anyone heard?

Jessie was a criminal in a uniform. He still holds the record for time suspended from duty. This guy is mental case and all of you that consider him a good cop need to have your head examine. This guy took all his friends down with him .

Most of you if not all keep attacking Timoney for a vehicle he did not paid and at the same time defend Jesse Aguero. Ambiguity is the answer. :roll:

Didn't he spark some riots with the beating on a 39?

Jessie was a criminal in a uniform. He still holds the record for time suspended from duty. This guy is mental case and all of you that consider him a good cop need to have your head examine. This guy took all his friends down with him .

Most of you if not all keep attacking Timoney for a vehicle he did not paid and at the same time defend Jesse Aguero. Ambiguity is the answer. :roll:

The difference here is that Timoney is the Chief he's here to set examples and run a department which he does not back up. Yet, Aguero good or bad cop, was always there if you needed a 15.

The difference here is that Timoney is the Chief he's here to set examples and run a department which he does not back up. Yet, Aguero good or bad cop, was always there if you needed a 15.

You mean Jesse was there when u fked up and needed THE SOCK

Didn't he spark some riots with the beating on a 39?

was it not the mercado riots?!

Statements by officers under investigation
Statements given by police officers who were under investigation concerning the death of a drug dealer were properly admitted in a subsequent obstruction of justice trial, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held.
After drug dealer Leonardo Mercado was found beaten to death in 1988, several members of a Miami street narcotics unit stood trial for violating Mercado's federal civil rights. Statements given by the officers during the murder investigation were suppressed at trial pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1967 opinion in Garrity vs. New Jersey. At the officers' subsequent federal trial for crimes including obstruction of justice and misleading state investigators about the circumstances of Mercado's death, the previously suppressed statements were admitted and the officers were convicted. The 11th Circuit affirmed.
Although an accused may not be forced to choose between incriminating himself and losing his job under Garrity, neither Garrity nor the Fifth Amendment prohibits prosecution and punishment for false statements or other crimes committed during the making of Garrity-protected statements. Giving a false statement is an independent criminal act that occurs when the individual makes the false statement it is separate from the events to which the statement relates, the matter being investigated, the court said. Garrity-insulated statements regarding past events under investigation must be truthful to avoid future prosecution for such crimes as perjury and obstruction of justice. Garrity protection is not a license to lie or to commit perjury.


IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT_______________No. 95-4427
_______________
D. C. Docket No. 93-352-CR-SM

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,versus
NATHANIEL VEAL, JR., ANDY WATSON,
PABLO CAMACHO, CHARLIE HAYNES, JR.,
Defendants-Appellants.______________________________Appeals from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
______________________________(September 4, 1998)

Before ANDERSON and BIRCH, Circuit Judges, and WOODS*, Senior District Judge.


