Updates with details on Tuesday’s hearing

A warrant was issued for the arrest of former Riverside County District Attorney Paul Zellerbach after he did not show up in court Tuesday, Aug. 23, to testify about the approval of a wiretap that prompted authorities to charge a man with possessing illegal drugs.

Judge Michele Levine issued the warrant Tuesday as a means to compel Zellerbach to testify but held it back as long as Zellerbach shows up for the rescheduled hearing Sept. 30. That means police will not actively be looking for the former DA to arrest him.

The case again puts the spotlight on the hundreds of requests to eavesdrop on private telephone conversations that were approved by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office and then by judges during Zellerbach’s tenure. And it could have implications for other defendants charged or convicted on the basis of evidence obtained through wiretaps.

Zellerbach said Wednesday that more than two weeks ago, he phoned the attorney who subpoenaed him to say he had a conflict and could not testify Tuesday. “Why else would I call him?” Zellerbach said.

The attorney, Jan Ronis, who is representing defendant Christian Agraz, said Wednesday that Zellerbach never indicated in that conversation that he could not be in Superior Court in Riverside on Tuesday.

“I absolutely need him,” Ronis said. “He’s an essential witness to my defense.”

Said Zellerbach: “I relied on his representation to me that he would get a new hearing date … and that I would appear at that date and time. I know the significance of a subpoena. I was the DA. I was a superior court judge for 11 years, for heaven’s sake.”

Zellerbach said he’ll be in court Sept. 30.

According to the minutes of the hearing, Ronis did not attend Tuesday’s hearing, either. Jason Ronas stepped in for him. A call was placed to Jan Ronis on Thursday seeking clarification on why he apparently did not attend if he planned on questioning Zellerbach.

WIRETAP CONTROVERSY

Agraz is charged with possession of methamphetamine for sale and possession of a controlled substance for sale. If he is convicted, enhancements based on the quantity of drugs seized could add 15 years to his sentence.

Ronis said Agraz, 33, of Chula Vista, was arrested earlier this year in Riverside after a wiretap prompted authorities to search his residence and seize illegal drugs. Ronis, as part of his motion to suppress evidence, wants Zellerbach to testify.

Under California law, the district attorney, and not a subordinate, must sign a wiretap approval unless the district attorney is absent. The DA’s approval then goes before a judge, who makes the final call.

Zellerbach, Riverside County’s DA from 2010 to 2014, has said he delegated the signing to others when he was absent or unavailable because of meetings or travel to one of his offices.

Ronis believes that because Zellerbach himself did not sign the wiretap approval, the resulting drug seizure was illegal and the case should be dismissed. Ronis said “absent” means just that – not simply being unavailable.

“In California, if you delegate, you have to delegate the entire operation of the office,” he said. “You have to be absent. You can’t just be playing golf.”

Zellerbach said he believes the wiretaps approved by his office were legal.

Ronis said Agraz’s case is one of the first to challenge the legality of evidence obtained after a wiretap request was signed by someone other than a district attorney. If he is successful, Ronis said, “I think everybody’s going to start hopping on board, and people who are convicted may try to reopen their cases.”

Wiretaps are supposed to be an act of last resort to gather evidence. Under state law, authorities requesting wiretaps must show proof that a crime has been committed, that the subject may have had a role and that all other means of investigation have been exhausted or are likely to fail.

‘ASSEMBLY LINE’

Wiretapping has come under scrutiny in Riverside County since a state attorney general’s report showed that in 2014, Riverside County judges approved 624 warrants for wiretaps requested by the district attorney – more than any other county in the nation. In 2013 and 2014, the number approved by Riverside County was more than double the next-closest total.

Many of the wiretaps were sought by the Drug Enforcement Administration for cases connected to Riverside County, a logistical hub for distributors of illegal drugs. Some of the wiretaps have been used to make arrests on the East Coast.

The wiretapping operation was first reported by USA Today in November.

Another attorney already has lost a case in which he challenged the validity of a Riverside County-approved wiretap.

The attorney for Christopher A. Mattingly sought this year to suppress evidence obtained in a marijuana-distribution case in Kentucky. Another defendant in the case, Ronald Shewmaker, was arrested in Perris in 2014 with almost $420,000 hidden in his car, authorities said, after investigators obtained his name from wiretaps. All defendants have pleaded not guilty.

In a hearing in a Kentucky courtroom, attorney Brian Butler told U.S. District Judge David Hale that Riverside County is “an assembly line for wiretaps,” according to TV station WDRB. Butler said all 624 wiretaps in 2014 were improperly approved by an assistant district attorney.

But Hale, in his opinion July 1, wrote that “while the sheer volume of wiretaps applied for and approved in Riverside County suggests that constitutional requirements cannot have been met, the legality of that system is not the issue before the court,” the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.



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