The case against Mexican restaurant mogul Cesar Campos-Reyes has once again raised questions over whether the U.S. government can ask the court to take unusual actions because another branch of the government, ICE, will likely detain individuals and make them unavailable for court.
The Department of Justice last week asked the court to allow it to conduct depositions of undocumented immigrants being held as potential witnesses against Campos-Reyes because they will likely be taken into ICE custody and therefore unavailable for court.
Federal defender Cecilia Vaca told APR that U.S. Magistrate Judge Chad Bryan chose to delay depositions due to the defense’s opposition at a hearing held last week, and said the U.S. government can try to reschedule the depositions. Vaca represented Isaac Fernandez-Lopez, one of Campos-Reyes’ kitchen managers in Opelika, on his federal charges of harboring and employing illegal aliens. Bryan found no probable cause to charge Fernandez-Lopez with the crimes, but Fernandez-Lopez is now being held as a potential witness for this trial.
Depositions are not common in criminal trials, defense attorney Richard “Matt” Matthews argued.
“In fact, in 24 years of practicing criminal law, (I have) never had this occur and (am) not aware of a case in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama where there have been depositions in a criminal case,” Matthews wrote.
The government took a similar avenue when arguing to keep Fernandez-Lopez and Luis Miguel Campos-Reyes, another of Cesar Campos-Reyes’ managers, in U.S. Marshal Custody due to their likely detainment by ICE. And once again, defense attorneys argue that the government’s problems in ensuring the availability of witnesses should not allow unprecedented circumstances against their clients.
“The Government alleges that the unavailability is ‘self-evident’ from its Notice (Doc. 34) however, the alleged unavailability of these potential witnesses in this case is a problem that the Government itself is causing,” Matthews wrote. “The United States Government is going to remove them outside of the Middle District of Alabama. The United States Government is going to deport them. The Assistant United States Attorney alleges that this Court ‘cannot ensure their presence in court’ however in the Smith, id., the case cited by the United States in its Notice (Doc. 34), the court did hold the material witnesses until after their agreed upon depositions.”
In addition to the issues with the DOJ requesting unusual accommodations due to difficulties with another branch of the government, the defense also raised many technical issues with how the depositions were sought, also factoring into the decision to delay the depositions.
Another filing last week shed more light on the raids on Campos-Reyes’ businesses. A notice filed by the government showed that it has seized more than $400,000 total from bank accounts owned by Campos-Reyes and family members, including the business bank accounts for numerous of his restaurants. Adding the $100,000 in cash seized during the raid, that makes half a million in seized assets related to the case that stand to be forfeited if Campos-Reyes is convicted. That also does not include two Edward Jones accounts that do not list monetary figures in the notice.