BIRCH, Circuit Judge:
These consolidated appeals from convictions of police officers under 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(3) for providing false and misleading information concerning the death of a drug dealer to state investigators present the issue of whether statements suppressed in a prior civil rights trial pursuant to Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493, 87 S.Ct. 616 (1967), can be admitted in a subsequent obstruction of justice trial. The police officers also challenge the district judge's denial of their motions to dismiss, statutory interpretation, and jury instructions as well as the sufficiency of the evidence supporting their convictions. We affirm.I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND On Friday, December 16, 1988, defendants-appellants Nathaniel Veal, Jr., Andy Watson, Pablo Camacho, and Charlie Haynes, Jr. as well as Ronald Sinclair and Thomas Trujillo were members of the Street Narcotics Unit (SNU) of the Miami Police Department. According to trial testimony, before the 4:00 P.M. roll call on that day, the Chief of Police received a letter in which an anonymous informant reported that unidentified drug dealers had met at 7th Avenue and 32nd Street, NW, in Miami and had contracted to kill Camacho. The SNU members were aware that this address was the residence of Leonardo Mercado, a drug dealer. Camacho, Veal, Watson, and Haynes were told of the death threat.
En route to a sting operation at the proximate location of 7th Avenue and 57th Street, NW, Camacho and Watson, Veal and Haynes, and Sinclair and Trujillo, proceeding in three undercover vehicles, stopped at Mercado's house and exited their vehicles. Camacho approached Mercado, who was outside, put his hand on Mercado's shoulder, and escorted him into his house. In the next few minutes, the other officers entered the house, closed the door, and lowered the curtains. Shortly thereafter, police cars and a fire/rescue unit with emergency medical treatment arrived in response to calls for assistance from Sinclair and Camacho.
When Officer Mary Reed of the Miami Police Department arrived and entered the house, she saw Camacho, Veal, Haynes, and Sinclair and a bloody Mercado lying on the floor moaning. Haynes pointed to Mercado and informed Reed that he was the mother ****er that put a contract out on Camacho. Supp.R8-22. The officers urged Reed to get [her] kick in, id. at 23, but she declined because [h]e was in bad shape, id. at 24. Despite emergency medical efforts, Mercado, who had suffered extensive head trauma and a severely bruised chest, died at the scene. A subsequent autopsy revealed multiple bruises and bloody wounds to his head, scalp, neck and face as well as fractured ribs.
Knowing that Mercado was dead, Camacho, Veal, Watson, Haynes, and other SNU officers left the scene and returned to the police department. Various eyewitnesses testified that they saw Camacho, Veal, Watson, Haynes, Sinclair, and Trujillo when they returned to the police station, entered the lieutenant's office, and closed the door. Although none of these individuals had noticed anything unusual about Camacho's appearance when he entered the lieutenant's office, the witnesses saw a rip in the front, chest area of his shirt and on the sleeve when he left that office. While inside the SNU lieutenant's office, one of the officers took pictures of Camacho that purportedly reflected his condition after the altercation with Mercado. These photographs, showing a long rip in the front of Camacho's shirt, which also was missing a pocket, were placed in the lieutenant's cabinet together with a butcher knife, supposedly retrieved from the altercation scene, and a bag of crack cocaine allegedly seized from Mercado.
At 7:55 P.M. that evening, Camacho went to the office of crime-scene technician Sylvia Romans, who photographed arrestees and/or officers involved in control situations, when an officer used more than normal force in making an arrest. Camacho asked Romans to photograph him to show his clothing and injuries. Romans complied and her photographs reveal a large tear in the front of Camacho's shirt, the pocket missing, and a long rip in the back of his right shirt sleeve. Romans noticed that Camacho had no cuts and was not bleeding anywhere but that his right eye was bruised.
A freelance photographer took random photographs at the Mercado residence after the altercation. One photograph showed Camacho at the doorway of Mercado's residence his shirt was undamaged with no tear in the front and the pocket was intact. The same freelance photographer came to the SNU office and took additional photographs of Camacho that showed a large rip in the front of his shirt that had been taped together and the pocket was missing. When Camacho went to Romans's office a short time later to have her photograph him, the tape had been removed, the rips to his shirt were exposed, and there was no pocket on his shirt. Two visiting Detroit police officers accompanied the SNU lieutenant to Mercado's house. One testified that she saw an officer leaving the house with a rusty butcher knife. She saw a similar knife on the table in the lieutenant's office when the officers left that office.
At trial, an expert in fiber analysis was asked whether the tears to Camacho's shirt resulted from knife cuts or a tear. The expert testified that a mechanical object had been used to make a half-inch cut to the front of the shirt and that the shirt then had been ripped with a fifteen-inch tear. The damage to the right sleeve also was consistent with the shirt having been cut with a mechanical object and then torn. Similarly, the damage to the pocket area was consistent with the pocket having been cut and then torn from the shirt.
Camacho later was treated at a hospital for elevated blood pressure and swelling none of the other officers had any injuries. In the hours following Mercado's death, Miami homicide investigators were advised that Camacho had been involved in the altercation with Mercado but that Veal, Watson, Haynes, and Sinclair had not. In the early morning hours of December 17, 1988, Veal, Watson, Haynes, and Sinclair gave statements to state homicide investigators regarding their knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Mercado's death. Each asserted that the officers had stopped at Mercado's house because Camacho had seen some drug activity there that justified investigation and not because of the death threat to Camacho. Each denied having physical contact with Mercado or having heard or seen anything that would explain or assist the investigators in determining how Mercado's injuries had occurred. They stated that, by the time that they were inside the house, the altercation was over and Mercado was on the floor. Veal, Watson and Haynes also denied meeting with Camacho at the SNU office.
