Free Transcript - District Court of Arizona - Arizona

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA _________________ ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) vs. ) ) JOHN DAVID JOHNSON WHITE, ) ) Defendant. ) ) ______________________________) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, BEFORE:

CR 06-1073-PHX-FJM CR 03-0550-PHX-FJM Phoenix, Arizona November 6, 2007 1:55 p.m.

THE HONORABLE FREDERICK J. MARTONE, JUDGE

REPORTER'S EXCERPTED TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS JURY TRIAL TESTIMONY

APPEARANCES: For the Government: U.S. Attorney's Office By: MICHAEL ALLEN LEE, ESQ. 40 North Central Avenue, Suite 1200 Phoenix, AZ 85004

For the Defendant White:
Law Office of Robert J. Kavanagh By: ROBERT J. KAVANAGH, ESQ. 51 West Elliott Road, Suite 109 Tempe, AZ 85284 Official Court Reporter: Linda Schroeder, RDR, CRR Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. Courthouse, Suite 312 401 West Washington Street, Spc. 32 Phoenix, Arizona 85003-2151 (602) 322-7249 Proceedings Reported by Stenographic Court Reporter Transcript Prepared by Computer-Aided Transcription

Case 2:03-cr-00550-FJM

Document 168

Filed 05/01/2008

Page 1 of 11

2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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WITNESSES FOR THE GOVERNMENT: HERNANDEZ, Rafael J. Direct 3 Cross Redirect INDEX OF WITNESSES

3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
BY MR. LEE:

(Proceedings in the presence of the jury:) MR. LEE: Your Honor, we can start with our first

witness if the Court would desire. THE COURT: MR. LEE: Yes.

I'll call Officer Hernandez.

Can I move the easel back, Your Honor? THE COURT: MR. LEE: Please.

Thank you.

RAFAEL J. HERNANDEZ, GOVERNMENT'S WITNESS, SWORN DIRECT EXAMINATION

Q

Officer Hernandez, could you please give us your full name,

spelling your last name for the record. A Yes, sir. My name is Rafael J. Hernandez. Spelling is

R-a-f-a-e-l, middle initial J, last name is H-e-r-n-a-n-d-e-z. Q A Q And what is your serial number, sir? My serial number is 1158. And when I ask you your serial number, this is in reference

to the number that you have received as an officer with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department? A Q Yes, sir. How long have you been with the Maricopa County Sheriff's

Department? A Q Been with the office since October of '96. Is that approximately 37 years? UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A Q A Yes, sir. Can you tell the jury your work experience prior to that? I came to the sheriff's office after a career of 19 years

with the United Parcel Service, where I did everything from -started at ground level all the way up into management. to that, I was in the Marine Corps. for a total of 15 years. Q Now, while you were in the Marine Corps, did you serve in Prior

I stayed in the Reserves

Operation Desert Storm? A Q A Q Yes, sir. And were you deployed to the Middle East during that time? I was. Now, as a Maricopa County Sheriff's officer, where is your

office location at this time? A Q A Right now I work downtown at 102 West Madison. And what are your general duties at this juncture? At this time there's several duties. I'm a civil detective

for the Sheriff's Office.

I serve papers, subpoenas, warrants,

divorce decrees, child custody paperwork. Q Now, prior to that, as an officer for 11 years, can you

please tell the jury what type of assignments you've done in the past. A Prior to that, I was a patrol deputy. I worked the

southwest part of the county, Maricopa County, from the west part of Glendale all the way out to Gila Bend. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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I did that for

5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 approximately ten years. Q Now, what general training have you received from Maricopa

County Sheriff's Office in performing your duties? A Q I'm sorry, sir. Could you repeat the question.

What general training have you received from MCSO in

performing your duties? A Well, apart from the training that all police officers have

to go through to get Arizona state certified to Phoenix regional, every year we have to go through continuous training. We have eight hours of continuous training and pistol range, classes, drug classes, drug recognition, numerous classes. Q Now, before April 15th, 2006, had you seen the defendant

before then? A Q No. So the first time you saw the defendant, knew his name, had

any contact with him was that night; is that correct? A Q Correct. And on that evening, you were working at the Blaze

Nightclub; is that correct? A Q Yes, sir. And back on April -- You started in the evening -- late

evening hours of April 14, 2006; is that true? A Q A Correct. Where is the Blaze Nightclub located at? 2740 West North Lane, which is approximately one block UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 south of Peoria and borders up to 27th Drive. Q A Q A Q In what capacity were you at that location? We were working as police officers in an off-duty capacity. And was this approved off-duty work? Yes, sir. Being approved, did it allow you to wear your uniform as

well as have your duty weapon? A Q A Q A Q A Q Correct. And who was with you at that time? I had Deputy Dietrich and Deputy Gagnon. And are they also Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies? Yes, sir. And were they also in uniform and armed? Yes, sir, all three of us were. Now, prior to this incident in April, 2006, had you

previously worked off duty at that nightclub? A Yes, sir. I worked that nightclub approximately maybe a

year, maybe a little bit more than a year. Q And when you worked it in this time frame of a year, were How were you working?

you working every day? A Q

Worked this every other weekend Fridays and Saturdays. And why were there three officers working the nightclub

that night? A Every Friday night, we had a total of three officers that

would work the club, two officers that would work on Saturday. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 And the reason being is that Fridays tended to be a little rowdier crowd, a little younger, so they tended to get a little louder, a little harder to control at times. three officers for officer safety reasons. Q So the jury can understand, were you working inside or So we always had

outside of the club? A Q A We work outside the club. And can you please explain why that's the case? The club has their own security people that work inside.

We can't go inside and work inside the club because the club sells alcohol. Our capacity is to simply enforce the laws If anything happens inside the club, the

outside the club.

club's security people will bring them out to the door, hand them over to us, and at that point we deal with them. Q Can you tell us or give the jury an example of some issues

you've had to deal with outside of the club? A Outside the club, we've had domestic violence. We've had We've had

assaults on officers, assault on myself personally. drinking out in the parking lots.

Prior to this happening,

we've had people that would be out shooting in the back parking lot -- I'm not sure if it was up in the air or what -- but shooting guns off not only in the club but -- or the parking lot of the club itself but in the vicinity, the general vicinity. Q When you say the general vicinity, can you give the jury an UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 example of what you mean by that? A Like I said, the club is on North Lane, which is We've had cars

approximately one block south of Peoria.

driving down Peoria that had pulled out of the club, and they would be shooting off a gun or rifle on 27th Lane. And then

27th Drive there's vehicles exiting the parking lot, and they would be shooting off rounds in the air. Q A Q A And prior to April 15th, 2006, how often had that occurred? To my knowledge, personally to me, I had three instances. Were you able to apprehend anyone in those instances? No, sir. It was always somebody that was leaving the

parking lot. Q Now, at approximately 1:50 in the morning on April 15th

while you and the other two deputies were standing near the front of the club, what if anything unusual happened? A We had a cabby that pulled up to us and informed us that he

had just witnessed somebody who he thought was either holding a rifle or a shotgun around 27th -- I'm not sure if it was 27th Avenue or 27th Drive over by Peoria. Q And did he tell you where he was when he made this

observation? A He said he was just driving down the street. He was I'm not sure

pulling into the -- coming into the parking lot. if he was going to pick up a fare or not. Q

And, again, he said that he saw an individual outside a UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 white van holding this? A Q A Correct. What did you determine to do with that information? We check it out. Working there at the club, we get

numerous people that come up and just inform us of things that are going on, where they think somebody is out drinking in the back, they think somebody is out arguing, so we'll always go and investigate just to find out what's going on. Q Every time you investigate, do you go investigate with your

guns drawn? A Q A Q No, sir. Every time you investigate, do you make an arrest? No, sir. Now, you've indicated that you determined to go investigate Why was it unusual?

this. A

Well, first of all, it was somebody complaining about It's very uncommon

seeing somebody with a weapon out there.

for somebody to be out there at that time of night with any kind of a handgun, whether it be a gun, pistol, or anything. The normal person wouldn't do it. I should say, wouldn't do it. The average person,

So for officer safety reasons,

for the safety of the patrons, we decided to check it out. Q A Q Did all three of you determine to go investigate this? Yes, sir. Now, the cab driver's tip, he indicated that the UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 individuals were at a particular location. that at? A It's just south of Peoria off of 27th Drive. MR. LEE: Your Honor, at this time I was going to have We can do that, but I think that Again, where was

the agent draw a diagram.

just drawing the diagram itself will take the majority of our time because he will need that to follow along with his testimony. We would ask at this time to stop with the

testimony, allow him to draw that, and when he comes back to testify, he can testify to that diagram before the jury. THE COURT: That's fine. So this is a logical

breaking spot for you? MR. LEE: Yes. Thank you. Well, members of the jury,

THE COURT:

All right.

again, I'm sorry that we have to break early today, but let's pick it up right here tomorrow morning at 9:00. Please don't

discuss the case yet among yourselves or with anyone else. We'll pick it up right here at 9:00 tomorrow morning. Counsel, is there anything we need to do before I go? MR. LEE: No, Your Honor. No, Your Honor. Then we'll see everyone at

MR. KAVANAGH: THE COURT:

All right.

9:00 tomorrow morning. witness.

And we'll pick it right up with this

(Proceedings recessed at 2:12 p.m.) UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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s/Linda Schroeder Linda Schroeder, RDR, CRR 2008. I, LINDA SCHROEDER, do hereby certify that I am duly appointed and qualified to act as Official Court Reporter for the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. I FURTHER CERTIFY that the foregoing pages constitute a full, true, and accurate transcript of all of that portion of the proceedings contained herein, had in the above-entitled cause on the date specified therein, and that said transcript was prepared under my direction and control. DATED at Phoenix, Arizona, this 18th day of April, C E R T I F I C A T E