Posted on 07/31/2012 8:02:04 AM PDT by marktwain
The prosecution has continued presenting their case for the past two days and an enormous amount of evidence was put forth against the Reeses and scored points along the way. However, the defense was relentless in exposing a number of flaws in the case. The below is just a sample of the types of things learned .
Cross-examination of the cooperating defendant, Jose Roman continued. The main points learned:
* He didn’t remember stealing a 42″ screen TV from Walmart, and didn’t inform the agents about this, contrary to his plea agreement to admit to every crime and to testify truthfully and cooperate fully.
* He no longer remembers telling the agents things he told them in his debriefing, such as telling the agents he started to purchase guns for the cartel 2 years prior to his arrest. During trial he testified he was smuggling guns for only 5 months.
* Roman was questioned about telling New Deal employees the cartel had hand grenades and he claimed he didn’t recall this. Roman read the transcript, refreshed him memory, and changed his story that he had told New Deal but he never saw the cartel with grenades.
* On further questioning, Roman insisted he knew the Reese family members by name, however, the defense pointed out during the debriefing he called Terri Reese “the wife lady”, Rick Reese “the dad”, and Remington Reese “the tall skinny guy”. He did know Ryin by name, but called him “Brian”. He then admitted he learned their names during the undercover operation.
* Roman admitted he never told the wife lady (Terri Reese) he was committing crimes. He stated he could not recall if after his arrest that he had told agents that if he told the wife lady he was committing crimes, she wouldn’t have sold him the guns.
* Roman is afraid of being deported to Mexico and fears for his life. When asked if he is trying to protect the cartel, he stated not anymore, and claimed that he is testifying in order that the truth be known. He did not seem to realize he would be deported for his guilty plea.
* Roman testified that an unidentified third male helped loan ammunition into range bags also and that the government had not identified him. He stated he did not know this was a former DHS employee. (Note: this person was not charged, however, New Deal employees were.)
* On discussing his plea agreement, Roman claimed his attorney was there to translate, but stated it was just a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo. Roman believes that if he helped the agents against the Reeses that they wouldn’t put any charges against him.
* On Tuesday, Roman called the lead case agent in this case “Agent Pacheco”, after calling him “Eddie” for the past three days. The defense had pointed out on Monday that he seemed to be buddies with “Eddie”.
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Special Agent Danny Ramirez was the first undercover officer involved in the case, and went with Ramon several times to New Deal.
* Agent Ramirez stated that when he first debriefed Roman he was skeptical of Roman, because of the recent arrests in Columbus. He felt the Reese’s wouldn’t deal with Roman.
* During the first undercover operation. It turned out that Ramirez’s fraudulent undercover driver’s license was expired, and Remington refused to sell him any weapons. However, they did purchase ammunition, and Roman convinced Remington to dump the ammunition out of the boxes into a range bag. It should be noted that Roman had previously described Remington as “not that smart”.
* They returned another time. During this gun purchase, the agent signed and certified he was the purchaser of the weapons and paid for them. On the audio, Ryin specifically asked him, if the weapons were for him (the agent) and him alone. Additional buys were set up, and additional purchases were made.
* The judge clarified several times that all of the evidence shown to the jury is legal to purchase. However he pointed out the Reese’s are not even charged with any crimes associated with some of the evidence that was tagged, bagged and shown to the jury as evidence.
* Ramirez admitted the Reeses had no knowledge the purchases were going to Mexico.
* Reeses refused to make the weapons fully automatice however, did advise there are ways to do it. The agent admitted people can purchase fully automatic weapons if they pay the proper tax to ATF.
* None of the weapons sold are illegal weapons. None of the ammo or other items sold were illegal. The weapons were sold to persons who passed the FBI check (form 4473).
* Agent Ramirez and all other agents admitted that it is not the responsibility of the FFL store operators to obtain export licenses for guns purchased by their customers, and admitted that it is the responsibility of the person who actually carries the guns across the border, the actual exporter, to obtain the permits to export weapons. Ramirez admitted under oath that it is true that the Reeses NEVER exported any weapons.
* Ramirez also admitted that he signed form 4473, under penalty of perjury, that he was the actual buyer of the weapons. Other undercover agents admitted the same thing.
