United States v. Falu-Gonzalez

996 F. Supp. 150, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2894, 1998 WL 100526
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedMarch 6, 1998
DocketNo. 95-160(SEC)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 996 F. Supp. 150 (United States v. Falu-Gonzalez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Falu-Gonzalez, 996 F. Supp. 150, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2894, 1998 WL 100526 (prd 1998).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

CASELLAS, District Judge.

Pending before the Court is defendant Confesor Falú-González’s Motion for New Trial (Docket # 1302), filed on April 29, 1997. Defendant Falú was joined in his motion for new trial by co-defendant Giovanny Hernández-García. In order to fully address the issues posed by defendants, the Court held an evidentiary hearing on June 24,1997, which was continued on November 5, 1997 (Dockets #1370(T1), 1461(T2), Transcripts of Proceedings). To supplement the discussion at the hearings, defendant Confesor Falú-González (“Falú”) filed a Brief in Support of Motion for New Trial on December 1, 1997 (Docket # 1467) and defendant Giovanny Hernández-García (“Hernández”) filed his Memorandum in Support of Motion for New Trial on December 30,1997 (Docket # 1487). The Government filed its consolidated response to defendants’ motions on January 26, 1998 (Docket # 1494). Subsequently, on February 3, 1998, defendant Falú requested leave to reply to the Government’s response, which was granted by the Court. This reply was deemed filed on February 8, 1998. (Docket # 1503). For the reasons set forth below in this Opinion and Order, defendants Confesor Falú-González and Giovanny Hernández-Gareía’s motions for new trial are DENIED.

Facts of the Case

The First Circuit Court of Appeals, in its recent opinion in United States v. Alicea-Cardoza, 132 F.3d 1 (1st Cir.1997), described the conspiracy in this ease as follows: “A cocaine distribution conspiracy out of the Virgilio Davila Public Housing Project in Bayamon, Puerto Rico led to the indictment of thirty-six defendants. Twenty-five pled guilty either before trial or shortly after trial started. Eight defendants were tried to verdict, five were acquitted.” The case decided by the First Circuit dealt with one of those three defendants who went to trial and were [153]*153convicted by the jury. Defendant Alicea-Cardoza’s conviction was upheld by the First Circuit, which found that there was sufficient evidence introduced at trial to uphold his conviction. The First Circuit found that contrary to what Alicea-Cardoza claimed, “the evidence clearly suggests that Alicea-Cardoza was closely involved with Solano-Moreta in the drug trade, and is plainly sufficient to sustain the conviction.” Id. at 5.

The motions for new trial presently pending before the Court pertain to the two remaining defendants who went to trial and were convicted: Confesor Falú-González and Giovanny Hernández-García. Defendants were specifically charged with conspiracy to distribute at least fifty grams of cocaine base, five kilograms of cocaine, and one kilogram of heroin, all in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846.

The evidence against defendants consisted of transcripts of Title III intercepts, video recordings, and witness testimony. In addition to the calls that he is questioning through his motion for new trial1, Confesor Falú was linked to the conspiracy via other telephone calls, several beeper messages, two videotapes, as well as through the testimony of co-conspirators Angel Ruiz-Adomo and Javier Pérez-AJicea. (For relevant excerpts of Pérez-Alicea’s testimony, see Attachment F. Government’s Opposition to Motions for New Trial, Docket # 1494). Defendant Falú also took the stand in his own defense, trying to explain the evidence against him in a way that portrayed him as someone outside of the Solano-Moreta organization, whose communications with Solano-Moreta were solely in an attempt to get Solano-Moreta to finance a rap music video for Falú. (See Transcript of Confesor Falú’s testimony at trial, August 5, 1996, Docket # 1411). The jury apparently did not find his explanations credible and found him guilty as charged in the conspiracy-

There was an even greater amount of evidence presented against defendant Hernández, who is only questioning the validity of one telephone call. Not only was he identified by one of the witnesses as part of the conspiracy, but there was evidence submitted at trial that he had sent several hundred beeper messages to Solano-Moreta during the intercept period of late April 1995 and early June 1995. (See Attachment E, Government’s Response to Motions for New Trial, Docket # 1494). In addition, there are at least three intercepted calls whose validity is not being called into question by the defense where Hernández is identified. Finally, defendant Hernández was videotaped at one of the drug points run by the conspiracy with a drug deck (“el muerto”) in his hand.

Defendants Falú and Hernández allege that they discovered, after the trial, that evidence used to convict them may have been tainted, specifically that tapes and transcripts of telephonic conversations that were recorded by Government agents as a result of judicially-authorized wire intercepts may have been recorded outside of the wiretap authorization period. Except for one phone call for which defendant Falú brought in two witnesses to bolster his claim that the call occurred outside of the wiretap authorization period, defendants rely solely on the fact that four phone calls which appear in the pen register and Government logs do not appear on the toll records for the intercepted cellular phone. They also say that in a memorandum prepared by the Government to the court the U.S. Attorney indicated that there had been no activity on the target phone after April 24, 1995, in spite of the fact that the Government claims that one of the calls occurred on April 25, 1995. They further argue that such evidence is material and constitutes sufficient basis for granting a motion for new trial because but for its introduction, defendants would not have been convicted.

The Government contends that defendants are precluded from presenting these motions for new trial outside of the seven-day period prescribed by Fed.R.Crim.P. 33 because the evidence that defendants are presenting to bolster their claims of taint and excludability is not “newly discovered” within the purview of the rule. The Government adamantly denies any wrongdoing regarding wiretapping [154]*154outside of the judicially authorized period, specifically countering defendants’ claims by stating that the pen register devices utilized in these investigations are only connected by the telephone company pursuant to a court order. They minimize any discrepancy between the phone company billing records on the one hand, and the pen register and the agents’ logs on the other emphasizing that the pen register and the agents’ logs are consistent with each other. In addition, the Government has attempted to discredit, the evidence and witnesses presented by defendant Falú .to support his claim that one particular telephone conversation in question occurred during the period of April 11-14, 1995, rather than on April 25, 1995 as the Government stated at trial. Finally, the Government contends that even if the discrepancy between the telephone records and the pen register and agents’ logs is found to be newly discovered evidence within the purview of Rule SB, that there exists sufficient remaining evidence to uphold defendants’ convictions so that a new trial is not warranted because an acquittal would not probably result therefrom.

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Bluebook (online)
996 F. Supp. 150, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2894, 1998 WL 100526, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-falu-gonzalez-prd-1998.