Dr. Deborah Miora

After both judges refused to allow the eyewitnesses to testify, Pedro Castillo said that he found an expert witness who will convince the judges to allow all the eyewitnesses to testify about how I never passed out any leaflets on federal property. He set up an appointment with Dr. Miora so that I could explain that I had many eyewitnesses hiding among the crowds at the time of each arrest. I faithfully believed everything and innocently fell into the trap.

At the interview, I was bewildered because Dr. Miora didn't want to hear about the eyewitnesses. Dr. Miora would interrupt me whenever I said anything about the eyewitnesses. She wanted to hear only about the problems I had working as a teacher. I tried to tell her about the many students who learned to speak English after only one year of lessons. I tried to tell her about the many awards that I had received as a teacher. I even tried to tell her about how I received the “teacher of the year award.” But Dr. Miora kept interrupting and insisted that she only wanted to hear about the worst problem students in the Watts ghetto.

6 years after I got out of prison, I was finally given the evaluation written by Dr. Miora 8 years earlier. I was surprised to read that she wrote that there were no eyewitnesses at the time of the arrests and that I needed to be “deterred from further illegal activities.”

I then called Dr. Miora. She responded with great shock to hear that I had read this evaluation. “OH MY GOD! MR. SANCHEZ! How did you know that?!?! OH MY GOD! Did you read this evaluation??!!” she said.

“Of course,” I answered.

“OH MY GOD!” she said. “How did you get that evaluation?!!”

“From Pedro Castillo,” I said. “Did you write this evaluation as secret testimony against me?”

“OH MY GOD! MR. SANCHEZ!” she said. “Mr. Castillo guaranteed me that the defendant would never read this evaluation!!! I have written hundreds of these evaluations and the defendants never read them. Why are they reading my evaluations now?! I wrote these evaluations for the judges, not for the defendants!”

Then I said, “It is a crime to send secret testimony to any judge in a criminal case. It is a violation of the 6th Amendment. The law requires that the defendant confronts his accusers and any accusations against him. Secret testimony or secret witnesses are totally illegal.

“OH MY GOD! MR. SANCHEZ!!!” she said, “I'm not a real doctor. I am a counselor. I said that I'm a doctor because the court would not hire me unless I say that I'm a doctor.”