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Sloppy Reporting Torpedoes Vasquez-Hernandez Plea

On Feb. 26, Alfredo Vasquez-Hernandez announced in court he would plead guilty without a plea agreement in the Chicago case in which Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla are co-defendants. In court yesterday, his lawyer announced he had changed his mind and wants to go to trial in May after all.

Why? A local ABC News affiliate reporter named Chuck Goudie had erroneously reported on TV that Vasquez-Hernandez had turned against Chapo. The inmates at the jail saw it and word spread to Mexico, where VH's wife and children live. Vasquez Herandez would rather go to trial than potentially put their lives in jeopardy.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Shakeshaft called Goudie’s error, “an unfortunate piece of journalism.”

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The affiliate has now pulled Goudie's report and in an updated video and article , Goudie denied he had said Vasquez Hernandez was cooperating, but admitted he said Vasquez-Herandez had "turned against" Chapo. What's the difference?

The attorney for Alfredo Vasquez Hernandez announced last week that Hernandez was going to enter a guilty plea. We reported that by pleading guilty Hernandez was turning against his co-defendant El Chapo Guzman-currently in custody in Mexico.

....The I-Team never reported that Alfredo Hernandez was cooperating against El Chapo or that he was going to testify against El Chapo.

What other meaning does "turn against" have? Since when does pleading guilty equate with turning against codefendants? Goudie then changes the subject and points out that no actual threats have been received. As if that absolves his misreporting.

I've been reading the Mexican, Colombian and Latin American news articles about the intended plea since the announcement, and haven't seen one that omitted the fact that Vasquez-Herandez was not cooperating. Every report I've seen clearly stated that this was not a cooperation plea and his decision to plead had nothing to do with the recent Chapo arrest. Goudie is the only one who reported Vasquez-Hernandez had turned aga