Pubdate: Tue, 20 Jul 2004
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2004 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Elise Banducci
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/rodolfo+cardenas

HEARING IN FATAL SHOOTING OPENS WITH TALE OF CHAOS

In the confusing, adrenaline-charged minutes before the fatal shooting
of a man state agents mistakenly thought was a wanted felon, agents
lost contact with local police. They were baffled by unfamiliar
streets and alleys in downtown San Jose. They only got a quick glimpse
of a photograph of the man they were seeking.

And, as Rodolfo ``Rudy'' Cardenas was bleeding to death from a gunshot
wound in his back, 12 precious minutes passed between the time police
secured the scene and medical personnel treated him.

Five months after Cardenas died in a downtown San Jose alley, a Santa
Clara County prosecutor Monday began laying out these and other facts
surrounding the case to a criminal grand jury in a rare public hearing.

Jurors hearing the evidence and testimony, expected to stretch into
next week, will have to determine whether a state drug agent was
justified in shooting Cardenas -- even though he wasn't the man agents
sought to arrest -- or if the series of organizational and
communications blunders add up to a crime, meaning the agent will
stand trial.

In most grand jury hearings, the prosecutor makes a case that the
accused deserves to be indicted. In this hearing, Deputy District
Attorney Lane Liroff is taking a more neutral position, and jurors
will form their own opinion of whether a crime was committed Feb. 17.

Much of the presentation of the case was familiar, but Liroff did
reveal a few new twists:

* He raised questions about whether the man agents were looking for --
David Gonzales, wanted on a parole violation for a drug offense -- was
a serious enough threat to risk an armed chase through residential
streets.

* Liroff said it was a communication error that prevented paramedics
from getting clearance to treat Cardenas for several minutes after he
was shot from 35 to 65 feet away.

* Liroff told jurors state agents were not equipped to communicate on
local police frequencies, furthering the confusion that afternoon. One
state agent testified that he called 911 from his cell phone and had
to be routed through the California Highway Patrol before being
connected to San Jose police.

* The prosecutor also told jurors that Cardenas was a drug dealer,
high on methamphetamine and possibly willing to die rather than be
caught when he was shot by California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement
agent Michael Walker.

Community outrage about the shooting led authorities to seek a public
grand jury investigation into the case. Such proceedings are generally
held in secret, but this is the second such public inquiry in the past
year. The other involved last summer's fatal shooting by San Jose
police of a woman they confronted in her kitchen after answering a
call about an unattended child.

Liroff spent much of Monday's session hammering away at the testimony
of Jason Lara, the state parole fugitive apprehension team agent who
was assigned to bring in 37-year-old Gonzales.

Liroff asked again and again why Lara thought Gonzales, convicted of
assault 14 years ago, should be considered dangerous, implying that
Gonzales may not have been a serious enough threat to risk an armed
chase through residential streets.

Lara did not waiver. ``I think all parolees have the potential to be
dangerous at one time or another.''

Liroff came close to ridiculing Lara for bringing only one photo of
Gonzales to the operation, rather than supplying each agent with his
own copy, and suggested the mission was poorly planned.

``So you didn't make extra copies because you didn't want to be
bothered?'' Liroff asked Lara.

Liroff also presented evidence that suggested Cardenas -- who had
served time in prison on drug and assault charges before and was
wanted on a domestic violence warrant -- may have said he would make
police shoot him before he would allow himself to be captured and sent
back to prison.

Cardenas' wife, Jeanette, testified that Cardenas, angry with her for
making a domestic violence complaint, threatened revenge. In a taped
interview played for the jury, the wife told police that Cardenas
said, ``It's all your fault. I'm going to have them chase me. . . .
I'm going to have them shoot me in front of your mom's house.''

The Cardenas family has said it worried that authorities would seek to
demonize the slain man in an effort to clear Walker.

During her tearful testimony Monday, Jeanette Cardenas took exception
to Liroff's questions about her relationship with her husband.

``What you're trying to ask me has nothing to do with what happened,''
on Feb. 17, she said from the witness stand.

As in all grand jury proceedings, the prosecutor is the only lawyer
making a presentation. There are no defense lawyers, and the jury
will not determine guilt, only if there is enough evidence to hold a
trial. Testimony is scheduled to continue today.
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