De Letelier v. Republic of Chile, Civ. A. No. 78-1477.

• Decision Date: 05 November 1980
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 78-1477.
• Parties: Isabel Morel de LETELIER et al., Plaintiffs, v. The REPUBLIC OF CHILE et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

502 F. Supp. 259

Isabel Morel de LETELIER et al., Plaintiffs, v. The REPUBLIC OF CHILE et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 78-1477.

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

November 5, 1980.

Michael E. Tigar, Samuel J. Buffone, Lynne Bernabei, Tigar & Buffone, P. C., Washington, D. C., for plaintiffs.

William J. Garber, Washington, D. C., for Ignacio Novo Sampol.

Barry W. Levine, Washington, D. C., for Michael Townley for limited purpose of issue of contempt.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

JOYCE HENS GREEN, District Judge.

This action is before the Court for a final determination relevant to the attempt of plaintiffs Isabel, Christian, Jose, Francisco, and Juan Pablo Letelier, and Michael Maggio, respectively the widow, sons, and personal representative of Orlando Letelier, and Michael Moffitt and Murray and Hilda Karpen, respectively the widower-personal representative and the parents of Ronni Karpen Moffitt, to obtain judgments by default against defendants Republic of Chile, Juan Manuel Contreras Sepulveda, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Armando Fernandez Larios, Michael Vernon Townley, Alvin Ross Diaz, Guillermo Novo Sampol, and Ignacio Novo Sampol, for their alleged culpability for the bombing deaths of former Chilean ambassador Letelier and Ronni Moffitt in September 1976 in Washington, D.C. After careful consideration of the entire record of this case, including the testimony and documentary evidence presented at the June 20, 1980 hearing regarding several of the pending applications for judgments by default, it is apparent plaintiffs have established their right to relief as against all but one of these defendants and thus are entitled to judgments by default in the amounts hereinafter set forth.

Plaintiffs, either citizens of the states of Maryland or New Jersey, or of the District of Columbia, or of the Republic of Chile, brought this suit asserting various tortious causes of action¹ and seeking recompense, pursuant to those statutory enactments governing the survival of actions, D.C.Code § 12-101 (Supp. VII 1980), and wrongful death, id. § 16-2701 (1973), from those they alleged were involved in the deaths of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, both of whom died as a result of the detonation of an explosive device under the driver's seat of Orlando Letelier's automobile as it rounded Sheridan Circle, N.W., in the District of Columbia on September 21, 1976. The named defendants to the action are either a foreign state, or citizens of a foreign state, or citizens of a state other than the states of Maryland or New Jersey or of the District of Columbia.

Filed on August 23, 1978, the first amended complaint in this action was served by Deputy United States Marshals upon Alvin Ross Diaz (Ross), Guillermo Novo Sampol (Guillermo Novo), and Ignacio Novo Sampol (Ignacio Novo) on August 23, 1978, and on defendant Michael Vernon Townley two days later. Service was attempted upon defendants Juan Manuel Contreras Sepulveda (Contreras), Pedro Espinoza Bravo (Espinoza), and Armando Fernandez Larios (Fernandez) in Chile by registered mail, return receipt requested, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(i)(1)(D). On September 7, 1978, the return receipts were filed with the Court upon which it was indicated that copies of the first amended complaint were received on behalf of defendants Contreras, Espinoza, and Fernandez on August 29, 1978. Upon their failure to answer, defaults were taken against defendants Townley, Ross, and Ignacio Novo on September 20, 1978, while a default was entered against defendant Guillermo Novo on October 24, 1978.

As to defendant Republic of Chile, it was served with the first amended complaint on November 17, 1978, pursuant to the procedures set forth at 28 U.S.C. § 1608(a)(4). Upon its failure to answer, a default was entered against the Chilean Republic by the Honorable John H. Pratt on May 2, 1979. Because questions were raised about the subject matter jurisdiction of the Court to entertain this suit against the Republic of Chile under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1330, 1601-1610 (1976), after receiving a memorandum on that subject from plaintiffs on March 11, 1980, a memorandum opinion was filed in which it was held that such jurisdiction did indeed lie. Letelier v. Republic of Chile, 488 F.Supp. 665 (D.D.C.1980).

