn't or wouldn't do the night before, James Warwick had done in about

an hour or so. Nobody seemed too concerned Luna was missing at this point. It's amazing all this was allowed to go ahead and was rushed through the way it was. The defence saw on the deal and it was done. Point Dexter was not prosecuted for the murder of Alvin Jones. The murder was essentially swept under the rug. It wasn't long after this that news of Luna's death broke. The coroner immediately ruled Luna was the victim of a vicious homicide.

The coroner was quoted as saying, you would think they were perhaps after information from the guy when you see something like this. You said this because some of the wounds were only very shallow and it looked as though the knife was maybe just being held to his body. What you would do trying to get information out of somebody or threatening them. Given there was a spot of blood on Luna's toll ticket when the car left the Pennsylvania Turnpike and a large pool of blood found in the back seat, it's quite possible that he was being tortured during this bizarre journey the car took.

Only days later stories were leaked to the media from unnamed federal law sources, reminding everybody about the missing $36,000. Then there was information leaked suggesting Luna was involved in affairs and posting on internet dating sites. There were stories of him having a large amount of debt that his wife didn't know about and that he was having problems in the workplace. Well it seems as though a public smear campaign was well underway. Quite obviously they were trying to make it clear there were plenty of motives for his

murder, none of which were to do with his work. And the FBI quickly told the media they believe Luna's death was not related to his work and it was more than likely the result of a personal relationship turning bad. About six weeks later in January 2004 a penknife was found in the creek right next to the spot that Luna's body was found. This was interesting as it was found in a spot that had already been extensively searched. How was it that it wasn't found prior to this? The next month in February more unnamed law sources leaked to the media that they were

strongly considering the possibility that Luna committed suicide. They also leaked it was due to face a polygraph test over the missing $36,000 just prior to his death. That combined with his death and the other alleged problems leaked to the media in Luna's life were the reasons given for suicide. A pretty amazing theory when you consider the blood on the toll ticket, the pool of blood in the back seat, the defensive wounds to his hands and the wounds on his back. Also there was genital mutilation involved.

So Jonathan Luna drove himself through four states, stabbed himself 36 times, which would have had to have start while he was driving because there was blood on the toll ticket. Jonathan jumped into the back seat to stab himself some more than ran into the creek to drown himself. The FBI tried to get the coroner to rule Luna's death was a suicide. The coroner who originally ruled Luna's death a homicide had moved on. The new coroner refused the FBI's request, confirming the original ruling that Luna's death was a homicide.

And years later a third coroner would also confirm Luna's death was a homicide. To this day the investigation is still ongoing. There is a $100,000 reward for any information leading to the case being solved. There are no known suspects and no known motive. At least none that are being made public anyway. Walter Poindexter was later sentenced to 14 years in prison. He was never prosecuted for the murder of Alvin Jones. Deion Smith got just over 9 years in prison.

And Warren Grace was sentenced to 7 years in prison with credit for time already served. And there is an interesting side note to all of this. It doesn't have anything to do with Jonathan Luna's death, but it just goes to show what sort of a city he was working in at the time. Just prior to his death others in his office were close to heaning down an indictment against former Baltimore police commissioner and now the Maryland State Police Superintendent Edward Norris along with his former chief of staff and others for corruption and fraud in the handling of police accounts.

They were caught using police funds to pay for sexual favours, escorts to finance luxury hotel suites to buy girls lingerie, pay for expensive dinners and so on. This was all going down at the time of Luna's death. In fact the charges were filed within a week after his death. So that's what the people in charge of the police were up to. A similar scandal was uncovered around the same time involving police and other officials in Pennsylvania. As I said it's not suggested this is in any way related to Luna's death, it just provides

a nice snapshot of what was going on in Baltimore at the time. One of Luna's closest friends has a theory why the experienced, usually well prepared, intelligent prosecutor appeared to bumble and fumble his way through the trial of Poindexter and Smith, making it look as though he had no idea at times. Ultimately his actions would lead to the judge ordering a federal investigation. The Luna's friend's theory was that Luna knew exactly what he was doing and what his actions would lead to and it's exactly what he wanted to happen. This is what his close friend Danny Rivera had to say.

You have to understand Joey, he was sly and extremely smart. He didn't always do things straight on. He was smart enough to sometimes work below the surface. Joey couldn't have liked that stuff Skinner and the others were pulling. I know Joey. But what was he going to do about it? That stuff about leaving things back on his desk and not knowing how to introduce evidence, come on, I've been with Joey in court.

He was sharp. That's not Joey. Don't you see? He was trying to expose them.