Marilyn Huff

Marilyn Huff was a federal judge in San Diego who presided over the 1996 trial of "Freeway" Ricky Ross on federal cocaine conspiracy charges.¹

Suppression of CIA Testimony

When Assistant U.S. Attorney LJ Oneale filed a motion to prevent any mention of the Central Intelligence Agency at trial, Huff allowed the entire hearing to be conducted in whispered sidebar conversations after O'Neale noticed reporters Gary Webb and Jesse Katz in the courtroom. "I have reviewed the government's request that the court seal, uh, certain portions," Huff announced cryptically. "You may be heard at sidebar." During the sidebar, defense attorney Juanita Brooks told the judge that prosecutor O'Neale had hidden from the defense the fact that Danilo Blandón was "a member of an organization responsible for numerous murders in Mexico." O'Neale denied it.¹

Denial of Defense Motions

Huff denied defense attorney Alan Fenster's motions to compel the government to turn over its records about Blandón. When Fenster protested that he was being asked to trust the government to determine what the defense should know, Huff replied: "The system we've set up has the government review all the information in its files to decide whether it complies with the law. Mr. O'Neale, in good faith, has made that review." When Fenster asked whether the government had even checked with the CIA about Blandón's connections and O'Neale admitted he had not, Huff ignored the admission. She ordered only two pages from Sergeant Tom Gordon's long-missing search warrant application for the 1986 raid on Blandón's house turned over to the defense, deeming the rest irrelevant.¹