US prosecutors dismiss claims by Coke's attorneys
Published:Saturday | July 2, 2011 | 12:00 AM
IN A 35-page submission yesterday, United States prosecutors scoffed at claims by Christopher Coke's attorneys that by accepting the wiretap evidence, the District Court would be breaching the Fifth Amendment rights of the former west Kingston strongman.
The prosecutors were responding to Coke's lawyers, who claim that Jamaican authorities breached his constitutional rights by sharing the wiretap information with American law-enforcement agencies without the permission of the local courts
"In addition to a motion to exclude evidence on the basis of a violation of the Due Process Clause by the Government, the defendant is also entitled to exclude this evidence on the basis that the Government knowingly and intentionally obtained this evidence in violation of a treaty between the United States and Jamaica, and in violation of Jamaican law," the lawyers argued.
But the prosecutors argue that Coke is trying to create an unprecedented Fifth Amendment right with his effort to exclude the wiretap, which allegedly records him planning drug and gun deals.
"Coke thus fails to assert any conduct on the part of any government official, American or Jamaican, that is in any sense sufficiently 'outrageous' or 'shocking to the conscience' to rise to the level of a due process violation," the prosecutors argue.
"Coke has failed to identify any fact that supports his suggestion that the Jamaican courts that reviewed the wiretap applications and authorised the interceptions were intentionally deceived," added the prosecutors.
The court was scheduled to hear the matter in a conference and pre-trial hearing next Friday, July 8, but that has been delayed, and will now be heard on July 12, based on an application from the prosecution.
"The Government requests this very brief adjournment, to which defence counsel consents, because the undersigned (Assistant US Attorney Jocelyn Strauber) will be out of town on a previously scheduled vacation," the prosecutors told the court.