You ever wan't something so bad...

...that you'd do nearly anything to get it?  We all know the feeling, whether as child or an adult, you want something so bad that you'd do anything and overcome any obstacle in order to get it. 

So what does a defendant who's offered a deal to get out from under some serious felony charges do?  Would he lie and tell the prosecutor and the cops what they want to hear to get himself out of trouble?  What lengths would a law enforcement officer go to in order to ensure a witness gives him favorable testimony against his target?  Last but not least, the prosecutor, what lengths would he go to in order to secure a conviction against the people he's after?

Let's take up the defendants angle, the guy who got charged and is offered a plea by the state in exchange for testimony against one of his codefendants, how far would he go to save his own ass?  We learned several months ago that Michael Martinez (the man who lent the straw buyer in the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case the down payment) was the first of the three original defendants charged in the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case to plead out, a plea that included testifying against the others that were charged.  Standard operating procedure right?  But what if Mr. Martinez couldn't even identify the person that he committed the crime with?  The other vital member of the "organized scheme to defraud" Citi mortgage?  How far would the Detective leading the investigation go in order to help Mr. Martinez identify his co conspirator?  Take a look at this excerpt of Mr. Martinez's deposition where he's discussing how he's asked to identify the attorney whose office conducted the closing...

Very nice.  The detective shows Mr. Martinez a single photo and then asks him if that's the person he's trying to identify, so what's this now, the "one person" photo line up?  Am I missing something?  Does that sound Kosher to you all?  


I for one find this photo line up that's comprised of a single photo very problematic.  Tomorrow we'll see why the police and prosecutor were so desperate to get Mr. Martinez to identify the attorney that was the target of their investigation.