Opinion ID: 170473
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Mr. Palacios's Testimony

Text: Mr. Palacios testified that shortly before the bus arrived in Albuquerque he saw Mr. Rangel remove the small bag from the larger bag that Mr. Rangel had carried onto the bus, but he never saw Mr. Rangel place the smaller bag under the seat. Most importantly for present purposes, he testified that he had never told anyone of his observations until months after Perry had prepared the affidavit for the complaint, written the DEA-6 report, and testified at the preliminary hearing. Mr. Palacios's contribution at the time of the arrest was solely to serve as a translator between Perry and Mr. Rangel. When asked whether he had told the officers on May 1 that he had seen Mr. Rangel with the bag on the bus, he responded, No. I found out when he told me what was in the bag, I couldn'tI felt that my life could be threatened, to me, because I felt uncomfortable with the people around the bus. You never know who he could be traveling with, and those people are very dangerous people. Where I live in El Paso, Texas, the news and everything, you can see from Ciudad Juarez, they kill people. Id. at 233-34. Mr. Palacios had, however, given Perry his address and telephone number. Then in August 2005, months after the preliminary hearing, Perry, Officer Rees, and the prosecutor traveled to El Paso to speak with him. At the interview he told the government, apparently for the first time, that he had observed Mr. Rangel remove what seemed to be a laptop out of the red bag, and just [sit] down shortly before the bus pulled into the Albuquerque stop. Id. at 260.