Pubdate: Fri, 23 Jun 2000
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191
Fax: (619) 293-1440
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX
Author: Marisa Taylor, Staff Writer

CONVICTED DRUG DEALER SEEKS NEW TRIAL OVER GREEN CARD DISPUTE

A drug dealer known as "Freeway Ricky" because, authorities said, he sold 
drugs at freeway ramps in Los Angeles is asking for a new trial, contending 
that testimony by the government's key informant was tainted.

In 1996, Ricky Ross was convicted of trying to buy 220 pounds of cocaine 
and sentenced to life in prison after he was snared in a sting in Chula 
Vista. His case sparked allegations that CIA-backed rebels in Nicaragua 
supplied him with cocaine, leading to a crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles.

The CIA and an inspector general for the Justice Department later 
discounted the allegations in separate studies.

Ross has already won one court battle since his conviction: A federal 
appeals court overturned his life sentence in 1998 and ordered the 
presiding judge to resentence him.

Now, Ross wants the presiding judge to give him a new trial. He contends 
that Oscar Danilo Blandon, a Nicaraguan immigrant convicted of drug 
trafficking, lied on the stand when he testified that he received his green 
card before his conviction. Ross also accuses Immigration and 
Naturalization Service special agent Robert Tellez Jr. of lying in order to 
help Blandon get the green card.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Parsky has argued that Blandon's immigration 
status doesn't have any bearing on Ross' conviction.

At the time of Ross' trial, Tellez was part of a federal drug enforcement 
task force in San Diego that was investigating Ross. Tellez says he was 
demoted in September 1999 because of the green card dispute. He is 
appealing that demotion.

Yesterday, Tellez testified that the task force members nabbed Blandon by 
promising him a green card if he came to the San Diego INS office. Instead, 
they arrested him. Blandon was convicted of drug trafficking, but his 
sentence, which could have been life in prison, was reduced to 28 months 
because of his cooperation in the Ross case.

Tellez testified that he helped Blandon get his green card after Blandon 
was released from prison in San Diego. The INS generally deports immigrants 
convicted of drug trafficking, but Tellez testified he believed Blandon was 
eligible for the green card because he was an informant cooperating with 
the task force in the Ross investigation.

Tellez said he learned only later that he should have gone through a formal 
request process.

During Ross' original trial, the prosecutor in the case, Assistant U.S. 
Attorney L.J. O'Neale, said Tellez told him that Blandon had gotten the 
green card before the conviction.

But Tellez said yesterday that he couldn't remember whether he made it 
clear to O'Neale that Blandon got the green card after his conviction.

Tellez also denied that he deliberately withheld knowledge of the 
conviction from other INS officials, saying INS examiner Loren Montgomery 
knew Blandon had served time in prison.

But Montgomery, who retired from the INS in 1995, testified, "There was no 
indication at all that he (Blandon) had any criminal record."

In a 1998 report, Inspector General Michael Bromwich concluded that Tellez 
not only withheld the information but also changed immigration documents to 
indicate that Blandon got his green card before his conviction.

The hearing to determine how Blandon's green card irregularities affected 
Ross' trial is expected to continue next week.
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