Thread: accused serial rapist Deported had license mortgage 44k job!

Bootsie,

We need you on the phone to the Winston Salem Journal today. I was on the phone to them yesterday asking if they were going to tell their readers any of the info the Greensboro News and Record has exposed.

W

I beat you to the punch. After seeing that article in the Winston paper this morning, I emailed the News Desk AGAIN and DEMANDED that they start giving this case more coverage. I sent them the copies of Mr. Wireback's articles in the News and Record. If I can find the number for the woman that did respond to me last week, I will call her but don't you think I'm going to get the same song and dance about the AP, blah, blah, blah????

I must have posted this email to them this AM on the other thread where I posted the News story in the Winston paper:

Below you will find links to two articles that have appeared in the Greensboro News and Record in the last week about this serial rapist and I am EXTREMELY disappointed that the Journal has not done some good, old-timey journalistic DIGGING.

http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... EWSREC0201


Below is the second article which was published on December 13th. I was not able to get the link without paying for it:

Taxpayers foot bill for immigrant defense
Article published Dec 14, 2005

WINSTON-SALEM -- Despite being a homeowner with a job that apparently paid $44,000 per year, an illegal immigrant from Mexico is relying on area taxpayers to pay for his legal defense against charges stemming from a series of sexual assaults in Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem.

Gilberto Cruz Hernandez, 24, of Winston-Salem, was found indigent in court proceedings shortly after his Oct. 28 arrest in the first of eight assaults he was charged with between May 2004 and Feb. 22.

He did not reveal in his application for legal representation from the Forsyth County Public Defender's Office that he is a homeowner, instead checking a box that said he is a renter paying $930 per month in rent.

In fact, he and another person, apparently his wife, bought a home last year in Winston-Salem's North Oaks neighborhood with a $122,970 loan backed by the federal government.

His attorney, Assistant Public Defender Paul James, of Forsyth County, said it was an understandable mistake that shouldn't change Hernandez's eligibility for public aid. To be eligible, an applicant must prove he doesn't have enough money or assets to hire a lawyer at his own expense.

People who have bought a home sometimes think of themselves as still being renters because they don't own the home outright and are still making monthly payments, James said in a recent interview.

"They don't think of it as, 'I own it,' " James said. "Somebody just probably said to him, 'How much do you pay for your housing?' "

If Hernandez is found guilty of the assaults, a judge could require him to reimburse taxpayers as for some or all the cost of publicly provided legal representation. The cost could be included in any sentence or entered as a judgment against him in civil court.

James said last week that the Guilford County Public Defender's Office also might be named to represent Hernandez on charges stemming from three assaults in Greensboro and one in High Point.

Winston-Salem police initially arrested Hernandez in connection with four assaults that took place in that city last February. Greensboro and High Point added the additional charges within a week, allegations based on DNA evidence that police say implicated Hernandez.

Shortly after his arrest, federal authorities revealed that Hernandez was an illegal immigrant who had been deported in 1997 and 2002 by immigration and border-patrol officers. They said they will deport him again once he is either acquitted of the assault charges or found guilty and serves any prison time.

In his application to be declared indigent Oct. 31, Hernandez listed one source of income, a job at North State Flexibles in Greensboro that he said paid $850 weekly, or $3,400 per month.

He said that he had no other assets and $3,848 per month in monthly expenses, including $1,000 in food bills.

James said Hernandez's home ownership should not be considered a significant asset because he almost certainly has little equity, or true ownership, of a house he only bought last year. Similarly, he has been in jail, not working, since his arrest six weeks ago, so that source of income is cut off. North State Flexibles said after Hernandez's arrest that he got his job there under false pretense, possibly using fake or fraudulently obtained documents.

Taxpayers also might have to foot the bill, at least initially, for an interpreter as the cases move toward trial. Federal court officials in Greensboro estimated earlier this year that it cost $30 to $35 an hour for interpreters to help illegal immigrants arrested for document fraud and similar crimes.

An official at North State Flexibles, a printing company, said in a recent interview that Hernandez is fluent in English and faced no language barrier in his job there as a press operator.

But James said that Hernandez appears not to speak English very well and it's "more comfortable for him to converse in Spanish."

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or twireback@news-record.com

This man has done a magnificent job of exposing this MONSTER and I am VERY disappointed that the Journal has been WAY BEHIND the CURVE on this one since the man LIVES in Winston.[/b]

Great letter Bootsie! I cant wait for his response.

Now, won't THAT be interesting??? It will be interesting just to see if he even responds since I don't live in his county but, believe me, ALIPAC will be the FIRST TO KNOW if I get a response!!

New Article added to homepage

http://www.alipac.us/article-925-thread-1-0.html