One of the nation’s most prolific federal drug prosecutors violated ethics rules last year when he Drunkenly gave his business card to Florida police investigating a hit-and-runthis was concluded by a watchdog of the Ministry of Justice.
The discovery comes nearly a year after The Associated Press released body camera footage of a July 4 crash in which Joseph Ruddy was accused of striking another vehicle, leaving the scene of the crash and improperly abusing his position as an assistant district attorney in Tampa to mitigate the consequences.
In the footage, a disoriented Ruddy could barely stand, his speech slurred and he leaned on the tailgate of his pickup truck for balance. But he had enough control to hand over his Justice Department ID to agents from two jurisdictions who had been sent to investigate the crash.
AP
“What are you trying to give me?” asked a Tampa police officer. “You do realize that if they pull my bodycam footage and they see this, this is going to end really badly.”
A one-page summary released Wednesday by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General did not name Ruddy but substantiated allegations that an assistant U.S. attorney “abuse[d]his position” when he provided his job credentials without being asked. And last year, the Justice Department confirmed that it was referring Ruddy’s case to the inspector general’s office.
Investigators also found that the assistant district attorney named in their report “engaged in conduct prejudicial to the government” by driving drunk and then leaving the scene of a crash after colliding with another vehicle. The report was forwarded to the Justice Department’s Professional Misconduct Review Unit for appropriate action.
After the AP inquired about Ruddy’s employment status last year, he was removed from several cases, but the Justice Department confirmed 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 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 as appropriate.”
AP
Ruddy is known in law enforcement as one of the architects of Operation Panama Express, or PANEX, a task force created in 2000 to tackle maritime cocaine trafficking and which brought together resources from the U.S. Coast Guard, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Historically, PANEX-generated intelligence has contributed to more than 90 percent of the U.S. Coast Guard’s maritime drug seizures. Between 2018 and 2022, the Coast Guard removed or destroyed 888 tons of cocaine, worth an estimated $26 billion, and apprehended 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.
The 70-year-old Ruddy, a former Ironman triathlete, is known among lawyers for his hard work and toughness in court. His biggest cases included some of the early extraditions from Colombia of top smugglers for the feared Cali Cartel.
But most of the cases handled by his office involve poor fishermen from Central and South America who are at the bottom of the drug trade. Often the drugs aren’t even destined for U.S. shores, and the constitutional guarantees of due process that normally apply to criminal cases in the U.S. are only loosely adhered to.
Despite his own confessions and testimony, prosecutors never charged Ruddy with hit-and-run. They also dismissed the charge of DUI causing property damage, a first-degree felony punishable by up to a year in prison.
Ruddy, whose blood-alcohol level was 0.17%, twice the legal limit, was found guilty late last year of reckless driving, a second-degree felony, and was placed on 12 months’ probation.
“We had no witnesses who could testify that they saw Mr. Ruddy behind the wheel at the time of the incident, which is a key factor in proving DUI cases,” said Erin Maloney, a spokeswoman for the state attorney’s office in Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa. “This outcome ensures that the defendant will continue to be held accountable.”
On the night of his arrest, Ruddy was accused of hitting an SUV whose driver was turning at a red light, hitting a side mirror, and ripping off another piece of the vehicle that lodged in the fender of Ruddy’s pickup truck.
“He didn’t even hit the brakes,” a witness told police. “He just kept driving and swerving all over the road. I thought, ‘No, he’s going to hurt someone.'”
When officers arrived at Ruddy’s home in the Tampa suburb of Temple Terrace, they found him hunched over his pickup truck, his keys in his hand and using the vehicle for support, a police report said. Officers noted that he had urinated on himself, could not walk without assistance and failed a field sobriety test.
“I understand we could have a better night,” Tampa Police Officer 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 replied ambiguously.
“You struck a vehicle and fled,” the officer said. “You fled because you were intoxicated. You probably didn’t realize you struck the vehicle.”
