Defense attorney continues to battle government for records about supposed informant in Chicopee shooting case

SPRINGFIELD — A Northampton defense attorney continues to battle for details on a federal informant embroiled in a state court shooting case.

Jose Rivera, of Hampshire County, was indicted in 2017 in connection with an alleged shooting in Chicopee in July of that year that did not result in injuries.

The prosecution was crawling along in Hampden Superior Court, with informant Efrain Morales as one of the star witnesses. Morales told prosecutors Rivera was "a known assassin."

Defense lawyer Dana Goldblatt filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeking to compel information from the local U.S. Attorney's office on the status of Morales. A former Hampden assistant district attorney had told Goldblatt that Morales was under federal investigation but had yet to be indicted.

Named as defendants in that suit were the U.S. Department of Justice and former Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy.

Leading up to trial, prosecutors are obligated to turn over any information to defense attorneys that would allow them to attack a witness' credibility on cross-examination.

The government has so far refused to hand over information on Morales' status as a federal informant.

"He has a Constitutional right to the information," Goldblatt told a federal judge Thursday during a hearing.

A lawyer for the government said that office is not obligated to hand over records in a state court case.

U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni took the matter under advisement.

Goldblatt argues that the federal government is running afoul of its own policies by refusing to offer information on Morales, despite multiple requests. She said state prosecutors also have, at a minimum, slow-walked their obligations, causing multiple delays in Rivera's trial.

The case is testing the ability of federal prosecutors to keep their informants under wraps.

Morales made other claims about Rivera, the lawsuit says, that proved not to be true, including that he'd had an affair with his lawyer and used that lawyer to smuggle drugs into prison.

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