Dr. Zapp, My husband is requested by the Southern District of New York for charges of conspiracy to launder money. The only evidence mentioned in the Indictment is phone conversations that took place in Colombia. My husband has never been to the United States. The wiretaps are illegal in Colombia because they were not obtained by Court order and were not carried out in a controlled manner. Therefore, I was wondering whether these illegally obtained wiretaps in Colombia can be thrown out by the judge in New York or can he admit them as evidence nevertheless?
We lack the means to hire an attorney in the U.S., and for that reason we plead with you to guide us in good faith with your experience so that my husband can fight for justice and prove his innocence.
I also was wondering whether you’d be so kind as to inform me whether there exist in the U.S. any NGOs that might take my husband’s case pro bono. If you happen to know any such institution, would you please pass along their contact information?
I apologize again for imposing on you, but I urge you to bear with me, as I have no one else to turn to.
May God bless you and continue to grant you wisdom.
Sincerely,
Wife of an inmate in La Picota, (Colombia)
Dear Madam,
The chances of suppressing foreign wiretaps are slim. Your husband, I gather, was presumably overheard on intercepted conversations that, according to the U.S. government, incriminated him in a money laundering conspiracy. Whether the wiretaps were legal or not is not a matter for Colombian courts to decide and Colombian Courts do not address that issue in the context of extradition.
Regarding foreign wiretaps generally, a U.S. federal judge will not suppress them if the method of obtaining them does not “shock the conscience,” and very few things shock the consciences of federal judges. That someone may have misled a judge to obtain a wiretap order would not “shock the conscience.” Threatening a Colombian judge’s life would, but presumably that did not happen here. “Shocking the conscience” typically occurs in the context of confessions extracted by cruel and unusual methods.
The fact that your husband has never been to the U.S. is irrelevant. Pablo Escobar may never have been to the U.S. either, but no one would doubt that he could have been found guilty of exporting drugs to or laundering money from the U.S.
Since you cannot afford a private attorney, the judge in the U.S. will assign your husband one paid for by the government. Now for some good news: some of the best and most independent judges in the country are in New York. They won’t hesitate suppressing evidence, or, if the occasion warrants it, going against prosecutors if their actions are unjustifiable. They also are independent sentencers and often are more lenient than prosecutors although I would say prosecutors in New York are fairly enlightened and are not out for blood.
So I would advise you to look ahead. Have a positive mindset. Do not cause you or your family more emotional stress than is warranted. Your husband’s efforts to block his extradition that you mentioned when you first wrote me was as I told futile. I have never heard of an extradition being blocked in Colombia unless the US withdrew the request or the Colombian courts blocked it for political reasons as they did with some of the paramilitaries. Best thing your husband and everyone else in Colombia can do is get to the U.S. promptly and face the charges. So long as he is in Colombia they can never be resolved, and you want an ending to this sad story.
Things will get better. I assure you your husband will not rot in jail.