Defense: Was there any evidence linking my client to the residence?
Officer Joe Salazar: Well... there was, but I'm not supposed to talk about it.

WINNAR!

Let's just say that Joe ain't my favorite person. I blew 6 days of non-paid time just to hear him say something stupid like that and cause the mistrial.
Since we never got to the end, I will just hit the highlights in People vs. Cazares, Castro and Carrillo (take 2). It appears that there was a previous trial (another mistrial? who knows?) and occasionally lawyers on both sides would refer to testimony given at both the prelim hearing and the first trial.

Anyway, here's the facts, as best as I can determine them.

On March 31st of 2004, for some reason shrouded in legalistic mystery, the LAPD set up a surveillance team to follow a car. The aforementioned Salazar was the case agent in charge of this whole operation. The surveillance involved six officers in plainclothes and plain cars and a police helicopter. Obviously, someone suspected something, but the jury was given no reason for why the surveillance took place.

The car (containing the three C's) was followed to a residence in Long Beach, which they entered. After an indefinite period of time, a second car (a truck) drove up (containing a 4th person, one imagines, but not identified at the time). Two of the original three got in the truck, while the third got in the original car. Surveillance followed the original car to a laundromat, where C1 got something that looked like a laden pillowcase or bag out of the trunk, threw it into a dryer and, without turning it on, hung out outside talking on his cel. Eventually, he retrieved the bag, put it in the trunk and went off driving. At this point, he appears to have engaged in 'counter-surveillance' driving. Lots of stops and U-turns, etc.

Eventually, the car and the truck meet at a liquor store where a Chinese fire drill takes place. One officer notices an extra person is there, making two in each car at this point.

Somewhere in here, surveillance at the residence breaks down, and there is a total of 30 minutes when the house isn't being watched at all.

More unusual driving takes place. Eventually the car and truck meet somewhere else, and the cops roll in and bust them. There is no contraband in either car. If you're wondering about the bag in the laundromat, it's curious to note that at the first trial, one of the officers denied that it had been found in the trunk. This might lead one to suspect that it had been jettisoned somehow. Now, however, he remembers better. The bag was found in the trunk, and it was discovered to contain: clothing.
This 'remembering' business really pissed me off. He tried to pass it off as "well, there was no contraband, so I didn't think it important." Obviously, it was important when he noticed a suspect put the bag in the dryer and not turn it on.

With everyone collared, the po-po's get a warrant to search the house. They find, hidden in various places (in a closet, in the dishwasher...) 35 kilograms of cocaine. Wholesale value of $420,000 - street value of a few million.

They fingerprint the drug packages and get nothing. Nothing else is ever fingerprinted. Not the mirrored closet door where the drugs were hidden, or the dishwasher where drugs were hidden. Not the plastic wrap used (presumably) to package the kilos.

No one ever investigated to see in whose name the utilities were placed. Old mail lying around the residence was not taken into evidence (since it didn't match the names of any of the C's)

The cars were never examined for traces of drugs.

All of the defendants had cel-phones. None of the records were checked.

C1's wallet was found in one of the bedrooms where coke was found. Otherwise, nothing connects the two other people with the residence, other than the fact that they were inside it for a couple hours. No evidence was presented that they had ever been there before.

Gah!

I'm not sure this is a reasonable scenario (as in reasonable doubt), but it's entirely possible that after everyone left the house, during the time when surveillance broke down, the Cocaine Fairy, wearing a neon green jumpsuit and wings, walked up the street with a big sack, went into the residence and distributed 77 pounds of cocaine throughout the house and then left.

There's absolutely no evidence that there was cocaine in either car.
There's absolutely no evidence that any of the three touched the cocaine.
About the best one could say is that the three spent a couple hours inside a house that had 35 kilos of cocaine hidden in it.

Now, I'm not really all that naive. More than likely they're all three as guilty as sin. But. If you asked me whether the prosecution had proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt (though the prosecutor hadn't finished her case by the time of the mistrial) I'd have to say definitely 'not proven' in two cases, and my mind was still open about C1. (Of course, they tell you to keep an open mind throughout the trial, so even if my mind was closed, I'd have to lie and say it was open; but I'm saying it really was open.)

So.... coming to a Superior Court near you: People v. the Three Amigos Part III.

The judge called it quits early today, so naturally there was shit-pouring rain, ensuring that I couldn't actually enjoy my tme downtown. I did head back to the library and undertake research into forbidden lore on the behalf of the shadowy danharms. It required all of my formidable Library Use skill to surmount the inadequate reference, the diabolical library website, the Borgesian labyrinth of the library and last, but not least, the photocopy machine that not only cost 15 cents a copy, but didn't take coins or give change. Fortunately, with a Fast Talk roll on a reference librarian, I secured the blasphemous text and surreptitiously made a complete photostatic copy, demonstrating my superiority to Wilbur Whately. But should this material be turned over to Mr. Harms? And I quote: "The enigmatic inscription on a Quincy [Mass.] tombstone reveals the influence of an underground megalithic and Renaissance wisdom tradition behind the first English settlements in the New World and the founding of the American Republic." Who knows what long-sleeping Dragons might be awakened if this material were to get into the wrong hands?

From the library, I went to LensCrafters and got my peepers examined and put down some megabucks on two new pairs of glasses.

From there, back home, which took forever in the feeble rain and horrendous traffic. Once home, I enjoyed a belated St. Paddy's day meal of french fries and Guiness.

They picked the alternates pretty quickly, and we went straight into the prosecution's case. More anon. But for now, here's the latest recruitment poster for the USC Alumni Association:



I apologize for the poor source photo, but the smell kept me at a fair distance. I assure you the shirt is a USC Trojan shirt.

In other news, I got a liberry card.

Got to the downtown criminal courts building and into the giant holding pen. As usual, it was an interesting mix of people: the priest, the skater-dude, the hippy-dippy granola-eater... I think the most unusual one was the girl who was basically Crumb's dream-girl - she was even wearing a rather 70's style blouse/skirt/boots that made her look like she'd stepped off the front of Zap comics.
The other stand-out was the TV exec on his cell-phone. I don't recall his precise words, but basically he was saying something like, "Y'know that new show? We need to advertise it. - Yeah, I know we got that, but we need something better than that. - We need an ad that will make everyone think our new show is the next big thing. - How do you suppose we do that? - Well, you work on that." No doubt he feels like he's done his job, now that he told someone to make an ad that will turn their show into a hit.

Anyway, I got hauled into a case involving murder/attempted murder and conspiracy, but since the trial was expected to be long, the judge let me off the hook, which just meant I was immediately tossed into another courtroom. I get to go back today, as they're still picking a jury. I haven't been examined yet. The court is on the high security floor, so I get to go through the metal detectors twice.

Had a nice walk at lunchtime, which gave me more ideas for a potential road-rally (A&K's rally was both fun and inspiring).