In June 1980, a hearing was held at which plaintiffs were afforded an opportunity to satisfy the Court that judgments by default should be granted in their favor and against the Republic of Chile, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1608(e) (1976), and individual defendants Townley, Ross, Guillermo Novo, and Ignacio Novo, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 55(b)(2). Subsequently, on September 22, 1980, service of the first amended complaint was again obtained upon defendants Contreras and Fernandez in Chile, this time by letters rogatory in accord with Rule 4(i)(1)(B). Defaults then were taken against defendants Contreras, Espinoza, and Fernandez on October 23, 1980, making this action ripe for disposition as to all defendants.²

In seeking to establish their claims to relief relating to the tragic deaths of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, the evidence presented by plaintiffs which details the bombing incident is, in the main, derived from the testimony of defendant Michael Vernon Townley under oath at the criminal trial of defendants Ross, Ignacio Novo, and Guillermo Novo in January 1979.³ As related by Townley, an American citizen and a long-time Chilean resident, he first became involved in the events that culminated in the Letelier and Moffitt killings sometime in late June or early July 1976. At that time he was contacted by defendant Armando Fernandez Larios, then a lieutenant in the Chilean Army and an operative of the Chilean intelligence service, the Direccion de Intelligencia Nacionale (DINA) (now known as the Centro Nacionale de Informaciones (CNI)), to arrange a meeting between Townley, then a civilian contract employee of DINA, and defendant Pedro Espinoza Bravo, then a lieutenant colonel in the Chilean Army and Director of Operations of DINA. At the meeting, Colonel Espinoza asked Townley whether he would be available for a special DINA operation outside Chile in the near future. Townley indicated that while he was reluctant to leave the country because of his wife's health, he would undertake such a mission if ordered to do so. At another meeting several weeks later, Espinoza informed Townley that the mission would involve travel to the United States for the purpose of assassinating Orlando Letelier. Entry into the United States, according to Espinoza, was to be accomplished with Paraguayan documents and, to the extent necessary, Fernandez and Townley were to use members of the anti-Castro Cuban exile group, the Cuban Nationalist Movement (CNM), to accomplish the murder.

In July 1976, Fernandez and Townley went to Paraguay, via Argentina, and, with the help of Paraguayan authorities, obtained Paraguayan passports under assumed names which, in turn, they used to obtain visas to the United States. Because of the apparent uneasiness of DINA officials in Chile over the nearly two weeks it took to obtain the passports and visas, the trip of Fernandez and Townley to the United States using those documents was cancelled and they were ordered to return to Chile, which they did.

In August 1976, Espinoza again contacted Townley to inform him that the Letelier mission was still scheduled and that Fernandez was already in the United States surveilling Letelier to record his movements and daily patterns. Townley was instructed, as he had been in the earlier meetings, to make the killing appear accidental or a suicide if possible, but that other means, including an explosive or a shooting, could be utilized to eliminate Letelier. Townley also was told that he was to be out of the United States before the assassination took place.

Townley departed Santiago, Chile, on September 8, 1976, and arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on September 9, traveling under the assumed name of Hans Peterson Silva. Uncontradicted testimony demonstrated that facilities and personnel of LAN Chile Airlines, a foreign air carrier owned and operated by the government of Chile, were used by Townley in connection with the preparation and carrying out of the assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt. At Kennedy Airport he met Fernandez and was given a sketch of Letelier's residence and place of employment as well as written information describing the Leteliers' automobiles. Fernandez also gave Townley a verbal briefing on Letelier's daily movements. The two DINA agents then parted and Fernandez returned to Chile.

From Kennedy Airport Townley drove a rental car into New Jersey and checked into a hotel under the name of Hans Peterson. He made contact by telephone with CNM member Virgilio Paz Romero and scheduled a supper meeting. At the dinner, Townley made further arrangements to meet with defendant Guillermo Novo Sampol, a CNM leader. On September 10, 1976, he met for lunch with Guillermo Novo and Jose Dionisio Suarez Esquivel. At this meeting, he outlined his DINA mission to assassinate Letelier and sought CNM's help. Guillermo Novo declined to commit CNM at that time. Subsequently, however, after another gathering at which the assassination plan was discussed in the presence of several individuals identified as directors of CNM, including Guillermo Novo, Suarez, and defendant Alvin Ross Diaz, Guillermo Novo and Suarez informed Townley that it had been decided that CNM would assist DINA in murdering Letelier. It was agreed that Paz and Townley would proceed to Washington, D.C., to conduct corroborative surveillance and that Suarez would join them several days later to assist in the assassination. It was also decided that the attempt would be made by installing a bomb under Letelier's automobile and detonating it with...