U.S.A. v. Chaparro-Alcantara et al
| Decision Date | 21 August 2000 |
| Docket Number | ROMERO-BAUTIST,Nos. 99-2721,CHAPARRO-ALCANTARA and JAIME,D,s. 99-2721 |
| Citation | 226 F.3d 616 |
| Parties | (7th Cir. 2000) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. JUANefendants-Appellants. & 99-2874 |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. No. 98 CR 30070--Jeanne E. Scott, Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before HARLINGTON WOOD, JR., RIPPLE and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.
Juan Chaparro-Alcantara and Jaime Romero-Bautista are Mexican nationals who were arrested for transporting illegal aliens. After their arrest, an INS agent informed them of their Miranda rights, but the agent did not inform them of their right under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention ("Article 36") to contact the Mexican Consulate. The two then made inculpatory statements to the officers interviewing them. Both defendants sought to suppress the statements. They argued that the failure to inform them of their rights under Article 36 mandated the exclusion of the evidence.
Mr. Romero-Bautista also sought to have the INS detain other passengers in the van as possible material witnesses. Initially the district court ordered that the witnesses be held, but it eventually ordered that they be released to the INS. The INS then removed the witnesses from the country. Mr. Romero-Bautista subsequently moved to dismiss the indictment on the ground that the Government improperly had deported material witnesses essential to his case.
The district court refused to suppress the defendants' statements or to dismiss the indictment against Mr. Romero-Bautista. Both defendants then entered conditional guilty pleas. For the reasons set forth in the following opinion, we hold that the district court correctly refused to invoke the exclusionary rule in response to the officers' violation of Article 36. We also hold that the district court did not err in refusing to dismiss the indictment against Mr. Romero-Bautista.
Juan Chaparro-Alcantara and Jaime Romero- Bautista were among 15 individuals found on October 21, 1998, at a disabled van in South Jacksonville, Illinois. Thirteen occupants of the van were undocumented Mexican nationals; Mr. Chaparro-Alcantara and Mr. Romero-Bautista were Mexican nationals with lawful permanent resident status in the United States. The two were arrested for transporting illegal aliens, and INS Agent Tom Merchant informed them of their Miranda rights in Spanish. He did not inform them, however, of their right under the Vienna Convention to contact the Mexican consulate; Article 36 of the Vienna Convention provides that officials arresting foreign nationals should inform the foreign national of his right to inform his consulate of his arrest. After hearing their Miranda rights, both Mr. Chaparro-Alcantara and Mr. Romero-Bautista made inculpatory statements.
On October 22, counsel and a translator were appointed for the defendants. That day, defense counsel was informed that the INS intended to deport most of the other passengers in the van on Saturday, October 24. On October 23, the defendants moved to have the passengers detained in the United States on the ground that some had given statements contradictory to the reports prepared by the Government. The district court granted the motion, and it ordered the Government to delay deporting the passengers for one week. During that week, Mr. Romero-Bautista became ill while in pretrial detention and was transported to a hospital. On October 29, he was transferred, despite his objection, to a Bureau of Prisons medical facility.
On November 2, the district court held a hearing to determine whether the other passengers from the van should continue to be held as potential material witnesses or, instead, be released to the custody of the INS for possible deportation. Mr. Chaparro-Alcantara informed the court that he had withdrawn his objection to the release of the witnesses. Counsel for Mr. Romero-Bautista, however, argued that the witnesses should continue to be detained in order to permit him to take their depositions. Mr. Romero-Bautista's attorney told the court that Mr. Romero-Bautista would not be able to attend the depositions due to his medical condition. Counsel further informed the court that he had attempted to obtain from Mr. Romero-Bautista a waiver of his right to attend the depositions, but his client was sedated heavily with morphine and, thus, in counsel's view, incapable of waiving his right to attend the depositions.
