· .­ IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTF.ICT OF COLillABIA ---------------------------------x UNITED STATIS OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, -v. - CriIl'1. Case No. 78-367 JUAN M.ANUFL CONTRERAS SEPULVEDA, et al., Defendants. ---------------------------------x DEFENDANTS' MOTION·FOR CHANGE OF VENUE DUE TO THE PREJUDICF OF THE PUBLICITY AND THE POTENTIAL JURORS '1 I Pefendants hereby move this Court for an order pursuant to Rule 21 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure trans­ ferring this proceedinp to another district for trial because of the prejudice of the publicity and the potential jurors in this district. I l. As the attached exhibits demonstrate, the residents 1I of the District of Columbia, the potential jurors in this case, have been deluged with prejudicial publicity concernin? this case. That publicity, chiefly penerated by the Government, has discussed the crime charfed in lurid and sensationalistic fashion, and has all but assumed the defendants' fuilt. Evi­ dence, the admissibility of which has not yet even been deter­ mined, has been described to the public in cetail. 2. Moreover, the news reporters and cornmentators, as well as the residents of this district have treated the crirne charp.ed in an unusually personal way. Tt is a widespread belief that the security of the residents of this district, and the dirnity of Washington, ~7ere particularly treatened by the assassinati by bombing of a foreign diplomat on.the streets of this city. 3. The flurry of local publicity irnmediately prior to and during the issuance of the indictment and the removal hearings in this case is inrlicative of the local publicity which will attend the trial itself. That publicity has created a circus atmosrhere unabatingly hostile to al1 of the defendants in this case. This publicity, and the reaction of the local residents to this crime establishes that the defenclants Y7ill be unable to receive in. this district the fair trial by an imparitial jury to which they are constitutionally entitled. I WHEREFORE, the defendants respectfully request that this I -11 Court transfer this proceedinp to another district for trial. Respectfully suhmitted, I GOLDBERGER, FELD~AN & DUBIN Attorneys for Defedants 401 Broadway, Suite 306 New York, New York 10013 (212) 431-9380 STEVEN GLASSMAN Local Counsel Suite 410 South 1800 M. Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 -2­ , IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ----------------------------------x UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, P1aintiff, -v. - No. 78-367 JUAN ~ANUEL CONTRERAS SEPULVEDA, et al., Defendants. ----------------------------------x ORDER This matter having come before the Court on defendants' Motion For A Change of Venue, whereupon the Court having con­ sidered the ~otion, the memoranda fi1ed in support thereof and in opposition thereto and having further considered the argu­ ment of counse1 it is by the Court this day of _ 1978, ORDERED, that defense Motion For A Change of Venue be, and the same hereby is, granted, and the proceedings herein are transferred to the ------ District of J U D G E /'JJ.77mes SuAllJl/j mll{;fl-¡?lIJe '-o THE LETEUER 7j/(/7K INYESTIGATION The assassination of a former Chilean Ambas­ sador to the United States in Washington, D.C., has resulted in a grand jury investigation that reveals the chilling presence oí a network oí trained terrorists at work not only in Latin ...... America, hut in this Chilean secret police Q&ent Mi- Prosecutor Eugene Propper: chael Townley in 1973. {mm pettycriminals lo spies. country as well. When'a superior droflped by his rabie and asked him to look into the double murder of a former Chilean Ambassador named Orlando Leteller and EPTEMBER 21, 1976 - Eugene his American aide that had occurred that mom­ M. Propper sat eating lunch in ing, Propper agreed on a hunch tbat the case the cafeteria at the Federal courthouse in Washington, O.C., might become an interesting finale to his prosecu­ the courthouse where Judge torial career. He had no idea that the case would John Siriea presided over the totally preoccupy him. Watergate trials. Only 29, tall, With only a newspaper reader's knowledge of slender and neatly bearded, undercover aperations among Cubans and Chi­ Propper had worked upstairs for almost five leans, ¡Ieaned from the most publicized C.I.A. years as an Assistant United States Attorney, but stories of recent decades, Propper was far re- planned to leave soon Ior private praetice, having ~ .... , . , tired of easework in burglaries and petty corrup­ Taylor Branch is a Washington-based {reelance _'.0 lion. joumalist. Septemberll,197.1-Lete ~....-......