Opinion ID: 687340
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Alleged evidentiary use of the immunized statements and testimony.

Text: 24 The district court found that the Government obtained the evidence used to indict Montoya from independent sources. Contrary to the Montoyas' portrayal of the district court's order, the district court did find there was some overlap between the Reese and the Weiner investigations. As the district court correctly observed, however, the Government is not required to show that there was no overlap, but that all of the evidence it proposes to use was derived from legitimate independent sources. Kastigar, 406 U.S. at 461-62, 92 S.Ct. at 1665; see also Koon, 34 F.3d at 1432. Simply arguing that the investigations overlapped does not answer the question of the existence of legitimate independent sources for all of the evidence. Montoya's attack on the declarations of Agent Roman Chavez, Agent David Gauthier, and AUSA Reese therefore misses the mark. Even if agents and prosecutors actually participated in both investigations, and/or were exposed to immunized testimony, there is no per se rule requiring their withdrawal from the case. Crowson, 828 F.2d at 1430. The focus of the inquiry under Kastigar is whether the immunized testimony was in any way used to build a case against Montoya. Id. With this focus in mind, we address the Montoyas' specific complaints concerning the Government's attempt to meet its burden of proof in this case. 25
26 Agent Chavez was involved in the Reese investigation, and his declaration describes the execution of the search warrants of Montoya's properties in May and August 1988 (before Montoya was first interviewed in November 1988). As the district court observed, Chavez recited in great detail the documents and leads found as a result of these searches, as well as the resulting subpoenas issued to financial institutions. Contrary to Montoya's characterization, nowhere does Chavez state in his declaration that he was involved in both the Reese and Weiner investigations. 7 While Chavez investigated the purchase and acquisition of the properties with which the Montoya prosecution was concerned, it was done as part of the Contreras prosecution, and the evidence and resulting leads were obtained before Montoya was first interviewed. 27 Chavez states in his declaration that the majority of financial leads that I pursued had already been obtained prior to any contact with Filiberto Montoya. Chavez provides a detailed time-line for each step he took in the investigation. He lists seven investigatory actions (interviews, conversations and issuance of a subpoena) taken after the November 18, 1988, interview of Montoya, but ties each one to a lead obtained well before that date. 28 While Chavez's declaration does contain the conclusory statement that [a]t no time did I ever use any information provided by Filiberto Montoya in pursuing leads associated with the Contreras-Subias investigation, it also contains much more than this: a detailed time-line and tracing of the investigation, based on information and leads obtained in the search warrants executed before Montoya received informal immunity. Montoya's attack on this declaration does not address the detailed independent sources of information obtained in Chavez's investigation. Chavez's declaration was not limited to a negation of taint. See Kastigar, 406 U.S. at 460, 92 S.Ct. at 1665. 29
30 As the district court specifically noted in its synopsis of the declarations, Agent Gauthier was involved in the Reese investigation, but also later accompanied Agent Morris of the Weiner investigation team when she interviewed witnesses involved in the real property transactions. The Montoyas contend that this demonstrates overlap and therefore establishes taint. However, Gauthier's declaration states that he never interviewed Montoya or his wife, never reviewed or discussed any reports of [the] interview of Montoya or transcripts of his testimony, and had not had anyone impart[ ] to [him] any information purportedly derived from Montoya's statements. Furthermore, Gauthier explained his motivation to accompany Agent Morris as follows: 31 In July and November 1989 I accompanied Agent Linda Morris in a number of interviews of witnesses involved in certain real estate transactions she was investigating. Agent Morris did most of the questioning. I was motivated to accompany her by the hope that I could obtain information concerning drug trafficking suspects whose whereabouts remained unknown to us at the time. 32 Agent Morris explained in her declaration that sometime after May 19, 1989, she told Agent Gauthier of her findings involving the Montoyas and two businesses, and Gauthier informed her that in August 1988, search warrants had been served on the businesses and two properties belonging to Montoya. Gauthier did not mention that Montoya had been interviewed. Morris confirmed that she and Gauthier interviewed a number of people identified with the property transactions in question, but also stated that she had never been given any information by anyone concerning Montoya's interviews and testimony. 8 33 Agent Gauthier was never exposed to Montoya's immunized testimony. The fact that this Reese investigation team member attended a number of witness interviews with a member of the Weiner investigation team does not demonstrate that the immunized testimony was in any way used to build a case against Montoya. See Crowson, 828 F.2d at 1430. 34
35 The Montoyas argue that AUSA Reese's declaration reveals that even after Montoya's testimony at the Oklahoma trial, Reese continued his investigation of Montoya by calling Roberto Guerra before the grand jury and questioning him regarding a Tuscon real estate deal involving Montoya. They then take issue with Reese's declaration statements that he did not rely on any information [he] obtained from Montoya to compose questions to Guerra, but instead used an investigative report reflecting interviews conducted by Agents Gauthier and Morris. 36 Guerra was called before the grand jury not as part of an investigation of Montoya, but during the course of an additional investigation of the Contreras drug organization. A superseding indictment in the Contreras case was returned thereafter in September 1989. Independent investigation had disclosed that Guerra, who was an acquaintance of Montoya, was the nominal purchaser of the Arizona property, but that the beneficial owner was a Contreras. Montoya advances nothing but the most tangential link between the questioning of Guerra in the Contreras-Subias investigation and the thought processes of Reese during the questioning. More importantly, these facts do not give rise to taint or reveal a lack of an independent source for all of the Government's evidence against the Montoyas. 37 Montoya next attacks Reese's failure to follow Department of Justice guidelines concerning the preservation of the ability to indict an immunized witness. He cites the failure to prepare a signed and dated memo summarizing the evidence concerning Montoya prior to his interview and testimony; the failure to ensure all of his testimony was recorded verbatim and maintained in a secure, restricted access location; and failure to maintain a record of subsequently received evidence against him. 38 However, failure to strictly comply with the United States Attorneys' Manual creates no enforceable rights. United States v. Lorenzo, 995 F.2d 1448, 1453 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 225, 126 L.Ed.2d 180 (1993). The lack of a memorandum of evidence available to charge Montoya as of November 17, 1988, made more work for the Government in this case; however, it was still able to create an adequate history of what information was obtained through which of the various sources and at what time. The Government showed the Weiner prosecution team was aware of the immunity problem and followed reliable procedures for segregating the immunized testimony. 9 39
40 The district court made the proper inquiry in this case, and we find no clear error in its findings that the government proved independent sources for all of its evidence against Montoya. The Montoyas' focus on overlap and alleged exposure to immunized testimony does not answer the question that we must ask in deciding this appeal. The nine detailed declarations filed by the Government establish that the indictment rested entirely on sources independent of Montoya's immunized testimony. We are satisfied that the district court's finding that there was no evidentiary use of Montoya's immunized statements and testimony was not clearly erroneous. 41