Pubdate: Sat, 15 Nov 2003
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2003 The Sacramento Bee
Contact:  http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author: Denny Walsh, Bee Staff Writer
Correction: at 
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/7797691p-8738792c.html "A headline 
on page B1 Saturday incorrectly said the federal government has asked for a 
15-year sentence for Miguel Palominos, who was found guilty Friday of 
manufacturing marijuana plants. The prosecution plans to retry Palominos on 
two other counts on which the jury deadlocked; he faces a minimum of 15 
years in prison if convicted on all counts."

15-YEAR PENALTY ASKED IN POT TRIAL

The Defense Asks: Why Throw the Book at a Suspect Plucked From Mexico to 
Tend the Crop?

The government caught up with a young Mexican man watering a marijuana 
garden in rural Northern California and is hoping to put him behind bars 
for at least 15 years.

Miguel Palominos is another in a parade of young Mexicans who are recruited 
to tend California marijuana crops. His attorneys insist he was not told 
what he was going to be doing until he "was dropped in the middle of 
nowhere" in Tehama County.

Invariably, these "irrigators," as they call themselves, are the only ones 
apprehended when the gardens are raided. Part of their value to the growers 
is that they are expendable, easily replaced from an endless supply, known 
as "throwaways" by the lawyers in the federal defender's office who wind up 
representing them.

"It's what we used to call 'indentured servitude,' which is a polite phrase 
for slavery," Timothy Zindel, an attorney for Palominos, told the jury in 
his closing argument this week in U.S. District Court.

Defense lawyers estimate that the U.S. attorney's office in Sacramento has 
prosecuted between 40 and 50 of these cases over the past decade in federal 
court, where the penalties are draconian compared to state court.

If convicted on all counts, Palominos is facing a minimum 15 years in 
prison. Had he been charged with cultivation in state court in Tehama 
County, he would likely have been out of prison and deported by now.

Federal Defender Quin Denvir has said prosecutors tout the harsh treatment 
as a deterrent. "There is no deterrent," he said. "Farm workers in this 
country and people in Mexico will never hear about these cases."

For eight days, the government paid two assistant U.S. attorneys, two 
assistant federal defenders, five interpreters rotating in teams of two, 
U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb, and 12 jurors and two alternates to 
try Palominos.

Defense attorneys Daniel Broderick and Zindel mocked the idea that 
Palominos conspired to grow nearly 13,000 pot plants and that he possessed 
three firearms to carry out his scheme.

"You would think the U.S. attorney's office would have better use for its 
resources," Broderick, a former federal prosecutor, said outside of court. 
"This has no business in federal court. I think it's statistically driven. 
It's just a scalp for them and it's easy."

U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott vehemently supports the prosecutions generally 
and the Palominos case specifically.

"This was a very large grow, and anybody involved would know this," he said 
of the conspiracy charge against Palominos.

"Secondly, these people are armed. This isn't somebody growing a couple of 
weeds in their back yard. In the past three years we've had five separate 
shootings in connection with these large grows," he said.

"These operations are run by large Mexican cartels. Someone had a phony 
birth certificate created for (Palominos) showing he was under 18 and 
couldn't be prosecuted as an adult. That doesn't just happen.

"It's not a perfect world from our perspective. We'd love to be able to go 
after the guys in Mexico who are behind all this."

Police officers in the northeast part of the state have such confidence 
that federal prosecutors in Sacramento will accept cases like the one 
against Palominos that a Tehama County sheriff's detective told him the day 
he was arrested that he was facing a lengthy federal prison sentence.

Palominos was charged in a federal grand jury indictment with manufacturing 
and conspiring to manufacture 1,000 or more plants, and possessing three 
firearms - a pistol, rifle and shotgun - to carry out drug trafficking 
crimes. He had none of the guns in his possession when arrested, but they 
were found at the site.

The jury found him guilty Friday of manufacturing, but deadlocked on the 
conspiracy and weapons charges.

The deadlock is only the second time the government has had a problem in 
Sacramento securing a conviction in such a case. U.S. District Judge Frank 
C. Damrell Jr. last year threw out a jury's guilty verdict, calling it "a 
serious miscarriage of justice." The government's appeal is pending.

At a conference with Shubb on Wednesday, prosecutors are to request a date 
for retrial of Palominos on the conspiracy and weapons counts.

Palominos, who has no formal education and cannot read, write or count in 
Spanish or English, is not sure of his age but thinks he is 22. He is from 
the village of Coalcoman in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, where 
he has spent his whole life. His mother and two sisters depend on him for 
financial support. He has no criminal record. According to court records, 
trial testimony and his attorneys, this is his story:

Palominos was approached last year by an older man in his village who said 
he could get him work in the United States. He was given money for a bus 
ticket to Nogales, where he was met by a professional smuggler, called a 
"coyote," who sneaked him into Arizona. From there, he was transported to 
the marijuana garden not far from the Tehama County hamlet of Manton.

He was hired by a man known to Palominos only as "Jose," who promised him 
$1,000 a month to water the plants, but said he would get no money until 
Jose and the coyote had been paid for their work. Jose gave him a backpack 
with a pistol in it and told him not to leave the camp and not to make a 
fire at night.

Palominos believes this all occurred in June 2002, but he's not sure. When 
he was arrested Aug. 5, 2002, he hadn't been paid. His wallet was empty - 
no money, no identification, no pictures.

When the camp was raided, four others watering the plants and living with 
him escaped.

"Everybody else knew the way out," Zindel told the jury.

Sheriff's deputies confiscated 12,997 marijuana plants.

Federal law allows someone like Palominos to be held responsible for what 
others have plotted. That let prosecutors Samuel Wong and Philip Ferrari 
include conspiracy and firearms charges.

Sympathy has no place in the courtroom, and the jurors were told that four 
times: by Wong and Zindel in their closing arguments, by Ferrari in his 
rebuttal to Zindel's closing, and by Shubb in his instructions on the law.
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