At trial, an expert in forensic serology and blood-stain-pattern interpretation compared the blood stains on Mercado to the blood stains on the clothing and shoes worn by Camacho, Veal, Watson, and Haynes on December 16, 1988. Thus, he reconstructed who had come into contact with Mercado and the amount of force used during this contact. The expert found that Veal's pants and shoes were covered with blood stains of Mercado's type. The blood spatter on Veal's pants and shoes was consistent with Veal's having struck Mercado multiple times using medium to medium-high force. The back of Veal's right shoe had a pattern consistent with having been stamped into Mercado's head multiple times. Additionally, shoe patterns on the seat and ankle areas of Mercado's pants matched Veal's right shoe.
Similarly, Watson's pants were blood-stained inside the cuffs and all the way up to the lap and pocket areas. The blood spatter on Watson's pants and sneakers was consistent with his having been within two to three feet of a direct impact to Mercado of medium to medium-high force. The location of the blood on Watson's pants and the spatter of Mercado's blood on two walls in the corner of the room above the bed was consistent with Watson's having been in the immediate vicinity of a direct impact to Mercado's head while Mercado was in an upright position in the corner of the room near the bed and not after Mercado was on the floor. A criminology expert in latent prints also testified that Watson's right shoe was consistent with several of Mercado's wounds and that his shoes were consistent with injuries in two different areas of one wound, which showed two points of contact. Another smaller wound matched the forward part of Watson's right shoe, and a third wound also matched Watson's shoe.
Haynes's left shoe had blood on it and his shirt had one blood spot. His pants, however, had no blood stains because he had laundered his pants and shoe laces before being asked to surrender them. A criminology expert testified that the wounds on Mercado's forehead and left cheek near his eye matched Haynes's left shoe and were consistent with a single contact.
On Monday, December 19, 1988, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Agent David Hedge****, assigned to the civil rights unit in Miami, learned of the incident resulting in Mercado's death and opened an investigation in conjunction with Miami Police Department homicide detectives. This investigation led to federal, civil rights charges against Camacho, Veal, Watson, Haynes, Sinclair, and Trujillo. In conducting the FBI investigation, Hedge**** received, reviewed, and used all of the evidence collected by the state, including the officers' statements, Romans's photographs of Camacho, and all other physical evidence. The officers were charged with infringing Mercado's civil rights in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 241 and 242.
In the federal civil rights case that was tried in 1990, the officers moved pursuant to Garrity to suppress their statements concerning the circumstances of Mercado's death. The district judge granted the officers' suppression motions because he determined that the statements made by Veal, Watson and Haynes resulting from questioning at the police station and with the advice of counsel were within the scope of Garrity. See United States v. Camacho, 739 F. Supp. 1504 (S.D. Fla. 1990). The civil rights trial resulted in acquittals on the conspiracy count, and the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the substantive counts. Sinclair died after the civil rights trial.
In July, 1993, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida indicted Camacho, Veal, Watson, and Haynes. They were charged in Count I with conspiring under 18 U.S.C. § 371 to obstruct the due administration of justice in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1503 and engaging in misleading conduct designed to hinder, delay, and prevent the communication of information relating to the possible commission of a federal offense to a federal law enforcement officer or judge in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512 and, in Count II, with knowingly misleading state investigators regarding the true circumstances of the death of Mercado with the intent to prevent the communication of information relating to the possible commission of a federal offense in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1512(b)(3) and 2. The remaining counts charged them with perjury in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1623 and false statements in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001.
All of the officers moved to dismiss Count II because it failed to allege facts sufficient to constitute a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(3). The district judge denied those motions. Veal, Watson and Haynes moved to suppress their statements that had been suppressed under Garrity in the civil rights trial. The district judge also denied those motions.
Following a ten-week trial, Camacho, Veal, Watson, and Haynes were convicted on Count II and acquitted on all other counts. The district judge denied their motions for judgments notwithstanding the verdict and/or for a new trial. Camacho was sentenced to thirty months of imprisonment and two years of supervised release. Veal, Watson and Haynes each were sentenced to twenty-one months of imprisonment and two years of supervised release. All remain on bond pending appeal.II. ANALYSIS On appeal, Veal, Watson and Haynes challenge the district judge's denial of their motions to suppress their statements after Mercado's death because the same judge had suppressed those statements under Garrity in the civil rights trial. Camacho, Veal, Watson and Haynes argue that the district judge improperly denied their motions to dismiss based on 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(3) and incorrectly instructed the jury on this statute. All contend that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdicts against them. Veal argues that the district judge improperly instructed the jury on materiality. We will address each of these arguments.
A. Admission of Statements Previously Suppressed Under Garrity
Veal, Watson and Haynes argue that the district judge erred by permitting the government to use their statements concerning Mercado's death in the obstruction of justice trial when that judge had suppressed those statements under Garrity in the civil rights trial. In Garrity, the Supreme Court held that Fifth Amendment protections apply to police officers subjected to interrogation by other law enforcement officers and that incriminating statements made under threat of termination for remaining silent are inadmissible in a subsequent criminal prosecution concerning the matter of inquiry absent a knowing and voluntary waiver. Garrity, 385 U.S. at 500, 87 S.Ct. at 620. Following an evidentiary hearing, the district judge suppressed the officers' statements under Garrity in the civil rights trial because he concluded

