Rossputin.com Rational Thinking About Our World

In addition to reading the rest of the material in this note, please read my article at HumanEvents.com which includes my exclusive interview with Cory Voorhis. You can find it at:

HUMAN EVENTS Exclusive: The Case of Cory Voorhis
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26000

In the interest of keeping my Human Events article about Cory Voorhis' acquittal to a manageable length, I offer some details of the disgusting testimony and incompetent investigation by the prosecution and its witnesses:

ICE investigator Manny Olmos, or, as his many detractors in the courtroom called him, “Manny Almost”, offered deceitful testimony and admitted to performing an investigation that to many observers seemed far too shoddy to have been unintentional in its oversights:

• Olmos tried to use as evidence a “duty log” book which did not show entries by Voorhis about Voorhis’ inquiries. But the defense then pointed out that Voorhis was never, during the course of the entire month in question, a “duty officer” so he was never supposed to make entries in the book!

• Next, the prosecution and Olmos entered into evidence a memorandum about proper communication between ICE and congressional offices, implying that Voorhis broke the guidelines in the memo. On redirect, Voorhis’ attorney asked whom the memorandum was addressed to, and Olmos said “ICE Senior Staff”. When asked if Voorhis was then, or ever, part of “senior staff”, Olmos answered “no”. Strangely, the judge then overruled the defenses objection to the memo.

• The defense pointed out that two other queries of the NCIC database had been made which appeared related to this case, and by people whose access could not have been as part of their jobs…as Cory’s could have been. Olmos admitted that one of the other accesses was made by a former member of the Harris County, Texas, District Attorney’s office and that Olmos had only attempted to contact that man one time. Olmos said “he was on vacation”, and Olmos never tried to contact him again. FBI agent Elvig was equally guilty of intentionally not following leads which went anywhere other than to Cory Voorhis.

• In fact, Olmos neglected to make any note in his files of his having done even an initial investigation into the Texas connection, something members of law enforcement who were in the court gallery were stunned by and believed it went far beyond Olmos’ fairly obvious incompetence.

• In a moment I found funny, the prosecutor asked Olmos what was on the third line of a database printout. Olmos answered “Date of Birth”. The attorney then asked “What’s that mean”. Olmost, after a brief stunned moment, answered “Date of Birth”. Not a sign of their corruption, but it seemed so perfect for such a feckless prosecution.

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Another example of government incompetence and rush to judgment:

The government dropped one of the three original charges against Voorhis just before the jury was empaneled, most likely because they realized that they were going to expose the government’s paid confidential informant whom Voorhis had queried in the NCIC database. The idea that the government could get that far without realizing they were going to “out” their own important informant shows how rushed and sloppy they were. It turns out that the informant is also a key material witness against Pedro Castorena.