Miami Herald, The (FL)-January 22, 1987
Author: JOAN FLEISCHMAN Herald Staff Writer
REPUDIATES VERDICTS
The 3 1/2-month Miami River Cops corruption trial ended in chaos Wednesday when U.S. District Judge Kenneth Ryskamp declared a mistrial after a balky juror backed out on the few unanimous verdicts the jury was able to reach.
Juror No. 199 -- William Rountree, 76, a retired chef at restaurants in the Catskills and
Miami Beach -- said jury foreman Angel De Las Salas and two or three other jurors pressured the panel into agreement.
In a dramatic courtroom scene before 250 spectators, Rountree refused to go along.
Ryskamp said Rountree was confused. "He changed his mind several times," said the judge. "The court has no alternative other than to declare a mistrial in this case."
Ryskamp's reluctant decision means the entire trial is down the drain -- months of testimony from more than 180 witnesses and 11 days of jury deliberation. Prosecutors said they plan to refile the charges, round up their witnesses and try the case again.
The jury of six women and five men, deadlocked at least since Friday, turned in a partial verdict at 12:27 p.m. Wednesday. Two defendants -- Armando Estrada, 27, and Roman
Rodriguez, 30 -- were each found guilty on racketeering and drug charges. The jury could not agree on the remaining five defendants.
In a routine courtroom procedure, the jurors were polled. Rountree was asked if he agreed with the verdicts. He said quietly, but firmly:
"No."
"I'd rather see a mistrial than to see them put some away and turn the others loose,"
Rountree said at his home Wednesday night.
In a last-ditch effort to preserve the verdicts, Ryskamp called the juror into his chambers for a closed-door meeting. Estrada, Rodriguez, their lawyers and two prosecutors also were there. Ryskamp went through the verdicts, quizzing Rountree on each.
"The juror flip-flopped back and forth," said prosecutor Michael Patrick Sullivan.
"Sometimes it was a not guilty, sometimes it was a guilty."
In the courtroom, Ryskamp said Rountree concurred with only six of the 29 verdicts in the trial. The jury weighed 64 separate charges.
For once, prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed: They moved for a mistrial.
"This is bizarre. They don't teach you this in law school," said Jose Quinon, the attorney for Estrada.
Ryskamp -- a highly respected civil lawyer who was sworn in as a judge on May 2, 1986 -- said he was disheartened by the conclusion of his first major criminal case.
"I suppose when you put 3 1/2 months into something and you come up with nothing, it's disappointing," he said. Asked if he would have done anything differently, Ryskamp said he would not have let attorneys use a 16-page questionnaire in selecting jurors.
"Too many qualified people were allowed to opt out," he said. But the judge was quick to say he did not mean to criticize the jurors.
"They did their best."
Estrada could have been sentenced to 101 years if the jury's decision had stood. Rodriguez faced 70 years. Mistrials would have been declared for the other five defendants regardless of the recalcitrant Rountree, because the jury could not reach verdicts in their cases.
Quinon said Estrada would have been willing to accept the guilty verdicts. But he added that knowing what to expect from prosecution witnesses will be an advantage in a new trial.
"We'll know exactly what these slimeballs will say a second time around," he said.
The defendants -- including Ricardo Aleman, 27, Rodolfo Arias, 30, Osvaldo Coello, 26,
Arturo De La Vega, 27, and Armando Garcia, 24 -- were charged with running a million-dollar drug rip-off ring, stealing from drug dealers and their customers.
Two drug smugglers, Armando Un Roque, 50, and Pedro Ramos, 38, were key witnesses against the River Cops.
Defense attorneys speculated that the jurors had problems believing these witnesses.
"I wouldn't legitimize the testimony of Armando Un or Pedro Ramos any more than I would legitimize the good character of Adolf Hitler," said Douglas Williams, attorney for Coello.
Rountree, the dissenting juror, said Wednesday night that he didn't think the government's evidence was convincing, and that Un and Pedros were liars.
In arguing their case, prosecutors Sullivan, Trudy Novicki and Russell Killinger pointed out the conspicuous spending of the five Miami patrolmen and two ex-cops. Some bought new homes, furniture and expensive cars with cash. They took island vacations and treated themselves to sophisticated electronics equipment.
The River Cops saga began on July 29, 1985, when the bodies of three drowned smugglers were discovered in the Miami River. A group of men dressed in police uniforms raided the Mary C at Jones Boat Yard as a cocaine shipment was being unloaded. Six smugglers leaped into the water; three drowned.
A few days later, the body of cocaine dealer Luis Rodriguez turned up in a crate in West Dade. The investigation of his death led police to Un and Ramos, who had done drug deals with the dead man.
Gradually, a case was built. Prosecutors said the cops were in cahoots with drug dealers who frequented the neighborhoods they patrolled. They used their badges and police powers to steal cocaine and cash, prosecutors said. They were charged with staging another raid on a smuggling ship at Tamiami Marine, also on the Miami River.
The criminal case, including murder charges in the drownings, was initially filed in state court. But after prosecutors said the case was threatened by trial rules mandating the disclosure of evidence and witnesses, it was refiled in federal court.
