Questions, Questions...

San Bernardino police officer speaks out against plea agreement

By Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 10/25/2008 10:13:29 PM PDT

A San Bernardino police sergeant Saturday criticized county prosecutors for pleading out a murder conspiracy case to two San Manuel tribal members that may enable them to serve house arrest and probation.
It is the first time a ranking San Bernardino police officer has spoken out publicly against the plea agreement struck in April between prosecutors and members of San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, Stacy Nunez-Barajas and her brother, Erik Barajas.

Nunez-Barajas, 26, and her brother, 35, pleaded guilty to attempted murder with a gang enhancement and assault with a deadly weapon with a gang enhancement, respectively. They are facing six months to a year of house arrest and probation. They are scheduled for sentencing Nov. 6 in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Sgt. Steve Filson, a 27-year veteran of the San Bernardino Police Department who worked a seven-month joint investigation with federal drug agents in 2006 targeting the Mexican Mafia's methamphetamine rackets in the Inland Empire, said he would have liked to have seen the case go to trial.

"The DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) and the San Bernardino Police Department did an overwhelmingly thorough investigation and presented overwhelming evidence," said Filson, who served as a narcotics supervisor on the investigation.

"Everybody who worked the case is disappointed with the outcome of the plea agreements of the Barajas defendants. In a case of this magnitude, why would you plead it out before a preliminary hearing?"
Deputy District Attorney Douglas Poston, the prosecutor on the case, said it's not always so cut and dried. Prosecutors often have to walk a fine line when deciding which cases should go to trial and which ones should be pleaded out, he said.

"First and foremost, what a prosecutor has to do is look at the big picture with professional objectivity, and you have to make decisions based on the totality of the circumstances of the case rather than personalize the motion," Poston said.

He also questioned Filson's assertion about how many people were disappointed with the plea agreements.

"To say that everyone in law enforcement who worked that case was disappointed is absolutely not accurate," Poston said.

He stressed that the DEA led the investigation, not the San Bernardino Police Department.

"I will say that the communications I have had with the DEA about this case - about the pleas, about the convictions, about the terms - have never been negative," Poston said.

Investigators said they were thrown a curve early on in the narcotics investigation when they learned of the murder conspiracy involving the Barajases and several others, including brothers Salvador and Alfred Hernandez, both high-ranking members of the Mexican Mafia.

The plan was to kill Leonard Epps, then the manager of the Brass Key Bar in Highland. The plan was hatched out of a series of confrontations Epps had with the Barajases at the bar in September 2005, according to court records and a lawsuit Epps filed in September seeking $50 million.

The Hernandez brothers each pleaded guilty in April to attempted murder with street-gang enhancements and were sentenced in August to 10 years in prison. Salvador Hernandez is a captain in the Mexican Mafia, a.k.a. Le Eme, and is one of the "shotcallers" for the Inland Empire, meaning he collects from Latino street gangs a portion of drug sale profits, or "taxes," and can "green light" executions, Filson said.

Epps said he has been in hiding for the last two years - ever since he learned he had been marked for death in September 2006.

At a clandestine meeting Saturday arranged by Epps' Highland attorney, Frank Peterson, Epps also spoke out publicly for the first time, denouncing the Barajases' conviction.

He feels it is too lenient, and that he is the one who is really being punished.

"I don't think Doug Poston understands what a green light is," said Epps, 37. "When a green light is placed on you, it doesn't go off until you are dead."

Poston said he could empathize.

"I know he is not happy with the outcome of the case. I have to keep in mind that he is a victim in this case, and to him it may never have been enough as the sentences are concerned," Poston said.

Epps, who said his mother has received a number of death threats since he filed the lawsuit against the Barajases and several other defendants in the murder conspiracy, all of whom have been convicted of various charges, said the Barajases' lenient plea agreement could affect more people than himself.

"This is not about the money. This is about what's right and wrong," Epps said. "This decision they're making in court is going to affect hundreds of people here in the county."

Epps said that one of the main reasons he decided to speak out was to dispel what he says are some untruths said about him by authorities and in court documents. He said he has never been affiliated with any gang and has no ties to the Mexican Mafia or the Barajases.

He said he will always be looking over his shoulder.

"I don't know when it's going to happen, but I'll always have to be worrying about it."