Sergio De La Pava - A Naked Singularity

“…”

“What I mean is that if something happens to you, if we get a reputation for not being able to protect our informants we’re not going to be in the business of getting defendants to cooperate very long. You understand? Good. So that’s one of the things we promise you. The other is the one most defendants are principally concerned with and that’s leniency with respect to your eventual sentence. If we enter into an agreement, you’re ultimately going to be responsible for your sentence in that the more helpful you are to us the better the deal you’ll receive. Now all this would be set forth in an agreement much like this one. And that agreement would spell out in detail exactly what is expected of you. Obviously if the time comes where you agree to cooperate with us, you will read that agreement and go over it with your attorney to make sure you wish to enter into it. But I just wanted to go over briefly, right at the outset, what in general terms would be expected of you so there’s no confusion. Again, we’re trying to do right by you so we want you to know the ways you can screw this up and end up doing more time than you have to. Believe me we want this to work out as much as you do so I want to make sure you’re comfortable with the parameters before we go any further.”

“Okay.”

“First and foremost you have to be honest with us.”

“I know, of course.”

“I say that because you may be tempted to try to minimize your involvement in certain activities to protect yourself or even exaggerate your involvement in others in the belief that you will help yourself in that way. I’m here to tell you, don’t do that. You’ll only hurt yourself. First of all, a lot of the things that we’re going to discuss today we already know the answer to. So if we catch you in a lie, we’re simply not going to use you. More importantly we may not catch you in a lie now but if we realize later that you lied to us we will terminate our agreement and ask that you be sentenced to a high number. This is absolutely the most important thing you have to realize. Our agreement, if there eventually is one, will be contingent on you providing only truthful information and if necessary testifying truthfully. If you don’t live up to that promise then you’re not entitled to any break on your sentence. Do you understand?”

“Solutely.”

“The reason for that is clear. If you are caught in a lie, and that means by a defense attorney or by anyone else, then your credibility is destroyed and you become useless as a witness. That’s why our promise of a sentence is not tied to us achieving any particular result. It’s tied to you being truthful. If you do that, and put forth a good faith effort, you will get the promised sentence. Now realize that a good faith effort means meeting with me or the detective whenever you’re scheduled to, testifying both in front of the grand jury or at trial if necessary, meeting with us to prepare that testimony, and basically being available to do whatever we deem necessary to the successful prosecution of the individuals we arrest as a result of your information.”

“I thought the main thing was the money and the drugs.”

“Well, we’re going to discuss all that. Certainly this case is unique in that there is the potential for the seizure of well, um, quite a bit of narcotics and money. But we also anticipate that a few people will be arrested hopefully including, but not limited to, Red Bags himself.”

“I don’t know about testifying against those guys. Will they see my face?”

“Well let’s not get ahead of ourselves because that would be a ways down the line. Basically with the cooperation agreement, if we eventually enter into one, if you keep your promise, if you always tell us the truth, and if you appear when we ask you to appear, then we will keep our promise of keeping you safe and giving you a lighter sentence. Do you understand all that?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have any questions about anything I’ve said.”

“No.”

“Okay. In that case I’m going to turn you over to the brains of the operation, Detective D’Alessio. As you know from the precinct, he’s familiar with that area and the individuals involved so he’ll know how to best use your information so that it has the most favorable impact for you. Detective?”

“Hi Ramon.”

“Hi.”

“Oh here he is. This is my partner, Detective Gans, he’s going to sit in as well.”

“Hello Ramon, counsel.”

“Hey.”

“Actually I’m going to step out for a minute and get a soda and maybe a snack. Okay Adam?”

“Fine. Ramon, the way I want to start is.”

“Can I get you something Ramon?”

“Um.”

“A soda? You want a soda? A sandwich? What do you want?”

“Soda.”

“And what kind of sandwich?”

“No.”

“Any kind?”

“No I don’t want a sandwich.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“It’s free you know.”

“No thanks.”

“Okay I’ll be right back. Anybody else?”

“No.” ( pl .)

“As you know we’re looking for information on the operation at 127th.”

“What kind?”

“What do you mean?”

“No, I’m talking to Ramon. What kind of soda Ramon?”

“Coke.”

“Coke or Pepsi?”

“He said Coke.”

“I know but did he say Coke because he thinks that will be easier for me to get or does he really prefer Coke? Because I can probably get Pepsi.”

“Okay, Pepsi.”

“You like Pepsi better right?”

“Yeah.”

“Diet or regular?”

“Regular.”

“Caffeine?”

“Huh?”

“You want caffeine with that, because I can get caffeine-free.”

“No I hate diet.”

“Who said anything about diet?”

“You said caffeine-free Pepsi.”

“No I know, but that doesn’t mean diet. I can get you regular Pepsi without caffeine.”

“Pepsi does that? You sure?”

“Sure they do that.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s right.”

“I think it has to be diet.”

“No I’m sure of it, it’s the gold can.”

“That’s the gold can?”

“The gold can’s diet.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“No, it means caffeine free.”

“I’ll take the gold.”

“Great, I’ll be right back.”

“How do they get the caffeine out?”

“And without making it diet.”

“Dude knows his soda.”

“Let’s not wait for him to return. What I want to do, Ramon, is not ask you a bunch of questions right off the bat but rather have you describe in detail, almost like a resume or whatever, how you came to be involved with Red Bags and his crew selling out of 127th okay?”

“Okay.”

“Once you’re done doing that, we’ll get into the specifics and I’ll ask you any questions we might have, with an emphasis obviously on the upcoming exchange that’s scheduled. All right?”

“All right.”

“Good. So let’s not wait for Gans to come back, let’s get started.”

DeLeon’s lips tightened as he looked around and for a moment I thought he had changed his mind. But then I realized that this was more like a dramatic pause from someone enjoying the minor spotlight and incredibly the stupid pause was working because now even I wanted to hear what he would soon say.

“Well, first of all Red Bags had nothing to do with me getting started,” he said. “Nothing at all. Reds is nothing in the scheming of things. He’s a piece of shit, understand that. When I met him he took orders from me. I came back here, to this country, because of Escalera. Juan Escalera, he’s my cousin, asked me to come back here from the DR to work for him. He was supposedly making mad money over here selling and I wasn’t really doing anything good over there so I came. I’ve known Escalera since I was like five, well he’s not really my cousin that’s just something we call people we’re really tight with and shit. I grew up in this country and didn’t move to the DR until I was fifteen. That’s how come I speak English so good. I’m not like some idiot either, I went to college in Santo Domingo and everything. But over there it’s not like here. Here if you go to college and become like a lawyer or doctor or something then you’re guaranteed to have some decent money at least. Over there doctors and lawyers drive cabs and work in restaurants washing dishes. Even like Casi here and everything who’s like the most best lawyer I know.