Outside attorney: Government's case relies on 'finks and vermin'
Inset photo by Headline Surfer® / ORLANDO -- Federal prosecutor Tanya Wilson apologized to the jury of 12 on Thursday in closing arguments for the cast of unsavory characters she had to rely on to make her case of mortgage fraud against the three individuals from the Daytona Beach-area on trial in the courtroom.
“I would have loved to have given you somebody who was upstanding in the community,” Wilson said of the several unindicted co-conspirators she paraded before the jury as well as a former co-defendant, Christopher Mencis, who copped a guilty plea in exchange for a lighter sentence and his truthful testimony at trial.
Wilson continued, “But I didn’t. I gave you instead people who were on the team, the people who were in the trenches." Take Mencis, for example, lanky, and with the laugh of a hyena and darting eyes who looks like he's either drooling or sniffling.
His hair is matted and his face jaunt. In his early 40s, he's slick in a greasy kind of way with a handshake that's as weak as a wet noodle. But he knows how to hustle for a buck.
Then there's Sidney Coton, 53, of Deltona, who by outward appearances, is a creepy-looking shadowy-figure who tends to keep his head down.
He rarely smiles and when he laughs, it's more of an annoying heckle. His hair -- what little there is, looks like it's pasted onto his head and his face is almost gray with sagging lips and teeth that have likely never been whitened. He's the kind of guy who doesn't ask questions.
He does as he's told and keeps his mouth shut. Put him in front of a jury, though and he puts on a good show.
Coton and Mencis are what are known in US government courtrooms as rats. They're also referred to as backstabbers, snitches, informers, informants, agent provocateurs,narcs, finks and vermin.
The Cotons and Mencs' of the white-collar criminal world are often ascribed the lowest common denominator a well-heeled defense attorney in a thousand-dollar suit will pitch to the jury immediately in opening statements, hammer through the course of cross-examination and re-enforce in closing arguments as scum who will lie through their teeth to sell out their associates in order to "save their own asses."
Contrast that with the flashy smile of James Fidel Sotolongo, stocky with a square-looking clean cut face, full head of black hair with slight stands of gray, a minty-fresh breath and manicured nails. At the age of 48, he has the walk of a man who still holds onto the ambition of a man in his working prime.
Sotolongo's not afraid to invade your space and assert his dominance, even looking straight at the jurors seated to his right shoulders across the courtroom.
They say next to every successful man is an even-more successful woman, in this case, Ramara Garrett, former realtor and an advertising executive. She's noticeably younger, vibrant with silky blonde hair, killer curves and eyes that turn heads. And she is the epitome of a successful businesswoman, mother and community contributor.
Then there's the 51-year-old Stephanie Musselwhite, a numbers-crunching mortgage title expert with the big hair who dresses in business suits and knows her stuff.
While Mencis band Coton fit the bill of scheisters oner might come to expect to see in a courtroom, Sotolongo, the accused mastermind of a conspiracy to defraud banks of close to $13 million from seven upscale homes at or along the Volusia County shoreline, his live-in girlfriend, Garrett and Musselwhite, don't fit the bill.
Welcome to the third-floor courtroom B of the US District Courthouse in Orlando, where on Friday, the jury of 12 is expected to get the case after two weeks of testimony.
It's the setting where the Volusia Country mortgage fraud conspiracy trial near its end, with the jury expected to get the case Friday after a two week run.
How the jury will decide guilt or innocence is a matter of conjecture. For the lead prosecutor in a career seemingly on the rise -- there's perhaps a judgeship for the African-American point-person who has command of her witnesses and the jury with her even-keeled demeanor and lightning-quick objections such as "Objection, your honor, asked and answered," or "Objection, your honor, argumentative." Such has been her style as she continued to stand her ground with the jury against defense counsel in triplicate coming at each of her witnesses.
While the government relied mostly on former associates of Jim Sotolongo, who turned on him to save themselves, the attorneys for Sotolongo, Garrett and Musselwhite, didn't have their clients take the stand in their own defense; seemingly confident the government's witnesses were not believable to the jury.
Wilson was strong in her opening, with her reference to the accused having "skin in the game," before the three defense attorneys -- Though it appeared Wilson,laid the foundation of the government's case against Sotolongo, his live-in girlfriend, Garrett, who are nearing the 1-year-birthday of their baby girl, and Musselwhite, three individuals who come across as easy-going and fronted by three of the best defense attorneys, the Sunshine State has to offer.
Compare these three to what Wilson had to rely on -- the bottom of the barrel -- the necessary evil or perhaps the lesser of two evils -- depending on one's perspective for or against the government's case.
Andrew Stine, a longtime criminal defense attorney in West Palm Beach, said he believes the government has a much more difficult time with juries because of the unsavory witnesses they have to put in front of them to testify -- who often seem far worse than the defendants on trial.
"The jurors aren't stupid," Stine said. "They can smell these guys a mile away -- they're the first ones to run and cut a deal when they're trying to save their own skin. And they'll lie like you won't believe. They embellish to try and fill the holes, especially in cross examination. That's usually how they gwt exposed to the juries for what they are -- rats."
"The jurors aren't stupid," Stine said. "They can smell these guys a mile away -- they're the first ones to run and cut a deal when they're trying to save their own skin. And they'll lie like you won't believe. They embellish to try and fill the holes, especially in cross examination. That's usually how they gwt exposed to the juries for what they are -- rats."