United States v. Jose Alfredo Perez-Lopez

Appellant Jose Alfredo Perez-Lopez (“Perez-Lopez”) is a 39-year-old Mexican with a third-grade education who speaks very little English. Perez-Lopez lived in the United States illegally beginning in 1999. In 2002, he entered a conditional guilty plea to a single count of producing false identification documents in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028 (a)(1).

On April 5, 2002 Perez-Lopez rented a motel room in Woodburn, Oregon. The next day Virginia Wang, a motel employee, entered the room to clean and noticed a large printer, a typewriter, pieces of identification, a lamination machine, and blank identification cards on the bathroom counter. Suspecting that the inhabitant was producing false identification cards, she called the Woodburn Police Department. Officer Rick Weaver drove to the motel, discussed with Wang what she had seen, and learned that Perez-Lopez spoke Spanish. He therefore requested a translator. Officer Bill Torres responded, and the officers proceeded together to Perez-Lopez’s motel room.

The precise events that followed are in some dispute. According to Weaver’s report:

Weaver’s report further states that Perez-Lopez answered questions about making identification…