PROBABLE CAUSE FOR REJECTING JUDGE SONIA SOTOMAYOR (Ann Coulter, 10/17/1997)

HUMAN EVENTS ^ | 17 OCTOBER 1997

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Human Events; 10/17/97, Vol. 53 Issue 39, p11, 2/3p, 1 bw

On July 1, 1992, Nelson Castellanos was arrested in New York City outside his apartment in Harlem and charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine. He was holding the keys to his apartment and a white shopping bag containing about $10,000, mostly in $1 and $20 bills.

That evening, pursuant to a warrant, federal Drag Enforcement Agency (DEA) personnel searched his apartment and found over 1,200 grams of cocaine, six live rounds of ammunition, a .44 caliber revolver and incriminating notebooks. All this evidence was thrown out by District Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor on the grounds that the DEA agents had not provided the magistrate with probable cause to search Castellanos's apartment.

Sotomayor is now on the Clinton Administration's fast track toward the Supreme Court.

Sotomayor ordered the evidence excluded in United States v. Castellanos because she claimed a DEA agent had exaggerated his reasons for supposing he would find drags in the apartment. On a few laughably minor points, Sotomayor found that the agent's statements in the warrant request were contradicted by the (apparently) more reliable statements of a convicted criminal who had been operating undercover for the DEA.

The "troubling" and "disturbing" inconsistencies consisted of such points as: The informant said he had not identified one of Castellanos's drug mules by name, the agent said he had; the informant said that, since turning informant, he had seen Castellanos only "going toward the door" of the apartment, but not--as the agent had claimed--that he had seen Castellanos place the keys in the keyhole of the apartment; and finally, the criminal/informant refused to pin down the date on which Castellanos approached the apartment during a particular drug buy.

Suppose the agent was wrong, even deliberately wrong, and the informant had not, for example, identified Castellanos's mule by name.

The Supreme Court has explicitly held that, despite some errors, "if sufficient untainted evidence was presented in the warrant affidavit to establish probable cause, the warrant [i]s nevertheless valid." There was surely sufficient "probable cause" to search Castellanos's apartment, even if each of the informant's claims are to be credited. Castellanos had, after all, just been arrested with about $10,000 in small bills outside the apartment where the beacon-of-truth informant had already admittedly bought drugs from Castellanos "on numerous occasions." Willfully Pro-Criminal

Few people would have been surprised when a search of Castellanos's apartment turned up a drug cache. Castellanos had been the focus of a lengthy DEA investigation first begun after anonymous letters arrived at the local police precinct alerting the police to Castellanos's drug-dealing. One of Castellanos's customers became a police informant and continued to buy drugs from Castellanos for more than six months. Some of these negotiations had been caught on audio and video tape by the DEA.

And, of course, drugs were found in Castellanos's apartment. It is true that evidence must be excluded and criminals set free when cops actually lie about probable cause in search warrant applications, or fail to obtain a search warrant at all--even if the search produces criminal evidence.

But when the validity of the warrant turns on contradictory statements of the investigators, the fact that drugs were found in the searched apartment would seem to support the credibility of the guy who said there was probable cause that drugs would be found. To be crediting the claims of a criminal/informant after drugs were in fact found in the search, seems willfully pro-criminal.

Remarks made by Judge Sotomayor during the sentencing of various drug dealers do little to dispel that impression.

Judge Sotomayor said this to a noncitizen drug-dealer, who had just pleaded guilty to drug-dealing: "[I]t is in some respects a great tragedy for our country that instead of permitting you to serve a lesser sentence and rejoin your family at an earlier time I am required by law to give you the statutory minimum. ... [W]e all understand that you were in part a victim of the economic necessities of our society, unfortunately there are laws that I must impose."

In sentencing Louis Gomez, who also pleaded guilty to dealing cocaine, Sotomayor said, "Louis Gomez, yours is the tragedy of our laws and the greatest one that I know. ... the one our congressmen never thought about and don't think about. ...

"It is no comfort to you for me to say that I am deeply, personally sorry about the sentence that I must impose, because the law requires me to do so. The only statement I can make is this is one more example of an abomination being committed before our sight. You do not deserve this, sir."

Sotomayor is now awaiting confirmation to the federal Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. President Clinton and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D.-Vt.) last week succeeded in pressuring Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah) to move her hearing up a week, leaving ambushed Republican senators on the committee flailing about with little ammunition. It is assumed her next nomination will be to the Supreme Court--since she "looks like America."

A few more Senate confirmations of judges like Sonia Sotomayor and America will look like the inside of a Mexican prison.

