Opinion ID: 687340
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Reese declaration.

Text: 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