Wednesday the sprawling and complicated case culminated when the jurors begged the judge to accept their partial verdict. As the noon hearing approached, the familiar cast of characters -- relatives, media, attorneys and defendants -- gathered for the conclusion.
Police and federal marshals feared trouble. Fifteen Miami police units and a similar number of marshals patrolled outside the courthouse. A police sharpshooter peered down on the crowd from the nearby Hotel DeVille.
Inside the courtroom, more than 20 marshals stood guard as three dozen relatives of the defendants steeled themselves with tears and prayers.
State Attorney Janet Reno was present, flanked by her top aides. Metro homicide detectives, scores of journalists and droves of the just-plain-curious jammed the central courtroom, a rococo arena with carved ceilings, marble inlays and an enormous mural behind the judge's padded chair.
The burly Coello, a bodybuilder, arrived at the courthouse shortly before noon wearing a close-fitting black suit and smoking a big cigar. He wore sunglasses into the courtroom.
The other defendants were also smartly dressed. Rodriguez bounced lightly in his chair, grinning.
At 12:23 p.m., Ryskamp began reading from a sheet of yellow legal paper, on which jury foreman De Las Salas had written: "Whatever is left blank, we are unable to agree on."
The courtroom was silent as deputy clerk Sheila Harvey read the verdicts -- Estrada guilty of six drug conspiracy counts; Rodriguez guilty of four drug conspiracy counts; a smattering of not guily; no verdicts on 35 other charges. The jury was hung, unable to make up its mind, on five of the seven defendants.
Estrada and Garcia were acquitted of the most serious charge, violating the civil rights of the three drowned smugglers. The jury was hung on the question of Rodriguez's guilt in that case, in which only three defendants were charged.
Deputy Clerk Harvey then began to poll the jury, asking: "Is this your verdict?"
Rountree was the second juror polled. He said, "No."
"This is not your verdict?" asked Ryskamp, his face ashen.
"No," said the juror, a portly man wearing a moustache, a tan jacket and a sullen look.
Ryskamp, almost whispering: "Send the jury back."
Attorneys from both sides met with Ryskamp at the bench. Then at 12:37 p.m., the judge summoned the jury. He said he understood that jurors did not agree on every charge. He only wanted to know if each juror agreed with the "unanimous" verdicts.
Again, Rountree said, "No." Harvey polled the rest of the jurors, who all said they agreed with the verdicts as read.
Ryskamp held his head in his hands.
After a recess, the court reconvened to let attorneys suggest what Ryskamp should do.
Huddled at the sidebar conference, the judge looked like a quarterback drawing plays in the dirt. Then he sat back and rocked softly in his chair, stroking his chin.
Ryskamp called another recess. At 4:20 p.m., he declared the mistrial.
Before discharging the jurors, Ryskamp thanked them for their efforts. Most people, he said, will offer "any excuse to avoid jury service. . . . You've been a diligent jury."
For the jurors, it had been 11 days of tension and frustration. At the beginning of deliberations, Jan. 7, a woman juror was excused after she begged not to be sequestered.
Last Friday, with hundreds of spectators gathered in anticipation, the jury announced it had a verdict. But only a few of its decisions were unanimous. Ryskamp sent the jurors back with instructions to come to agreement on all the charges.
Saturday, the jury told Ryskamp it needed to review, for the fourth time, the tapes and transcripts of conversations between two drug dealers and three of the River Cops. The jury said another review could break the deadlock.
Ryskamp reversed an earlier ruling against hearing the tapes -- the transcripts were never introduced into evidence -- hoping to help the jury to a conclusion. But on Tuesday morning, after a two-day break in deliberations, the jury sent Ryskamp a note saying it was hopelessly hamstrung.
Wednesday at 9:45 a.m., the jurors gave up.
Greg Denaro, representing De La Vega, had come prepared for a victory.
"I had a bottle of chilled champagne in the car, Perrier- Jouet 1982. It's going to age a little more."
Aleman said he looks forward to another trial.
"I'm ready," he said. "I just have to find a night job. My dad is giving me 100-some dollars every week as an allowance. I'm not kidding."
A bond hearing will be held at 9 a.m. today for Estrada, Garcia and Rodriguez, who have been jailed since their Dec. 27, 1985, arrests.
"I wish them the best of luck," Aleman said.
Defense attorney Black said he still believes in the jury system.
"It's not perfect -- human beings are not perfect," he said. "I wouldn't want to rely upon lawyers to decide people's lives."
Herald Staff Writers Dave Von Drehle, Jay Ducassi, Richard Wallace and Stephen J.
Hedges contributed to this report.
color photo: Ricardo ALEMAN with Ibrahim Gonzalez;
photo: ALEMAN, Osvaldo COELLO with reporters, ALEMAN enters court
Memo: THE RIVER COPS TRIAL
Edition: FINAL
Section: FRONT
Page: 1A
Index Terms: MAJOR-STORY COURT DECISION JURY POLICE CRIME MI DISPUTE REACTION
VERDICT
Record Number: 8701060836
Copyright (c) 1987 The Miami Herald
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