Split delays hearing tied to Puffinburger case

Jose Lopez-Buelna and his defense lawyer want to part ways.

Lopez-Buelna, who once was suspected of helping kidnap 6-year-old Cole Puffinburger in a case that attracted national attention, and his lawyer, Robert Draskovich, each filed motions this week asking to end their attorney-client relationship.

U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro responded by canceling the defendant’s sentencing hearing, which was scheduled for Friday. She has not set a new date.

Lopez-Buelna, 50, contends Draskovich misrepresented the terms of the plea agreement that allowed him to escape kidnapping and hostage-taking charges.

Draskovich has denied the allegation.

At a hearing on Tuesday, Navarro refused to let Lopez-Buelna back out of his plea bargain.

In an interview after the hearing, Draskovich said he had worked hard to put his client in a good position for sentencing, “and now he’s shooting himself in the foot.”

On Wednesday, Draskovich filed a motion asking to withdraw from the case, citing “irreconcilable differences” between the two men.

The following day, the court received a handwritten motion from Lopez-Buelna requesting his lawyer’s dismissal.

“I do not speak English, but the riff between us is much wider than a language barrier,” according to the motion.

The document was written in almost perfect English, but the writer mistakenly used “riff” in place of “rift.” It was mailed from a detention center in Pahrump.

Lopez-Buelna has used an interpreter during court proceedings, but Draskovich speaks Spanish. The attorney also said he gave his client a written copy of the plea agreement that had been translated into Spanish.

During a three-week trial, federal prosecutors tried to prove that Lopez-Buelna and another man had kidnapped Cole as revenge after the boy’s grandfather took off with $4.5 million in drug money. Prosecutors alleged Lopez-Buelna ran a Mexican drug cartel’s operations from Las Vegas.

Defense lawyers accused the boy’s mother and grandmother of staging the kidnapping to lure his grandfather out of hiding with the missing drug money.

Prosecutors dropped all kidnapping and hostage-taking charges in February, before the trial ended, as part of plea negotiations with the two defendants.

Lopez-Buelna pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, conspiracy to launder money and two counts of money laundering.

According to the plea agreement, the defendant was told that a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years applies to the drug charge.

Draskovich said prosecutors are recommending a 30-year prison term, and probation officials are recommending a 17-year term.

Navarro has said prosecutors failed to prove that Cole was kidnapped. The Las Vegas boy was missing for four days in October 2008.

Lopez-Buelna also pleaded guilty in February 2009 to illegally re-entering the country after being deported to Mexico. He is awaiting sentencing on that charge.

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710.