-.... moved from the world of Latín Ameri­ can terrorism, a world of coups d'etat, murder and clnIg trafficking. It was a world populated by a small army of agents, sorne trained in the 1960's by the United States. Fora hard-working prose<:utor like Propper, it would be a long leap fmm street crime to the spy underworld and the heights of diploma­ cy. 1be Letelier case would be interest· ing on two levels, Propper would soon leam. It was, of course, a dramatic in­ temational murder case of great slg­ nificance. But beyond that, Propper wouId find tbat the more he probed the murder, the more he would leam about this country's controversial and often shadowy involvement in Latin Ameri· can affairs. 1be murder ltself ls still being inves­ tígated by a Federal grand jury In Washington, D.C., with indictments ex­ pected later this month. What the grand jury has found so far is secret, but sources predict that the indict­ ments will involve not only important Cuban exlle leaders but also offieials high in the Chllean Government's se­ cret pollee. Propper would leam that men Iike Orlando Bosch, leader of the Cuban ter­ rorist organization, CORU; Orlando Garcia, a top-Ievel official in the Vene­ zuelan secret police; Ricardo Morales, a master spy who had worked for a number of IntelJigence agencies, in­ cluding the F.S.I. and the C.I.A.; Igna­ cio Novo, the leader of the U.S.·based Say of Plgs veterans' organization; along with others, Iike Michael Town­ ley, the American-bom Chllean secret police operative, would play major parts in the Letelier investigation. To many experts, the training of these men, and others Iike them by the C.LA., was an experiment that was bound to someday backfire. For, as American policy toward Castro soft· ened, a trained cadre of Cuban exile terrorists. embittered and frustrated, spread throughout Latin America. ulti­ mately occupying important posts in various natíonal pollee and intelligence agencies. Propper's case would involve double agents, double crosses and double meaning, as well as a double murder. It began the morning of September 21, 1976, as' Orlando Letelier drove down Massachusetts Avenue on his way to work at Washington's Institute for Palicy Studies, accompanied by two young colleagues, Ronoi and Michael Moffitt. 25-year-old newlyweds and newcomers to capital politics. As insU­ tute researchers and aides to a proml­ nent Chilean exlle like Letelier, they had plunged quickly into the thick of things. In 1976, Chile was much in the news, with revelations coming out about the C.I.A.'s persistent Interven-­ tions in that country leading up to a 1973 military coup against the left-wing gov­ ernment of Salvador Allende. At the same time, there was a growing numo ber of reports documenting a campaign of torture and murder by lhe Chilean junta's secret police, known as DINA. August? Pinochet, leader ofthe Chílean military;unta that ousted Allende, surrounded by I 28 / .. /"" about the coup and . As Allende's Defense e was arrested during the d then imprisoned and tortured UGACY OF TERROR nearly a year in a makeshift DINA work campo In exile, Letelier, who had a wide circle of inOuential and highly placed friends - ineluding United States 5enators and European govem­ ment ministers - became friend and mentor to the Moffitts. Traveling the globe, he employed all his contacts aOO aH his talents in opposition to General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte's junta in Chile. The junta, in retum, stripped Letelierof his Chilean citizenship. But Letelier felt safe in the United States. Entering Sheridan Circle, bis car moved past the embassies of South Orlando Bosch, Ricardo Morales and Ignacio Novo: Old boys in the Latín American terroríst netwo Korea, Turkey aOO Rumania. Suelden­ Iy, Michael Moffitt, sitting in the back he lack of consistency in the Vietnam build-up caused a drastic first "C.I.A. seat, heard a loud hissing sound that the United States policy to­ reduction in the huge Miami C.LA. spree in whict seemed to run up the driver's door to ward Castro left a legacy station, he joined other Cubans with less thoo ni the roof of the car, and he saw a Oash of lhat sorne experts believe C.LA. training who fanned out among Cubans in the Iight on the dashboard. The Ooor finally carne to include ter· the intelligence services of Latin six. In additiOl erupted directly under Lelelier, blow· rorisl acts like the murder America in the mid-60's. "U worked cials reported ing off the car door and crumpling the Tof Orlando Letelier, as the stories of out weU for everybo<1y," said a C.LA. The same m' roof. Careening into a Volkswagen Orlando Bosch, Orlando Garcia and official. Over the next decade, Garcia agents of ter parked in front of the Irish Embassy, Ricardo Morales iIIustrate. Trained rose to the top of the Venezuelan bombings aH the car settled amang the scattered by the Central Intelligence Agency in DlSIP, hiring younger Cubans to join "There's only glass and debrls.