Two of the defendants in the alleged San Juan Bautista
methamphetamine
”
super lab
”
case may never stand trial because of what defense attorneys are
calling a violation of their clients’ rights.
Two of the defendants in the alleged San Juan Bautista methamphetamine “super lab” case may never stand trial because of what defense attorneys are calling a violation of their clients’ rights.
Attorneys Greg LaForge and Harry Damkar said the San Benito County District Attorney’s Office may have planned to have their clients deported when prosecutors realized there were problems with their criminal case.
During a recent hearing, LaForge and Damkar asked the court to dismiss the drug-manufacturing charges against their clients because they believe the district attorney’s office knowingly allowed their clients, Octavio Guadalupe Abad, 38, and Jesus Torres, 21, to be deported by the U.S. Department of Immigration and Naturalization Service without warning them.
Both attorneys called for an immediate dismissal of the charges.
“This is a clear violation of their Sixth Amendment rights to counsel,” Damkar said in court.
LaForge said the district attorney’s office knew there was an immigration hold against Abad and Torres that could interfere with their defense, and withheld the information.
Prosecutors told the court that they had no idea the INS wanted their clients, but the defense attorneys dispute that.
“They knew. And if they didn’t know, then they should have known,” LaForge said. “When I was a deputy district attorney, I always knew when there was an INS hold on a defendant.”
The problem reportedly began about two weeks ago when prosecutors had to dismiss charges against Abad, Torres and Francisco Moroyoqui Diaz, 71, when it was determined that arresting officers could not prove that they had advised the suspects of their Miranda rights.
LaForge said it was prosecutors who offered to dismiss the case, knowing that once the proceedings against them were ended the INS would step in and deport their clients.
“Now my client may never have his day in court or a chance to clear his name,” LaForge said. “We’re confident that charges against him would have been dismissed.”
However, prosecutors said in court that they had no idea the INS was going to take the defendants and that they were not conspiring or plotting to conceal anything from defense attorneys.
Superior Court Judge Steve Sanders said he would rule on the motion for dismissal at a later date.
But the case took another strange twist when prosecutors pushed forward with Diaz’s prosecution, only to find that a fingerprint analysis of the alleged drug manufacturing equipment did not reveal fingerprints from any of the three suspects.
Defense attorney Arthur Cantu said the lack of corroborating fingerprint evidence only confirms his client’s innocence.
“The evidence clearly shows that my client had nothing to do with any drug-making operation,” Cantu said. “He’s hard of hearing, very elderly and showing signs of an elderly person who doesn’t have the mental agility to operate a clandestine drug lab.”
Abad, Torres and Diaz, all of San Juan Bautista, were arrested Feb. 21 on suspicion of manufacturing methamphetamine in an operation that could have produced up to 30 pounds of the drug in a three-day cooking cycle, said Commander Bob Cooke of the Unified Narcotic Enforcement Team.
Thirty pounds of methamphetamine would have an estimated street value of more than $816,000, officials said.
