By Sunita Vijayan
The Californian
June 18, 2010
http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20100618/NEWS09/6180330/Molestation-hearing-for-Salinas-priest-continues-lawyers-argue-evidence
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| Rev. Antonio Cortes listens to Salinas police Sgt. Don Cline testify during the priest's trial Saturday in Salinas. Rev. Cortes is ordered to stand trial on felony charges of sodomy with a minor and misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography. |
After a four-month delay, testimony continued Thursday in a hearing to exclude certain evidence defense lawyers say was illegally seized from a Salinas priest accused of sexually assaulting a teenager.
Eugene Martinez and Miguel Hernandez, defense lawyers for the Rev. Antonio Cortes of St. Mary of the Nativity Church in Salinas, are arguing against the admission of an external computer hard drive Salinas police have said contains child pornography used by the priest.
The hearing began in January and has been continued since February because of scheduling conflicts with officers testifying in the case.
Cortes' lawyers want the hard drive dismissed as evidence, saying that it was improperly taken April 16, 2009, along with a laptop from the church's office at 1702 Second Ave. Salinas police officers testified that the search warrant was only for Cortes' residence at the rectory, located across the street from the church's office, at 1747 Second Ave.
Rolando Mazariegos, a county deputy district attorney, argues that the search warrant is legal because it covered the rectory as well as Cortes' person.
In January's hearing, a Salinas police officer testified that the search warrant also covered seizure of items including computers, cell and external storage devices, in addition to more specific items listed such as "a black laptop," which was found in the rectory. The laptop taken from the church office is silver-colored.
Court documents show that the videos in the seized hard drives had sexually explicit titles and that the computer also had images of children in sex acts.
Cortes, 42, was ordered to stand trial on felony charges of sodomy with a minor and misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography. He was placed on paid administrative leave after his arrest on April 16, 2009. His arrest came two days after a boy made the molestation claims to Salinas police.
Cortes posted bail soon after his preliminary hearing in June 2009, when it was lowered to $100,000.
Dispute over hard drive
At Thursday's hearing, Salinas police Sgt. Don Cline and then-detective Gerry Davis, who is now retired, testified about their roles the day the search warrant was conducted. At the center of the hearing is the blue external drive defense lawyers say was connected to the silver laptop found at the church office. Cline testified that while he took the silver laptop along with Cortes' cell phone from the office, he does not remember seeing the blue external drive.
Martinez contested during testimony on Thursday that "an officer, yet unknown" took the external drive from the church office and placed it in Cortes' bedroom.
Davis, a computer forensics specialist, testified that he supervised the search of Cortes' residence at the rectory. He said that the day after the search, he discovered that the silver laptop was damaged and its hard drive could not be examined. He testified that he did not see anyone transfer the external drive into Cortes' bedroom and does not believe an officer could have moved it into Cortes' bedroom prior to the search.
Martinez argued in court that it was suspicious that the silver laptop was damaged, as that could prove it had been connected to the external drive in the church office.
"The seizure was not proper in any way," he said.
The defense lawyer also questioned Davis about why the laptop was damaged. Davis testified that hard drives are extremely fragine and there were many reasons why it may have stopped working. He said, however, that he has never come across a hard drive that was damaged after it was seized.
Contact: svijayan@thecalifornian.com
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