El Chapo Trial

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat

It appears Hunting El Chapo author Andrew Hogan will not be called to testify, but his partner will. Government asks that racially charged transcripts not be allowed, prison escapes, murders, mental health....and other filings and rulings.

Government moves to restrict cross examination of a pending witness in the El Chapo case.

In opening statements the El Chapo defense alluded to an agent that has stated in the past via email his opinions and characterizations of the defendant that were favorable to the defense.

On Sunday the government filed a motion to prevent any cross examination or introduction with respect to these opinions or characterizations. Further stating they are “irrelevant, and “self-serving” to the defendant.

Ruling: The Government now asks the Court to confirm that defendant will also be precluded from introducing this evidence. The Court will not preclude defendant from introducing this evidence; however, if defendant elicits information about to show the witness’s bias, the Court will permit the Government to introduce rebuttal evidence that the witness participated in the cartel’s alleged illegal activities in part because of  _____________________ last part redacted.

Another motion from the government, asks to be able to admit information about Chapo’s prison escape.

What is interesting, in Mexico it is not a crime to escape or attempt escape from prison as it is seen as a natural instinct.  As long as no one was harmed, then there is no crime.  So by allowing this evidence to be used as evidence against Chapo, they are using evidence that is not unlawful in the nation in which the act occurred.

Motion Granted; “it is necessary to include to present the entire story of crime at trial”

"Unnatural Practices: Defense file a motion for Cogan to reconsider allowing evidence of El Reys ‘Unnatural practices” as the defense says it shows in part his mental instability. 

Ruling:  Cogan says there is not enough supporting evidence to allow this in.  In the ruling which I redacted in part, El Rey was very impressed by a Discovery Channel documentary compelling him to follow some sort of practice. 

Another  Government’s motion to admit evidence of defendant’s acts of violence and drug trafficking activity is granted in part and denied in part. The Government seeks to admit evidence of torture and kidnapping during the period of the charged continuing criminal enterprise and drug trafficking conspiracies (referred to collectively as the “CCE” unless otherwise noted) as direct evidence of the CCE or as “other acts” under FRE 404(b); evidence of torture and kidnapping that occurred before the CCE began as direct evidence or under FRE 404(b); two additional uncharged acts of violence

Ruling:  because this evidence is potentially inflammatory, the Court will carefully consider at trial whether FRE 403 precludes its admission.

Chapo’s Book The Government’s motion to admit defendant’s book is denied without prejudice to renewal. The Government seeks to introduce the text of a draft biography of defendant, which the Government asserts was based on the author’s extensive interviews with defendant. The Government cannot introduce the entire book; the probative value of its contents would be substantially outweighed by the time wasted in reading the whole thing. Assuming that the Government can properly authenticate the book at trial, the Court will consider admitting particular passages then.

Rincon Video: The Government’s motion to admit statements in video evidence is granted in part and denied in part. The statements in the two interrogation videos (2010 Rincon Interrogation and 2011 Defendant Interrogation) are admissible not for the truth of what they assert, but to establish the fact that the speaker was being interrogated.

The Government has proffered that the person being interrogated in each video was kidnapped, consistent with its theory that defendant and his organization used kidnapping to intimidate and to discover information about rivals and cooperators. The statements in the interrogation videos are also admissible to provide context for non-hearsay questions to the person being interrogated -assuming that the Government can establish that-

The Government’s motion to prohibit dissemination of photographs of cooperating witnesses introduced during trial without pixilation or alteration and to prohibit sketches of cooperating witnesses is denied without prejudice to renewal.

The Court remains convinced that this trial presents a significant risk to the safety of cooperating witnesses and their families. But the Government’s requests raise equally significant concerns about the public’s common law and First Amendment right of access to the trial.

Hunting El Chapo Book: The Government’s motion to preclude statements from two books about defendant, and Hunting El Chapo, as inadmissible hearsay or as impeachment evidence is denied as premature. The books were written by  a DEA special agent who participated in defendant’s 2014 capture (whose partner in that operation will testify at trial), respectively. Defendant does not intend to introduce these third-party accounts into evidence. To the extent defendant believes at trial that these books provide a good faith basis for questions to be asked on cross-examination, he may ask such questions.

There is a strange motion in a trial of oddities:

Motion to Preclude Cross-Examination on Racially-Tinged Conversation Between Cooperating Witness and His Family Member

 This one is a motion from the government to disallow statement by a cooperative Witness [CW] while speaking to his brother in a recorded phone call.  Apparently some statements were “racially charged”.  Government filing says defense should not be able to enter this line of questioning, as it is irrelevant and “racially tinged”.   I have not seen the ruling yet….stay tuned

style=" margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block;">     style="text-decoration: underline;" >El CHapo Trial Gov Motions and to Preclude by   style="text-decoration: underline;" >Chivis Martinez on Scribd