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* One agent, Ceveres, testified that she signed form 4473, however, she “never saw” one of the pages that she signed. She stated under oath, the first time she saw section 16 on that page was during the Pre-Trial conference. She also claimed she never read the form, the form which stated she is the actual purchaser, even though she check off the boxes on the form. However, the defense pointed out that her signature was on the page and asked her how she was able to sign the page if she never saw it before. She then admitted that Ryin placed the form on the counter and she just signed it.
* Agent Ceveres audio recording device was working on a test before entering the store, however, stopped working and nothing was recorde. She then testified to things that allegedly occurred when Roman had stepped away and his recording device was too far away to pick up her conversation.
* Agent Ceveres paid for the 50 caliber gun that was ordered during a prior undercover operation. Roman had previously told New Deal that someone else would be buying a 50 caliber and to order it. However, it turned out that Terri Reese wanted the person to come in to clear the background check prior to them ordering the expensive specialty gun. Roman had the money for the gun on entering the store, however, she admitted that Roman gave her the money to pay for the guns out of the presence of any of the Reeses.
* Ceveres testified that it was Roman who did the negotiating for the guns, however, under questioning admitted that Ryin asked her (on tape) a number of questions, including if she wanted to swap out one of the guns because there was some glue on it. After she paid, Ryin told her he would help her take HER purchases out to her car.
* Ceveres admitted that none of the Reeses would have been able to tell the ID she used was fraudulent, and that it passed the FBI check to purchase weapons.
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S/A Kelly Wiggley (sp?) also participated as an uncover officer.
* S/A Wiggley admitted under oath she was the buyer of the weapons. She filled out the form 4473 on the store computer and gave her fraudulent DL to Terri for further processing. She admitted she checked of she was the buyer and signed the forms, but then stated that Terri never asked her out loud if she was the buyer. However, it was learned that she, like the others, is not trained in ATF regulations and that there is no requirement for the FFLs to ask the question out loud.
* Wiggley claimed Roman did all the negotiations with Rick, only it turned out on tape Roman and her were having conversations back and forth about various aspects and differences between the guns and Rick was bringing them different ones to look at.
* At one point Wiggley described Rick pulling off the orange stickers off the ammo sold and Rick related a story about the stickers to her. He told her one time an officer had come into the store and said ammo with their stickers had been found in Columbus. This agent’s audio recording failed also. Rick allegedly made a comment to her that the officer was a jerk; that he sells ammo and he also sells ammo to those f—-rs (meaning the cops).
* Wiggley admitted she testified that Roman was the actual buyer of the weapons, and then signed that she was the actual buyer. She also admitted that if anyone else had signed that way they would be prosecuted for perjury.
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Mrs. Roman also testified and it turned out she played a large role in the marijuana and gun smuggling cases. However, she has been out of jail for approximately 1 year in exchange for cooperating to work the case against the Reeses. Her testimony conflicted with her husband at times. She called Ryin, “Brian”. And it took her quite a while to identify Rick Reese, even with assistance, even though she had been in the store several times.
When talking about her plea agreement she seemed genuinely surprised to learn that she can get deported to Mexico for pleading guilty. She stated none of this was told to her.
When she was asked what she pled guilty to, she replied for trafficking arms and drugs.
However, for all her crimes and substatial participation that she admitted to today, she was only charged with making a false statement to a FFL, in exchange for cooperation. She did not have any plans for their children and wants them to stay in the US. Furthermore, she also is expecting to have her charges completely dropped, even though there is no promise from the government about this. She only spoke in Spanish, however at the end the translator stated she said she was hoping it would “all end” for her and her husband, “all ends”.
She was also questioned about her cousin, the huge meth dealer in Farmington. She claimed she didn’t know he was a huge meth dealer, only a small one.
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Additional persons also testified, including Roman’s straw purchaser Penny Torres. Stay tuned for updates.
How many threads are you going to need?
There were 17 reports on the Reese trial at the source. I have now posted all 17.
If I were you I'd ask to have them all deleted and try condensing the story into a logical format.
It is a pretty good idea. Now that the admin moderator has approved of it I will do so on any future situation. It was not clear that this was allowable by FR pollicy.
Thanks for your suggestion.
You are welcome. Sometimes when I want to post a particularly long article without excerpting, I will split it into two or more threads.
For those who want to read your articles in the present format, the easiest way to find them would be to go to your "in forum" listing on your home page.
and click on the "articles" tab.
Thank you, Mark.
Yeah, I understand now. 17 threads is much better than one thread with a link to the 17 items. Good job!
You are welcome.
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