U.S. Assistant Attorney Eric S. O’Malley is also asking court to order the defense counsel to ask that witness to testify on the hearing set for June 22.
O’Malley said a week after a federal jury returned a guilty verdict against the three defendants, which included Santos’s wife, the defendants filed several motions including a motion for a judgment of acquittal or new trial based on the allegations that the defense had learned that some of the witnesses were related to some of the jurors.
O’Malley said the federal government is in the process of preparing its response but they need to know the identity of the person or persons who provided the information regarding the relationships of the witnesses and jurors, information that can only be provided by the defense.
O’Malley said they called defendant Joaquina V. Santos’s counsel Raymond Quichocho on May 12, requesting the name of the source of information described in the defense motions.
Quichocho said he did not know the identity of the person.
O’Malley said Quichocho told him James Santos’s lawyer Victorino Torres would likely know.
O’Malley said he called Torres immediately but although Torres told him he had seen the witness’ face, he did not know her.
Torres said all information he received was from Herman T. Guerrero who was hired by the defense to do a genealogical survey on the jurors.
O’Malley said the government then called Villagomez’s counsel David J. Lujan who told them that he did not know any names and did not speak to anyone personally.
O’Malley said the defense lawyers seemed to be caught off-guard by the question.
O’Malley said the federal government needs to know who the source was so they could interview the witness and ascertain why the defendants waited until after the verdict to provide the information.
The federal government contacted Torres again on May 13 but the lawyer told them he preferred not to give any information except during an evidentiary hearing, but if under oath, he would freely provide the information.
The federal government contacted Lujan again but the laywer stated he did not know any names and told the government to conduct its own investigation.
