By Brian Anderson
Contra Costa Newspapers

Jan. 7, 2002

OAKLAND —Lawyers for three men charged with killing an Alameda County sheriff's deputy during the botched robbery of a Dublin steakhouse want taped jailhouse conversations and other evidence to be scrapped.

In a motion scheduled to be considered today, Pleasanton attorney Harry Traback contends Miguel Galindo Sifuentes' apology to his parents just days after Deputy John Paul Monego was killed Dec. 12, 1998, should be suppressed.

In Sifuentes' case, two conversations recorded Dec. 13 and 14 while he was in Santa Rita Jail captured the former Turlock man admitting to the robbery. In acknowledging taking part, however, Sifuentes expressed some remorse that Monego was killed.

"I wanted to rob, and yes, punish me for that," Sifuentes told his father, according to a transcript of one conversation. "But I never wanted to kill anyone. I did not think anything was going to happen to anyone."

Sifuentes, 22, Hai Minh Le, 23, and Ruben Eliceo Vasquez, 26, are each charged with a single murder count. Prosecutors contend the killing was committed during a robbery, a special circumstance allowing them to seek the death penalty.

Vasquez is accused of stealing Alameda County Sheriff's Deputy Angela Schwab's handgun after she first arrived to check out a 911 call from Outback Steakhouse on Regional Street, records show.

Minutes after Schwab went in just before midnight, Monego, a 33-year-old Brentwood father, pulled up in his cruiser and headed for the restaurant's front door. A "burst of gunfire," as one witness characterized it, exploded from the entryway as Monego eased open the doors.

The blasts drove Monego backward, forcing him to the ground, a witness told police. A man ran from the restaurant, stopped over Monego and fired at the fallen officer.

Vasquez, who prosecutors believe was the trigger man, was arrested along with Le and Sifuentes a short time later after the car they were riding in crashed into a curb on Dublin Boulevard.

Police searched the wrecked 1990 Acura Legend as well as a Mazda in Turlock and several homes. Detectives found a box of gas cylinders used in air guns, among other things, in one of the houses.

Officials believe Le and Sifuentes carried Crossman .177-caliber pellet guns during the robbery, records show.

Defense attorneys have argued in court papers that the searches were either done without warrants or went beyond the scope of a warrant that was issued, a case that could be tough to prove. In an interview with police, Le signed a consent form allowing investigators to search his car. Additionally, a warrant signed by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Hugh Walker gave detectives the go-ahead to search the suspects' homes.

But the legality of taping inmates' conversations for anything other than security is a bit more murky. In 1982, the state Supreme Court largely upheld a government policy granting privacy rights to inmates except in cases where concerns over jail security or public protection were overshadowing.

The high court agreed in January, however, to take another look at the issue when it accepted an appeal from a Martinez woman convicted of killing her mother and a friend in the early 1990s.

An attorney for Christine Loyd has argued that an Alameda County judge was wrong to deny her request to dismiss the case or remove the prosecutor for taping 85 phone calls and five visitor meetings with Loyd at Santa Rita Jail.

A state appellate court in San Francisco agreed in September 2000 that the recordings "unquestionably constituted misconduct" but denied Loyd's rights were violated.

Deputy Attorney General Bridget Billeter argued in a legal brief filed last summer that a 1997 ban on personal contact visits eclipses inmates' privacy rights.

The case is pending before the court.

"I think the prosecutor feels that the law is more clear than I do," Traback said of the motion to keep the tapes from being played for jurors. "To me, the law isn't clear."

A prosecutor did not return calls for comment.

Opening statements could begin in April.