Court Opinion

ID: 9483430
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:20:21.448374+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:37.653922
License: Public Domain

WIGGINS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
The case against these defendants is dependent upon proof that there was cocaine in the hold of the M/V Nordcapp. No cocaine was found. All crew members were interrogated after they abandoned ship and were aboard the USS Arkansas. They were interrogated again after arriving in San Diego. The crew members denied knowledge of the presence of any cocaine aboard the Nordcapp. The government promptly deported the crew members, excepting these defendants, within a week after their arrival in San Diego. The defendants were held in custody based upon an extradition request from Belgium, in the case of the captain, and an alleged parole violation, in the case of Guerrero. These defendants were not charged with the present offense until nearly two months later.
Pending trial, investigators employed by the defendants discovered three of the crew members abroad. Each denied that the ship was carrying cocaine. The defendants thereupon made a motion to dismiss the indictment. After full consideration, the trial court granted the motion. On this record, the trial court should be affirmed.
The law to be applied in this case seems relatively clear. The defendants are entitled to present a defense to the charges made against them and in making their defense the defendants are entitled to exculpatory evidence in the possession of the government. Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963).
But, as explained in United States v. Valenzuela-Bernal, 458 U.S. 858, 102 S.Ct. 3440, 73 L.Ed.2d 1193 (1982), the government also must discharge its duty to return aliens to their country of origin. The performance of this responsibility may in a given case collide with the rights of a defendant to a fair trial. In order to accommodate to this possible tension, if a defendant moves to dismiss an indictment when alien witnesses with exculpatory information are deported, the defendant must show that the government acted in bad faith and must show prejudice, United States v. Dring, 930 F.2d 687 (9th Cir.1991).
Here the government deported at least three witnesses with exculpatory information before charging these defendants. Did it act in “bad faith” in doing so? The trial court said:
“I do find that the witnesses who were released by the government were material witnesses favorable to the defendants. I do find that the release of those witnesses was prejudicial to the defendants, and although I cannot find that there was demonstrated a bad faith by the investigators, there was, in my view, an incredibly incompetent investigation. And I feel that the evidence requires this court to make a conclusion that there is an absence of good faith.”
The trial court is a bit ambiguous. It expressly declared the investigators did not act in bad faith, but in the next sentence, finds an absence of good faith. I find this to be a statement of bad faith sufficient to meet the standards of Dring. In short, the defendants have made a sufficient showing requiring the affirmance of the district court. The district court may have expressed itself ambiguously but it did not obscure its conviction that the defendants were denied a fair trial.
I vote to affirm.