'El Chapo' shouldn't get new trial, prosecutors argue

Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera should not get a new trial on charges of drug trafficking or a hearing into alleged juror misconduct, prosecutors said in a new filing Monday evening in Brooklyn federal court.

A Vice News story just days after Guzman’s February conviction reported that an unnamed juror said panel members violated orders to stay away from media accounts of the trial, knew about claims that Guzmán had sex with minors that were kept out of evidence, and lied to the judge about the misbehavior.

But prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan that the evidence against Guzmán was "overwhelming" and an “anonymously sourced, uncorroborated article” with “double hearsay” was insufficient to merit a redo of the 2-1/2-month trial, or convene an evidentiary hearing sought by the defense at which the reporter, court personnel or jurors might be called to testify.

“These dubious allegations — which are contradicted by the trial record in material respects and which the alleged juror did not bring to the attention of the court, despite ample opportunity to do so — do not meet the stringent standard of ‘clear, strong, substantial and incontrovertible evidence” required for a post-verdict evidentiary hearing,” prosecutors wrote.

Guzmán, 61, a notorious leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel who twice escaped Mexican prisons, was convicted of using violence to control a drug empire that smuggled an estimated $14 billion worth of cocaine into the United States, after a three-month trial featuring 14 informants among 56 witnesses.

The identity of jurors in the case was kept secret. The story from Vice, an online news site, said its reporter was contacted by a juror after the trial and the reporter recognized the individual as a juror during an interview over a video hookup.

The juror reportedly told Vice that multiple jurors followed social media reports on the case, discussed it before evidence was complete, in violation of court rules, and lied to Cogan when he questioned them after media reports about Guzmán having sex with minor girls and about a defense lawyer’s affair.

Guzmán’s defense team called prosecutors’ resistance to a hearing a “desperate” effort to avoid the truth about a corrupted jury process.

“The government wishes to bury its head in the sand, along with justice and fairness, solely to convict a man they claim is one of the worst criminals on the planet,” said defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman. “This is America and that isn’t right.”

But prosecutors said the claims in the Vice article were unsworn and inherently unreliable. 

“The law treats as suspect allegations raised for the first time following trial, despite many opportunities to raise them with the court prior to the verdict,” prosecutors wrote, “ … Jurors’ motivations and views may change after trial, and they may speak out due to unhappiness with the verdict or a hope for some pecuniary gain or a simple desire for notoriety.”

Guzmán faces a mandatory life sentence. His sentencing is scheduled for June 25.