The district court ruled that the passengers should no longer be held as material witnesses. The district court first noted the high expense of continuing to detain the witnesses and the indefinite duration of Mr. Romero-Bautista's medical condition. It also considered the potential value of the passengers' expected testimony. The district court concluded that the passengers, who were not charged with any crime, ought not be detained as potential witnesses. They therefore were released from the court's custody with the expectation that the INS would then deport them. Among those released were Armando Ruiz-Ruiz and Jacoba Hernandez. Both Ruiz-Ruiz and Hernandez were returned to Mexico on November 4.
Mr. Romero-Bautista later moved to dismiss the indictment against him on the ground that the passengers were material witnesses who had been deported improperly. The district court held a hearing on that motion on February 10, 1999. At that hearing, Mr. Romero-Bautista offered the testimony of Sofa Stanford, his court-appointed translator. Stanford stated that the detained witnesses had said, in prison interviews, that Mr. Romero-Bautista was not involved in transporting the aliens. Stanford testified that each of the witnesses had been asked whether Mr. Romero-Bautista was transporting illegal aliens; she testified that each of the witnesses had stated that Mr. Romero-Bautista was not a "coyote," or someone who brought illegal aliens into the United States for profit. Further, she testified, they all stated that Mr. Romero- Bautista had not been driving the van. She also testified that, according to the witnesses, Mr. Romero-Bautista had not asked for money in payment for their transportation, but had asked for money only for food or drinks.
Stanford spoke in more detail about the Government's interview with Hernandez. She testified that, in the interview with witness Hernandez, Hernandez had stated that INS agents pressured her to say that Mr. Romero-Bautista was a coyote. Stanford added that other witnesses stated that they had been pressured in the same way.
Also at the February 10 hearing, Agent Merchant testified that Hernandez had not been deported and stated further that Ruiz-Ruiz was still available to testify. The district court then refused to dismiss the indictment, on the ground that Hernandez and Ruiz-Ruiz, both potentially material witnesses, were in the United States and could be brought to court to testify. Contrary to the Government's representation, however, neither Ruiz-Ruiz nor Hernandez was available at that time. Ruiz-Ruiz did become available later when the Government captured him after he illegally re-entered the United States.
On March 5, the district court denied the defendants' motion to suppress their statements. Mr. Chaparro-Alcantara and Mr. Romero-Bautista had sought to have those statements suppressed because Agent Merchant had not informed them of their rights under the Vienna Convention. Mr. Chaparro-Alcantara then entered a conditional guilty plea.
On March 19, the district court held a hearing to reconsider Mr. Romero-Bautista's motion to dismiss the indictment. At that hearing, the Government conceded that, at the time of the February 10 hearing, Hernandez had not been available to testify, even though Agent Merchant had testified then that she was available. Agent Merchant then testified at the March 19 hearing and stated that his testimony at the February 10 hearing had been accurate to the best of his knowledge. He also testified that he had learned on March 2 that Hernandez had been returned to Mexico in November. After the conclusion of Agent Merchant's testimony, the district court acknowledged that Hernandez, who was now missing, was probably the best witness for Mr. Romero- Bautista. The district court refused, however, to dismiss the indictment. Instead, the district court allowed the case to proceed, but it ruled that it would allow Stanford to testify at trial about the substance of her conversations with Hernandez. It acknowledged that such testimony normally would be hearsay. Rather than proceed to trial, Mr. Romero-Bautista entered a conditional guilty plea.
Mr. Chaparro-Alcantara and Mr. Romero-Bautista seek the suppression of statements made after their arrests. They concede that they were informed of their Miranda rights, but argue that, because they were not informed of their rights under the Vienna Convention, the statements should not have been admitted.
The text of Article 36(1)(b) reads, in full
1.
With a view to facilitating the exercise of consular functions relating to nationals of the sending State[1]
. . . .
(b) If he so requests, the competent authorities of the receiving state shall, without delay, inform the consular post of the sending State if, within its consular district, a national of that state is arrested or committed to prison or to custody pending trial or is detained in any other manner. Any communication addressed to the consular post by the person arrested, in prison, custody or detention shall also be forwarded by the said authorities without delay. The said authorities shall inform the person concerned without delay of his rights under this sub- paragraph[.]
Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, Apr. 24, 1963, art. 36, 21 U.S.T. 77....
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