United States v. Raymond Contreras, William Ray Soto, Reynaldo Garcia, Jr., and Kenneth James Cassie

755 F.2d 733, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 29301
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMarch 15, 1985
Docket83-1052, 83-1055, 83-1089 and 83-1105
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 755 F.2d 733 (United States v. Raymond Contreras, William Ray Soto, Reynaldo Garcia, Jr., and Kenneth James Cassie) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Raymond Contreras, William Ray Soto, Reynaldo Garcia, Jr., and Kenneth James Cassie, 755 F.2d 733, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 29301 (9th Cir. 1985).

Opinions

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge:

Each of the appellants was convicted following a stipulated facts trial in federal district court for violations of RICO provisions (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations), 18 U.S.C. § 1961-1968 (1982). Before the federal investigation leading to the convictions, the appellants had given extensive information to state officers under a state grant of immunity. The [735]*735statements and testimony subject to the state immunity involved the same incidents that were the basis for the subsequent federal RICO prosecution. Before the federal trial, the district court held a four day hearing to determine whether the Government’s evidence was derived from sources independent of the state immunized testimony, and whether the appellants had waived their fifth amendment rights before talking with federal agents and testifying before the federal grand jury. The court held that the Government had satisfied its burden of proving that its evidence was based on independent sources, and that defendants had waived their self-incrimination rights. We find no error and affirm.

We recite the background of the state investigation and the federal prosecution. The appellants were serving prison sentences at Deuel Vocational Institute in California, and were members of a California prison and crime gang known as La Nues-tra Familia. State authorities were conducting an investigation of the Nuestra Familia and approached prisoners reportedly dissatisfied with the gang. Prisoners who dropped out of the gang routinely sought protective custody and were housed in a separate unit at Deuel.

Each appellant here had left the gang and spoken initially to state authorities under a promise that immunity would be sought. The state authorities purposely failed to advise the suspects of their rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), on the rationale that as a consequence the statements could not be used against the defendants if the state court refused to grant a formal immunity. Formal immunity was granted by the state court, however, and we treat the case as if that immunity was the inducement for the appellants to talk in detail with the state officers.

State investigators, as a matter of routine, were advising federal agents of the identity of the Nuestra Familia members and of the dropouts. In addition, the state investigators asked the appellants in this case whether they would be willing to cooperate with other governmental authorities, and positive responses were passed on to the federal authorities. Federal agents did not interview the appellants until after each one had talked with state authorities under a promise to seek immunity.

When a defendant faces federal criminal prosecution for matters related to testimony he has given under a state grant of immunity, the Government must show that the immunized testimony has not been used, directly or indirectly, in the federal prosecution. Murphy v. Waterfront Commission, 378 U.S. 52, 79 n. 18, 84 S.Ct. 1594, 1609 n. 18, 12 L.Ed.2d 678 (1964). The Government’s burden is more than simply a negation of taint; rather, the Government has “the affirmative duty to prove that the evidence it proposes to use is derived from a legitimate source wholly independent of the compelled testimony.” Kastigar v. United States, 406 U.S. 441, 460, 92 S.Ct. 1653, 1665, 32 L.Ed.2d 212 (1972); United States v. Weiner, 578 F.2d 757, 774 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 981, 99 S.Ct. 568, 58 L.Ed.2d 651 (1978); Block v. Consino, 535 F.2d 1165, 1169 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 861, 97 S.Ct. 165, 50 L.Ed.2d 140 (1976). We have held that the burden of proof may be met by a preponderance of the evidence. United States v. Rogers, 722 F.2d 557, 560 (9th Cir.1983).

At the pretrial hearing in federal court, the Government established three sources of evidence: (1) identification of the appellants by state authorities prior to any state immunity; (2) statements by victims and witnesses of the crimes; and (3) statements made by the appellants, first to federal agents and then to the federal grand jury. We discuss each source to determine if it resulted from immunized testimony.

Appellants’ first contention is that their identification to federal authorities was itself a use of the immunized testimony, since it had the effect of focusing the federal investigation on them. This argument is refuted by the district court’s factual determinations. The district court found that federal agents learned these [736]*736four suspects were gang members before appellants agreed to testify in return for state immunity. The court further concluded that the federal agents’ decision to interview these appellants did not stem from the declarations given by appellants to the state officers. This conclusion is supported by the evidence. Each appellant had dropped out of the gang and had approached state authorities before giving immunized testimony. The names of cooperative witnesses were routinely passed on to federal agents. The appellants now before us are only four out of seventeen defendants indicted by the federal grand jury. Thus, the federal investigation was not focused only on those who gave state immunized testimony.

Witnesses and victims of the alleged crimes were the second source of federal evidence established by the Government. The federal agents were led to these individuals by appellants’ disclosures in the federal interviews and by the original crime reports. Thus, this evidence was plainly derived from an independent, legitimate source.

Regarding the statements made by appellants to federal authorities, the Government’s final source of evidence, we consider whether the defendants made a knowing and intelligent waiver of their fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination before submitting to interrogation by federal agents or before testifying to the grand jury. Each defendant was advised of his Miranda rights before talking with federal agents, and each later testified before the grand jury, after again being advised of his Miranda rights. The district court found that the defendants’ waivers were knowing and intelligent. Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 756, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 1473, 25 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970); Brookhart v. Janis, 384 U.S. 1, 4, 86 S.Ct. 1245, 1247, 16 L.Ed.2d 314 (1966).

The appellants in essence challenge the district court’s finding that the waiver was knowing and intelligent by arguing that the usual Miranda warnings were insufficient here. The appellants argue that the warnings given by the federal agents were inadequate as a matter of law.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
755 F.2d 733, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 29301, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-raymond-contreras-william-ray-soto-reynaldo-garcia-jr-ca9-1985.