DISTRICT COLORADO, LARIMER COUNTY,

STATE OF COLORADO DATE FILED: February 2, 2022 4:51 PM

Court Address: 201 Laporte Ave, Suite 100, FILING ID: 27799209108C0
Fort Collins CO, 80521-2761 CASE NUMBER: 2021CR884

Plaintiff:
PEOPLE ▲COURT USE ONLY▲
v. ________________________
Defendant:
RAMON SEPULVEDA
_____________________________________________ Case Number:
Attorney for Defendant:
Jason Flores-Williams 2021CR0884
1851 Bassett St. 509
Denver, CO 80202
Registration Number: 49702
303-514-4524
Jfw@jfwlaw.net

MOTION FOR DISCOVERY: SURVEILLED ATTORNEY-CLIENT

COMMUNICATIONS

COMES NOW Defendant, by and through counsel, and respectfully submits the
following:1
FACTS AND LAW

The District’s Attorney’s Office advised the undersigned yesterday, February 1,

2022, that an attorney client phone call of a co-defendant from the Larimer Detention

Center had been wrongly disclosed in discovery.

1
This Court previously advised Mr. Sepulveda that, outside of enforcing the provisions
of Colo. R. Crim. P. 16, it does not grant motions for discovery. But the cause for this
filing is specific and the instant pleading is the cognizable way to characterize the prayer
at this stage.

Sepulveda Surveilled Calls

 Further, the Northern Colorado Drug Task Force, the law enforcement agency

responsible for the investigation in this case, records and listens to phone calls from the

jail on the line that the above defendant uses to communicate with counsel.2

Defendant Mr. Sepulveda and the undersigned counsel have communicated 25 to

30 times on this line: communications within the scope of attorney-client privilege.

The Northern Colorado Drug Task Force has cast a wide, independent net of

surveillance around this case that implicate Mr. Sepulveda’s most fundamental Fourth

and Sixth Amendment protections.

It is well settled that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel includes the right to

communicate with one’s counsel of choice. People v. Harris, 703 P.2d 667, 672 (Colo.

App. 1985) (“[T]he right to counsel is of little value if the attorney cannot communicate

with the defendant...”) (citation omitted); see also Maine v. Moulton, 474 U.S. 159, 171,

106 S.Ct. 477 (1985) (“[T]he prosecutor and police have an affirmative obligation not to

act in a manner that circumvents and thereby dilutes the protection afforded by the right

to counsel.”).

This right also includes the right to communicate with one’s counsel on an

unmonitored phone line, i.e., the right not to have one’s attorney-client privileged phone

calls with counsel recorded or monitored. Fennell v. Horvath, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS

75181, at 13 (E.D. Pa. May 3, 2019) (“courts in our Circuit recognize prison inmates do

not have a First Amendment right of freedom from monitoring and recording their phone

calls, excepting calls with inmates’ attorneys”); Brown v. Madison Cty. Ill., 2008 U.S.

2
NCDTF members have already testified, and further been endorsed, as witnesses in this
case.

Sepulveda Surveilled Calls

Dist. LEXIS 49250, at 11 (S.D. Ill. June 27, 2008) (“Accordingly, the Court GRANTS

Plaintiff’s motion and ORDERS that Defendants permit Plaintiff to speak with his

attorney by phone at least once per week for at least thirty minutes without recording or

monitoring the phone call.”).

While the NCDTF’s unwarranted intrusions into Mr. Sepulveda’s phone calls

with his lawyer is undoubtedly a matter of constitutional significance, it is also covered

by Colo. R. Crim. P. 16. Part I, Disclosure to the Defense, subsection (a), Prosecutor’s

Obligations, includes the following:

(1) The prosecuting attorney shall make available to the defense the following

material and information which is within the possession or control of the

prosecuting attorney, and shall provide duplicates upon request, and concerning

the pending case:

(VI) All tapes and transcripts of any electronic surveillance (including

wiretaps) of conversations involving the accused, any codefendant or

witness in the case.

(VIII) Any written or recorded statements of the accused or of a

codefendant, and the substance of any oral statements made to the police

or prosecution by the accused or by a codefendant, if the trial is to be a

joint one.

This subsection is implicated by the NCDTF’s actions.

Sepulveda Surveilled Calls

 And, to the extent that the Court might find that this matter is not covered by the

above subsection, it is undoubtedly implicated by subsection (c), Material Held by Other

Governmental Personnel, which states:

(1) Upon the defense's request and designation of material or information which

would be discoverable if in the possession or control of the prosecuting attorney

and which is in the possession or control of other governmental personnel, the

prosecuting attorney shall use diligent good faith efforts to cause such material to

be made available to the defense.

(2) The court shall issue suitable subpoenas or orders to cause such material to be

made available to the defense, if the prosecuting attorney's efforts are

unsuccessful and such material or other governmental personnel are subject to the

jurisdiction of the court.

Accordingly, any claim by the prosecutor that it has no authority over the NCDTF

is without merit. The Rule imposes a clear mandate on the prosecutor to ask in a diligent

good faith manner, and, if it is unsuccessful, to inform the Court, which then shall (the

clear language of the Rule) “issue suitable subpoenas or orders to cause such material to

be made available to the defense.”

WHEREFORE, Mr. Sepulveda respectfully requests that this Court order

disclosure of any recordings in possession of the Northern Colorado Drug Task Force—

including notes, impressions, observations, evidencing any form of monitoring—of

phone calls from the jail to the number associated with Mr. Sepulveda’s counsel.

Sepulveda Surveilled Calls

Dated: 2/2/22

Respectfully Submitted,

s/Jason Flores-Williams
Jason Flores-Williams
1851 Bassett St
Denver, CO 80202
Reg. No. #49702
303-514-4524
JFW@JFWLAW.NET

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I hereby certify that the above motion was filed via the Colorado Courts e-filing system
causing a copy to be served upon all current parties of record on this date of 2/2/22.

s/Jason Flores-Williams
1851 Bassett St.
Denver, CO 80202
303-514-4524
JFW@JFWLAW.NET

Sepulveda Surveilled Calls