MINNEAPOLIS — The 1994 case against Carlos Vignali, whom President Clinton freed last month after appeals from prominent Los Angeles politicians, was built on the testimony of informants and federal wiretaps, which convinced a jury that he had provided large sums of cash to purchase cocaine for sale in Minnesota.
About 800 pounds of cocaine were mailed in the early 1990s from Southern California to Minneapolis. In one telephone recording, Vignali discussed a successful drug deal with two of his partners, boasting: "It's going to be like that. Ain't never going to be a problem."
Later, talking about 15 pounds of cocaine that was missing, Vignali complained: "Get that right back. . . . Kick anybody down. You guys should roll right up in there and get it."
The trial narrative, reviewed by The Times on Wednesday, was contained in boxes of trial transcripts and other court documents at the federal courthouse here. It reveals a government case built almost entirely upon wiretaps and the testimony of informants, who turned against Vignali in hopes of winning lighter sentences. The government portrayed Vignali as one of the key financiers of the cocaine pipeline from Los Angeles to Minneapolis. He was described as a young man flush with cash, who clinched his deals in cell phone conversations and sought to meld with tough-talking drug hustlers.
Among those who lobbied on Vignali's behalf were former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), former U.S. Rep. Esteban Torres and Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles. Most asked for further review of Vignali's case, though some went further. Villaraigosa, for instance, claimed that Vignali had been wrongly convicted. Villaraigosa and Mahony recently have expressed regret at involving themselves in the case.
Horacio Vignali, father of Carlos Vignali and a well-connected Los Angeles businessman, had asked them to contact the White House on his son's behalf, most of the letter writers said.
Of the 30 defendants indicted on charges of involvement in the drug ring, which converted the cocaine powder from Los Angeles to crack cocaine in Minneapolis, all but one were convicted or pleaded guilty. The jury convicted Vignali on three counts of conspiracy and cocaine distribution and acquitted him of a fourth count.