that the Defendants Haynes, Sinclair, Veal and Watson subjectively believed that failure to answer would result in termination, that they believed they could not invoke the Fifth Amendment without being fired, that these beliefs under the facts of this case were objectively reasonable, and that the actions of the State were directly implicated in creating this belief.


Camacho, 739 F. Supp. at 1520. The district judge reasoned that, because counsel had informed the officers that they must give statements and answer every question put by the investigators, that they could not invoke the Fifth Amendment, and that they had Garrity immunity, id. at 1517-18, the officers reasonably believed that they were compelled to waive their Fifth Amendment rights during their interviews with the investigating officers, id. at 1518.
In the obstruction case, the government alleged that the officers acted individually and collectively to impede the official investigation into the death of Mercado. Veal, Watson and Haynes sought suppression of their statements made to state investigating officials at police headquarters on December 17, 1988. They argue that these statements, suppressed under Garrity in the civil rights trial, should not have been admitted into evidence in the obstruction case to establish charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice, conspiracy to tamper with a witness, tampering with a witness, and perjury. Concluding that Garrity and the Fifth Amendment do not protect false statements from subsequent prosecutions for such

W H A T !

W H A T !

given either warning, you can be prosecuted for lying. If I am given miranda, I am becoming a clam. garrity, court say you have talk and truthfully. or whatever you said can be used against you. Anymore WHAT'S, sorry can't be any plainer. But they have to read me one or the other or nada from me.

Didn't he spark some riots with the beating on a 39?

IN PLAIN SPANGLISH C O NO?

Pablo Camacho now that boy could whup some arse back in the day. Anybody know what he's up to now? Camacho and Jesse Aguero now that is a jump out team!!