[fieldmarshaldj]

"A few more Senate confirmations of judges like Sonia Sotomayor and America will look like the inside of a Mexican prison."

Come to my neighborhood, it already does.

[Atom Smasher]

She & Zero are the abominations!

[mirkwood]

I just sent this to Olympia Snowe.

[Liz]

Nelson Castellanos was arrested in NYC outside his Harlem apartment, charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine. He was holding his keys and a white shopping bag containing about $10,000, mostly in $1 and $20 bills. That evening, pursuant to a warrant, DEA personnel searched his apartment and found over 1,200 grams of cocaine, six live rounds of ammunition, a .44 caliber revolver and incriminating notebooks. All this evidence was thrown out by District Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor on the grounds that the DEA agents had not provided the magistrate with probable cause to search Castellanos's apartment.

Sotomayor's the "Latino Grievances" nominee......every ruling from the bench will be ironclad to redress every latino grievance since time immemorial.

Americans will be paying with our freedoms......for those Frito Bandito commercials.

======================================

Wonder who she's communicating with? (/snic). Should be part of the nomination process----submitting her cell phone records and email messages from the date of nomination.

Sotomayor's now-famous 32 words: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

Translated into white male-ese: "I'm gonna make those gringos pay bigtime for those Frito Bandido commercials."

[paulycy]

When a judge is a sophist justice dies.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>I just sent this to Olympia Snowe.

Where it will be promptly deleted without being read...

[Deagle]

I am sooo... tired of so-called Republican saying that we should not use words such as Racist or Liberal regarding this judge! If this does NOT tingle their aspirations to stop these kind of judges from election - nothing will. That of course means that we are lost as a country - We will have only one party to vote for - Liberal Democrats or Liberal Republicans... I’m just glad that I won’t be around to see the demise of America...

Only the non-politicians will say the truth these days - the rest are only interested in their re-election...!!

[BonRad]

I can’t believe I just read this. It seems like a parody.
Sotomayor is out of her mind. Am I reading this right in that she thinks mandatory sentancing minimums are the greatest tragedy in the legal arena? I caught Coulter on a Geraldo Rivera FOX show on I think just last night (no I can’t remember-just clicked it in and I suppose it wasn’t a re-run of a weekday show). She was on a quickie split-screen panel w/ Judge Antonio Gonzalez, the Mayor of LA, Rosie Perez. GR specifically asked her if she’s read the Sotomayor opinions and AC commented she’s reviewed many and spoke to a lot of legal technical language but it was the New Haven firefighters case that was all one really need know of. I’m sure she put it that way. Why didn’t she speak to this? Was this out by time of that taping?

This is huge. What quotes. Sotomayor is despicable.

[patriot08]

Sotomayor ordered the evidence excluded in United States v. Castellanos because she claimed a DEA agent had exaggerated his reasons for supposing he would find drags in the apartment
_________________________________

‘he would find DRAGS in the apartment’?
What? Drag queens in the apt? LOL

[BonRad]

oops- getting it -you see I’m tired- AC wrote this in 97.
She didn’t have a minute total in the GR show but would have thought she’d mention it.

[mirkwood]

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[mirkwood]

Ya gotta try my friend...

[MattinNJ]

I weep for my country.

[varmintman]

Don’t ask me to feel sorry for the DEA.....

[Paladin2]

"...six live rounds of ammunition..."

A veritable armory. A mosque of firearms. LOL

[William Tell]

The article describes the basis for the warrant to search the residence after the arrest. What isn't described is what justified the original arrest.

If the quality of the evidence was questionable even after the money was observed, one must assume that there was even less evidence at the time the suspect was seen carrying a garbage bag to justify arresting him.

[Rashputin]

Deagle says -— I am sooo... tired of so-called Republican saying that we should not use words such as Racist or Liberal regarding this judge!

I say, Amen. We got into this mess by letting so called Republicans “find common ground” with the anti-American democrats. Face facts, the only thing anyone who cares about this country has in common with the current crop of liberal fools who run the democrat party is that we, for the most part, sit on a toilet to take a dump. Even then, the idiots on the left tried to force mini-toilets on everyone.

NO common ground, NO compromise, and NO more playing nice. They destroyed Roberts Rules of Order and replaced them with Rules for Radicals. That was a declaration of all out war on this nation, not a new approach to common ground and common good.

Regards

[paulycy]

They destroyed Roberts Rules of Order and replaced them with Rules for Radicals.

Well put.

[Deagle]

You’re right... “Our” Republicans seem to think that if they just be nice they will continue to win election and hope office (seems to be a nice job to them). Either they start to be truthful and be factual or lose office is my ideal...