The Missing Government Witnesses

The government failed to call numerous so-called witnesses during this second trial. By now you are probably aware that the government has rested their case, or rather their lack of a case, against Paul Bergrin. However, we have a list of witnesses from the previous trial that were never called to testify, most notably Yolanda Jauregui.

Yolanda Jauregui was a co-defendant as was her boyfriend, Alejandro Barraza-Castro. You may remember that in a post dated 7 February 2013, I mentioned that dear Yolanda and her bud Barraza-Castro were recorded in Hudson County Corrections plotting a major cocaine deal. I will have to believe that Paul Bergrin managed to get those recordings because we all know that these prosecutors would never voluntarily turn them over.

It was also mentioned to me that Jason Itzler was missing in action. Considering that Paul is charged with operating Itzler's former service (NY Confidential), I find that extremely suspicious. Could it be that there was proof that this never happened at all and Bergrin was no more than Itzler's defense attorney? I have bet on that all along.

But what sort of case do prosecutors have when they fail to call Paul Bergrin's co-defendants? Well, I only know what happened in my own case and I doubt that Yolanda and Barraza-Castro would threaten to be truthful on the stand as my co-defendant did.

Yolanda's brother, Ramon Jiminez, is also conspicuously absent as is Albert Castro. If you Google each name along with accused madam, the transcripts from the previous trial show in search results. Example: "ramon jiminez accused madam" (minus the quotation marks) reveals that Jiminez testified on October 20, 2011, and he returned on October 21, 2011.

There are also other documents in the first page of search results that will give you a good idea why Jiminez was not called in this trial. Hint: See the government brief filed on August 31, 2012.

I was just joking in that earlier post wherein I stated that the prosecutors must have decided to substitute Natalie McLennan for Jason Itzler, but apparently it was on the money.

The missing witnesses that I discovered:

Yolanda Jauregui

Alejandro Barraza-Castro

Ramon Jiminez

Albert Castro

Jason Itzler

The only date I am missing in the trial minutes is 12 February 2013, and that's only because nothing was ever filed by the clerk for that date. I have not reached out to ask anyone if they recall who specifically was called on that day, but we can easily assume that it was not the two co-defendants on the list. Please do feel free to add to this list if you find other witnesses that the government failed to call in this trial.

Interesting indeed!