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If you think Big Brother is listening, he probably is YOU NEVER KNOW WHO IS LISTENING
Hello my name is James Alston. I am a lawyer. Yep, one of those! My practice is devoted exclusively to criminal defense and I am board certified in criminal law. My desire is to write a continuing column for GoNsayn online magazine that addresses issues involving criminal law and Constitutional issues in our society. I am not sure what direction this column will take, but if you bear with me and give me your feedback I hope this column will evolve into something that I look forward to writing as much as you look forward to reading.
Unless someone objects I am going to call the column ---- PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE. I think after you get to know me you will learn that I presume everyone to be innocent. Presuming someone innocent until proven otherwise has always helped me sleep at night. But to understand what I am talking about, let me first tell you a little bit about myself.
I started my legal career as a prosecutor for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office in Houston, Texas. I labored as a civil servant of the district attorney’s office for eight years. It was a great place to work and I gained an enormous amount of trial experience. While at the district attorney’s office I prosecuted everything from driving while intoxicated cases to child abuse cases to murders and everything in between. After eight years I left the district attorney’s office for what I will call a promotion to the United States Attorney’s Office in Houston, Texas.
As an Assistant United States Attorney, I investigated and prosecuted cases in the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. We went after the Big Guys — international drug traffickers. We used all sorts of cool investigative techniques, including tapping telephones and tracking devices. Gosh, the things people say on a telephone when they think no one is listening, or when they think someone is listening . . . which brings me to a war story.
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Many moons ago I was the lead prosecutor on an investigation involving a group of rappers, and I use that term loosely, that were trafficking PCP from a sunny state out west into greater Houston. Based on listening to their telephones we knew they had instructed their underlings, or mules, to bring a load of “Wet” down the I-10 Corridor into the city. So as not to alarm them and cause any suspicion that Big Brother was listening to their telephone calls we stopped their vehicle outside of El Paso, Texas. Of course, the mules consented to a search of their Escalade (amazes me how everyone consents, but I will reserve that discussion for a future column) and we found a large amount of PCP and a few guns. Being good law enforcement we also seized their cellular telephones.
One of the pieces of evidence that you hope for when conducting a wiretap is a conversation before and after a drug seizure that corroborate the involvement of your suspects in the delivery or possession of the drugs. For example, we listened for telephone conversations between the suspects that alerted us of a drug deal, in this case the PCP being transported, and then hoped for telephone conversations after the seizure where the suspects discussed the recent seizure. This is great evidence to counteract the defense of “I wasn’t involved and you didn’t catch me with any drugs!” Anyway back to the story, after the seizure, Rapper 1 and Rapper 2, who by the way had the dialect down pat, discussed how the mules’ telephones were seized by the police and the possibility that because of the seizure the cops were listening to their telephone calls. (Well of course we were!) And while we were listening to this telephone call, Rapper 1 and Rapper 2 decided they should disguise their future telephone conversations by changing their names and adopting different accents. So Rapper 1 decides his name is going to be “Felipe” and he tells Rapper 2 that, “Hey every time you call me on this phone, my name is Felipe.” Rapper 2 agrees and tells Rapper 1, “Well every time you call me on this phone you better call me Juan.” Well five minutes later Rapper 1 calls Rapper 2 and says in his thickest Spanish accent, “Hey Juan this is Felipe.” Rapper 2 answers in his version of barrio slang, “Yea, this is Juan what is up Felipe.” They then discuss in their new accents their next drug deal and when and where the delivery will take place.
Needless to say they presumed themselves innocent until I gave their attorney’s a copy of the telephone conversation.
Lesson learned…If you think Big Brother is listening, he probably is.