Thread: Alleged Child Rapist In Court

http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail2817.cfm?Id=0,47915

05/08/2006
Alleged Child Rapist In Court


A five-year-old boy helped put an end to suspected sexual abuse within a Sioux Falls home.

Forty-year-old Francisco Gaspar is in jail charged with 1st-degree rape. He's accused with having sex with a seven-year-old girl several times until her little brother said something to their dad.

Francisco Gaspar, also goes by Raul Hernandez and Raul Fernandez. According to court papers he is an illegal immigrant working in Sioux Falls using another man's immigration papers.

Monday he was in court accused of violating a family that took him into their home.

When confronted, the seven-year old victim told her mother Francisco Gaspar had sex with her every day for the past week. But investigators are looking into whether the abuse has been going on longer than that. Court papers say it all happened inside the girl's bedroom and a bathroom in her home.

“There is a family relationship,” says police information officer Loren McManus. “That's the best I can tell you.”

Gaspar lived with the family for two years, and according to court papers, last week the victim's five-year-old brother told their dad he saw Gaspar put his hand on the girl's rear end. The father confronted Gaspar and kicked him out of the house.

And on friday when she was examined and interviewed at a hospital, the seven-year-old told investigators her story, which put Francisco Gaspar in jail.

Gaspar is being held in jail on a $50,000 cash bond. If he could post it, he would not be allowed near the victim.

http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail2817.cfm?Id=0,47973

05/10/2006
Prosecuting Illegal Immigrants

A debate older than the recent immigration issues is what should be done when an illegal immigrant who commits a serious crime.

On Monday an illegal immigrant, Francisco Gaspar was in court charged with raping a 7-year-old Sioux Falls girl. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

But cases against illegal immigrants don't always go that far.

Four years ago, a Minnehaha County jury found Selvin Sandoval not-guilty of murder. Prosecutors believe Sandoval's lawyer convinced jurors he should not be the taxpayers' problem because he was an illegal immigrant and should just be deported.

“Really, why should we spend any of our money, any of our taxpayer dollars, holding this person when Immigration is just going to deport him anyway? Well it's really not as simple as that,” says chief deputy state’s attorney Hope Okerlund-Matchan.

It became much more difficult to deport Sandoval because Immigration officials could not use the murder case as a reason he should go.

“It's not a matter of saying ‘Let's drop the charges and ICE will deport them.’ It doesn't work like that,” Okerlund-Matchan says. “They need a conviction.”

In order to easily deport an illegal immigrant in cases like this, Immigration officials need a conviction and a sentence. Then after the criminal is finished serving the sentence, he will be detained then deported to his home country.

“If they've committed a crime in Minnehaha County, we think they should be held responsible whether they're here legally, illegally, whether they're a resident or not, everyone should be treated equally,” Okerlund-Matchan says.

Because if an illegal immigrant who commits a serious crime isn't punished, prosecutors believe there is a chance they'll deal with him again.

Last week the state's attorney's office prosecuted an illegal immigrant on drug charges. He had been convicted of serious assault in Minneapolis but was given a light sentence so he could be deported right away. It took him just two years to find his way back into the country and commit more crimes.




Lou Raguse