Because Miguel Angel Dominguez didn't use violence and quickly admitted his role
in a Mexico-California-Washington cocaine distribution
network cracked by FBI surveillance teams monitoring cell phones, federal prosecutors were willing to chop
five months off a proposed 46-month prison sentence.
Through defense lawyer Diane C. Bass, Dominguez argued that he should be sentenced to time already served because he'd been a gainfully employed laborer, grew up in an abusive home, got his GED while in
custody, led an otherwise crime-free life, and has a long term
girlfriend, who is the mother of his young boy.
]
Dominguez also pointed out that Javier Farias Mendoza–the leader of the drug
network that was active in San Clemente, Santa Ana, Los Angeles, San Jose and Washington state–received a 60-month prison sentence while his own role
largely consisted of allowing his home to be used to stash narcotics.
Officers arrested Dominguez in August 2010, after he received 15 kilograms of cocaine at his Los Angeles residence and took telephone distribution instructions for the drugs, according to the FBI.
On June 6, U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney received glowing character references from Dominguez's former employer and girlfriend, ignored the
punishment recommended by an assistant united states attorney and handed this defendant the huge break he
sought: time served, about 22 months.
He was released from custody, but will remain on
federal probation for five years.
According to court records, the Mexico-based network usually sold cocaine for $22,000 a kilogram–or $1,000 less if they were feeling generous.
Officers with the Santa Ana Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff's Department participated in the investigation.
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CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.