Opinion
CASE NO. 1:11-cr-00186 LJO
08-04-2011
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. JUAN HERRERA, AKA "JOKER," RAFAEL VELASCO, AKA "B STREET GUERRO," AND FELIPE GUTIERREZ, Defendants.
BENJAMIN B. WAGNER United States Attorney KIMBERLY A. SANCHEZ Assistant U.S. Attorney DAN KOUKOL Attorney for Juan Herrera ERIN J. RADIKEN Attorney for Rafael Velasco TONI CARBONE Attorney for Felipe Gutierrez
BENJAMIN B. WAGNER
United States Attorney
KIMBERLY A. SANCHEZ
Assistant U.S. Attorney
STIPULATION AND ORDER FOR CONTINUANCE
CONTINUED TO 10/7/2011
AT: 10:30AM (REVISED BY COURT)
IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED by and between Benjamin B. Wagner, United States Attorney and Kimberly A. Sanchez, Assistant U.S. Attorney and Dan Koukol, attorney for defendant Herrera, Erin J. Radiken, attorney for defendant Velasco, and Toni Carbone, attorney for defendant Guteirrez to move for the status conference currently set for August 5, 2011 to be continued to October 7, 2011 at 10:30 a.m.
Counsel have conferred, and counsel for defendants believe that additional time beyond August 5, 2011 will be necessary to review discovery and conduct preliminary investigation. The government has provided a significant number of investigation reports and various other discovery, such as photographs. The government will be providing wiretap affidavits and associated documents for nine (9) different applications, audio and data from each of the court-authorized wiretaps that the government had anticipated disseminating much earlier. However, such discovery was subject to state court sealing orders. The Merced County District Attorney's Office provided the government with a stipulation for undersigned counsel and defense counsel to sign in order to receive authorization from the state court judge for release of the discovery materials. The government circulated the document and did not have all signatures of defense counsel until on or about July 18, 2011 at which time the government sent the document to the District Attorney's Office. On August 2, 2011, the government received a court order authorizing release of the referenced discovery pursuant to a protective order. As such, the discovery will be disseminated within the next two days. Additionally, counsel have coordinated their schedules, and all counsel agree that October 7, 2011 is a date upon which all counsel are available.
Counsel agree that the time between the signing of the requested order and October 7, 2011 will be excluded from the speedy trial calculation pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §3161(h)(7)(A) and (B) in that the defendants' and the public's interest in a speedy trial are outweighed by the interests of justice in permitting counsel adequate time to review the voluminous discovery and conduct preliminary investigation in order to determine whether they would like to request the Court to set a motion schedule or some additional proceeding and for continuity of counsel such that all defendants' counsel may appear. Moreover, the parties previously agreed that due to the nature of the prosecution and the amount of discovery resulting from the investigation involving multiple wiretaps, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §3161(h)(7)(B), the case is complex.
Respectfully submitted,
BENJAMIN B. WAGNER
United States Attorney
KIMBERLY A. SANCHEZ
Assistant U.S. Attorney
DAN KOUKOL
Attorney for Juan Herrera
ERIN J. RADIKEN
Attorney for Rafael Velasco
TONI CARBONE
Attorney for Felipe Gutierrez
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Lawrence J. O'Neill
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE