Daily Archives: December 7, 2018

Good evening everybody, this is Marty from Dawg’s Blog with tonight podcast on 12/6/2018. It was just a half a day, there was no noon report.

Judge Zuniga had a continued in camera hearing of the personnel files of the CHP officers with the Attorney General and guardian of the files. So, I wasn’t there this morning, and neither was Tom. They did put some things on record this morning, but the bottom line is the Judge made some decisions today in regards to that. Apparently, the Attorney General Office requested it be expedited to make this go easier, so they put it all on disk. The Judge had a disk to go thru all their files, the interviews, emails and so on. She said some of the files were really large and it took her some time to go through them. She has received everything at this point. She will have to make a record on another day to be clear for any Appellate Review. She loves to use that term, Appellate Reviews. Some files on the disk were not accessible and that is to be resolved later. Apparently, there were some emails she couldn’t open. She had an IT person involved and discovered they were not relevant. So, she disclosed 4 items out of all that information. I believe it was Eddie Quintanar and Scott McFarland and I’m not sure if there was anything on Walter Wells. So, one item she is releasing to the Attorneys is a Kevin Pickett interview by then-Sgt Domby and somebody by the name of Hutzel, CHP investigators. She turned over a copy of that transcript of that interview to Marlisa Ferreira. She released a telephone call between Brian and Robert Woody, sounds like it is a jail call. Marlisa Ferreira said that was already discovered. There was a telephone interview with Dawn Poma (Kevin Pickett’s wife or girlfriend who was living in the house with Korey Kauffman and the others in that house). She turned over a diagram that was drawn in an interview with someone named Jesse LeBeaux. That is all the Judge is going to disclose at this point. On December 20, 2018 at 9:30 am the Attorney General is going to return to finish everything up.

The jury was up at 2:25 PM. Eddie Quintanar back on the stand. The deposition continued. Remember Eddie Quintanar has a lawsuit against Stanislaus County, against Marlisa Ferreira personally, against Kirk Bunch personally and she is doing a direct examination of Eddie Quintanar on that stand and going into many things that are unnecessary and don’t really relate (but I’m an idiot, what do I know?). There is a gentleman sitting in the back of the room from the Civil Service Division and he has been taking a lot of notes during Eddie Quintanar’s testimony.

Marlisa Ferreira started out asking why the Atwal’s didn’t trust Scott McFarland? He didn’t recall telling his superiors in CHP about that. In the 10/24 interview with CHP Investigators he did not say anything about Scott McFarland and the mistrust the Atwal’s had. Marlisa Ferreira asked him as a CHP officer did he engage with any StanCat? (an auto theft task force in Stanislaus County) He said he had not had any type of engagement with StanCat. He said he patrolled Hwy 99 in Merced. His beat covered from the Wesley Truck stop down to Madera County, but he never went that far over into I-5, his area was more eastward. When he transferred to the Modesto Office, he did have some contact with StanCat and he’d patrolled Hwy 99 and I-5 in this area. She asked as a CHP officer if CHP officers are assigned to StanCat? Do StanCat people provide training and 2 field officers? He said yeah, they give training. what she is getting at is the tracker information again. She keeps trying to get him to admit he knows something about trackers, as he’s been saying he hasn’t had any training about trackers and doesn’t know anything about them. He said he did have a conversation with a StanCat officer, but he was never given any formal training with trackers. She asked him if he had radio communications in regard to arrests and activities of auto theft suspects? He was never aware of trackers being used on those type of arrests and radio traffic. She asked him if he had used the term used pursuits or assisted in pursuits? Had he never been told not to chase suspects due to trackers? He was not familiar with that. (I thought that was a strange question and she has an agenda. What does this have to do with Baljit and Daljit Athwal or Korey Kauffman?) He saw an officer at the Modesto station (I believe) with a tracker that was in a box. He asked what it was, and the officer told him it was a tracker, but he didn’t go into any specific information about it.

Marlisa Ferreira asked him if there was a fight with Daljit Athwal and Korey Kauffman which ended up in the homicide of Korey Kauffman? Objection! Sidebar. They came back, and she asked him did he ever have a conversation about a fight with Daljit Athwal and Korey Kauffman that ended with the homicide of Korey Kauffman? He said no he didn’t.

She asked if he knew what kind of vehicle that Baljit Athwal drove during that time period? It was a Chevy Pickup. He said he never heard what happened to that pickup and he doesn’t know anything about it. He also said he knew Baljit drove Daljit’s vehicle at times which was a blue BMW. He knew Robin Attenhoffer, which was Robert Woody’s girlfriend at the time, she has since passed away from cancer. He said she never said anything about the pickup or Daljit Athwal or Robert Woody being involved in that. He was not aware that Baljit was not driving the truck. Again, he saw Baljit Athwal driving Daljit’s car once or twice. He didn’t recall seeing Bobby Athwal driving Daljit Athwal’s car in May or March of 2012. She asked him to describe Daljit’s car? He said it was a blue BMW? She asked if it had darkened windows? He said maybe in the back, I’m not sure. She asked him if milk was donated from Pop n Cork to charities? He said he heard something to that effect, but he didn’t know where they were donating the milk. It was getting to the end of the shelf life, so they donated it somewhere for someone to use immediately. He was not aware of any events that had occurred when they were taking milk or returning from delivering milk. She asked if he would ever talk to Daljit Athwal with regards to Frank Carson. He said no, never had a conversation about Frank Carson. She asked if Frank Carson had represented Robert Woody? He said no, he wasn’t aware of that.

After the search warrant with Scott McFarland the Athwals were feeling he was an informant and he’d never talked to Scott McFarland about that. He stopped going to Pop N Cork after the search warrant. As a law enforcement officer, he said they were friends being searched, but that could still get him in trouble as an officer. She asked if he had a conversation with any of the Athwals and talked about their rights on 7/15/12 at 8:27 pm? He requested a transcript to refresh. He said he had a call from Daljit Athwal. Daljit Athwal was making comments like our lawyer Frank Carson piece of s–t, motherf**********, things like that. Eddie Quintanar said he really didn’t know what he was talking about on some of this stuff. Daljit Athwal discussed a reason the officers were there in regard to a missing person. He was talking about Frank Carson, again calling him names. Daljit Athwal was blaming Frank Carson. Daljit Athwal said someone was missing and Eddie Quintanar was asking a few basic questions, like the last time he was seen and stuff like that. There were 2 calls, one on July 12, 2012 and July 15, 2012 and says many of the same things in both calls. Daljit Athwal said he’d been at the police station (sheriff’s office) and Eddie Quintanar told him he should get a lawyer and make sure he maintained his rights, don’t talk unless he has a lawyer, asked if they read him his rights when he was taken in. He said Daljit Athwal really didn’t seem to understand what he was saying. Eddie Quintanar told him he has a right to remain silent if he chooses to. Marlisa Ferreira asked him why were you concerned about Daljit Athwal’s right? Eddie Quintanar says as a law enforcement officer he is concerned about everybody’s rights. He was also a friend. He was just trying to find out what was going on. Marlisa Ferreira said are you the investigator in this case? What were you trying to find out? Why were you trying to find things out? He said he was trying to find out what was going on for a friend. Marlisa Ferreira asked him if he was Daljit’s lawyer? Many objections! The objections were sustained. She asked if he was trying to help Daljit Athwal? He says yes, I was. He was a friend. Marlisa asked about the CHP code of honor. Objections! Sidebar. The jury went out. The jury was in the courtroom from 2:25 PM to 3:06 PM, so about 41 minutes.

The Judge sent them downstairs, because she wanted to see if they could resolve this quickly. Marlisa Ferreira said it is relevant that Eddie Quintanar had information on Daljit Athwal and told no one. His answers are different than his conduct. Eddie Quintanar had inside information and knowledge and he didn’t tell anybody Marlisa Ferreira claims. He never said anything until he was taken into custody in 2015. He never talked about an altercation with Korey Kauffman when Korey Kauffman disappeared and died. She said it goes to credibility. She said Eddie Quintanar is trying to show the jury he is a good guy. She said he is not a good guy. He withheld information from law enforcement.

Judge Zuniga asked Marlisa Ferreira, what is it you want to ask? She wasn’t sure where she was going with this CHP code of honor. Marlisa Ferreira said he was told there was a fight with Korey Kauffman where he ended up being killed and he did not tell anybody. She went to give the Judge a transcript or police report (I’m not exactly sure).

Attorney Hans requested that Judge Zuniga also read the following page that Marlisa Ferreira is requesting to give perspective on what the conversation entailed. The second page was taken up to the Judge. Hans Hjertonsson said Marlisa Ferreira was talking about the conduct of Eddie Quintanar is showing Marlisa Ferreira misconduct. She’s the one who is causing the misconduct right now. Hans said there was a conversation between Eddie Quintanar and Walter Wells that the DA theory that Korey Kauffman was killed after a fight or altercation. Marlisa Ferreira is not giving a truthful, accurate description of what is going on. She’s trying to make it sound like this information came from Athwals, like they had fought with Korey Kauffman and he died. It is not done in a good faith basis and this rolled into Walter Well’s conversation the DA office had a theory that this is what happened. Walter Wells was saying the investigators think this happened. This is gross misconduct and mischaracterization to the court and the jury by Marlisa Ferreira.

Jai Gohel says Marlisa Ferreira casts at Eddie Quintanar like the Atwals were confessing to Eddie Quintanar and that isn’t what happened. It was only a theory conversation with Walter Wells as Marlisa Ferreira is trying to represent. It is misleading and contrary to the facts.

Attorney Hans said there is no good faith basis for that question.

Judge Zuniga again says the questions are not the evidence only the answers.

Marty’s commentary: Marlisa Ferreira will not accept his answers. She demands he say yes/no. She is trying to dictate his answers. She’s not wanting to hear his answers. He will explain, she’ll object, and the Judge will say, please answer yes/no. Many of these questions are not yes/no answers, but that is what Marlisa Ferreira is trying to convey to the jury.

We took a break. We came back.

Marlisa Ferreira said she asked if a conversation with Daljit Athwal. He said no, he was not investigating. She said Eddie Quintanar makes references to what was said. She’s trying to represent this came from Daljit Athwal. He was told not to talk to Walter Wells and they talked for a long time that day about the theory the investigators had. Eddie Quintanar did say that Wells said it was a theory of all the people involved meaning the investigators. Eddie Quintanar talked to his attorney, Alonzo Gradford, alone when the investigators took a break. When the investigators came back in, she said Eddie Quintanar’s story changed (suspiciously-she said). He said the scenario that he was told by Walter Wells and he denied everything. He changed his from Daljit Athwal to Walter Wells talking about the theory. She also said Walter Wells was at Pop N Cork and it was proven by the cell phone evidence. (They cannot prove that anyone was in a particular spot – They are in a damn sector – and she knows that. She is grossly misrepresenting this again!) She says Walter Wells was seen by Robert Woody at the store on their theory night that the body was moved from Pop N Cork to the mountains. Robert Woody has told many stories. Walter Wells denied to Eddie Quintanar that he was involved. Why wouldn’t we believe Walter Wells? Eddie Quintanar put that information out when he talked to the investigators and then said it was a theory and Eddie Quintanar was deceitful at the time and the testimony here in this trial. Eddie Quintanar knows the information from Walter Wells, but told no one. She says it is not misconduct based on information that she is asking the witness. She’s defending herself saying she is not creating misconduct by asking these questions. She says the defense is unprofessional and continually engaging in misconduct, making comments so the jury can hear what is said.

I know Marlisa Ferreira has rabbit ears, she hears everything and can’t ignore anything.

She said the attorney cannot say these things. That in itself is misconduct. She said she listens to it every day and she said these are reasonable questions but has to hear all the gibberish from the attorneys.

The jury was called back up at almost 4:00 and they were released for the day. The jury is not happy and are sick and tired of this. They are coming back tomorrow at 10 AM.

Attorney Hans said Marlisa Ferreira has changed her argument and saying Wells said it was theory and didn’t bring anything up until 2015. It is unclear when these statements were made and regardless it is triple hearsay. The purpose is to make inference that there was a statement of a homicide of Korey Kauffman. Her previous arguments are different than the one she is making now. She is misleading the jury and the court.

Judge Zuniga stated to Marlisa Ferreira that her accusations that the defense is trying to prejudice the jury, this is a good jury and they know what is happening. They are not that gullible when they hear comments from attorneys. The end result is all attorneys can report each other to the state bar when it is all over and hash it out that way. If the Judge thinks that is going on, she has an obligation herself to do something about it. She does not deal with these issues, if it is an issue. She doesn’t deal with these issues. She said she can hear some of the comments made by Jai Gohel along with Kirk Bunch and Percy Martinez. (I don’t believe it for a minute, but that is what she says). Judge Zuniga says she can’t be thin skinned as a judge and lets it bounce off her. She tells Marlisa Ferreira to block it out and quit having rabbit ears (my term). Zuniga said the question of having knowledge and his answer was he said no, he didn’t know. She said it is unclear, she doesn’t really see anything substantial here. Reading the transcript, it does say theory, but again it is not clear.

Marlisa Ferreira did say it was suspicious that the attorney talked to Eddie Quintanar during the break, then made a different comment. But it is not clear in the report, so Marlisa Ferreira can’t impeach him. There is nothing clear there to impeach with. She says under 352 of the evidence code she is finding it is relevant, but could be more prejudicial than relevant. She sustained the defense objections.

We were at the end of the day. A short day. The jury is back at 10 AM tomorrow.