Thread: AL-Hoover officials no longer party to immigration suit

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Hoover officials no longer party to immigration suit
Friday, February 10, 2006
DAWN KENT
News staff writer
The Hoover Police Department, Mayor Tony Petelos and all seven City Council members have been dismissed as defendants in a lawsuit alleging actions "designed to rid the City of Hoover of Hispanic immigrants and to oppress them because of race, nationality, skin color, language and economic circumstance."

But the suit, filed on behalf of a woman now living in Mexico, continues in U.S. District Court against the city, Police Chief Nick Derzis and Jefferson County District Judge Robert Cahill.

The suit was filed Dec. 28 on behalf of Anel Mancera-Ramirez, who claims the city and Cahill conspired to deprive her of rights guaranteed under the U.S. and state constitutions "for the purpose of brutally and disgracefully removing her from their community." It asks that the suit be treated as a class action to include all people treated similarly.

U.S. District Judge Karon Bowdre dismissed the defendants last week, following an amended complaint filed by Mancera-Ramirez's attorney, George Huddleston III, who had eliminated the officials as defendants.

Bowdre also dismissed the police department, granting in part a motion by the city's attorneys. Meanwhile, a dismissal motion filed on Cahill's behalf, which cites judicial immunity, is pending.

City attorneys also have filed a renewed motion to dismiss the city and Derzis.

The suit says Mancera-Ramirez represents a class of immigrants who walked or drove through Hoover and "were illegally and unconstitutionally subjected to the criminal process."

Huddleston said his client pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, a felony, leading to her deportation. The suit says she was charged after a police officer searched her purse and wallet and removed a card or cards he alleged were false or forged.

"There's never been an adjudication as to whether she was a legal or illegal immigrant, and she contends that her guilty plea was a coercion by being held without bail," Huddleston said.

Petelos, Cahill and Derzis declined to comment on the claims in the suit.

The suit outlines an "unconstitutional scheme" that begins with the 2004 municipal elections in Hoover. Candidates ran "on a platform calling for the city to rid the community of all Hispanic immigrants or to control them in draconian ways. On the basis of this platform, certain candidates were elected to public office fully intending to implement this policy."

Bolstered by the new mayor and City Council, Derzis and police "determined to use existing laws and ordinances to stop, arrest, detain, convict and deport Hispanic immigrants because of their race, ethnic background, national origin, color and language," the suit says.

Hispanic immigrants were stopped and frisked "for no reason other than to fabricate a criminal charge against them," the suit says.

List of charges:

The charges, according to the suit, often involved lack of identification, forged identification, lack of insurance information, expired registrations, seat belt violations, vagrancy, jaywalking or loitering.

Immigrants were jailed on felony charges of criminal possession of a forged instrument, the suit says. The federal Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement was called and a detainer placed on the immigrants, preventing their release without notifying that agency, according to the suit.

An arrest warrant was issued by Cahill or Jefferson County District Judge Sheldon Watkins, the suit says. If Cahill issued the warrant, it bore a "no bond" order. "No hearing was conducted to determine the suitability of bond. ... In some instances, those held under `no bond' orders issued by Judge Cahill were minor children, some only 14 or 15 years old, children over whom Judge Cahill had no jurisdiction," the suit says.

Once jailed, the immigrants were pressured to plead guilty, and their family and friends were told that a guilty plea was the only way to get out of jail, according to the suit. Faced with the "no bond" order and the prospect of an indefinite jail stay, the immigrants pleaded guilty, a move the suit calls coercion.

The guilty pleas led to felony convictions, and the immigrants were usually directed to serve 90 days or less of their sentences, with the balance to be served on probation, according to the suit. Cahill's probation orders included the provisions that the immigrants leave Alabama or the United States, sometimes in the custody of federal authorities, and not return, the suit says. The suit says that is unconstitutional.

The felony convictions were the basis for the immigrants' deportation, according to the suit.

Traffic accident:

Mancera-Ramirez was living in Vestavia Hills in May 2005 when she was involved in a minor traffic accident with a non-Hispanic resident in Hoover, the suit says. After police officers arrived, one officer forcibly took her purse and wallet and searched them, without a warrant, the suit says.

"The officer then removed a card or cards that he immediately alleged were false or forged," the suit says, and Mancera-Ramirez was arrested and charged with second-degree possession of a forged instrument.

She was then taken to the Jefferson County Jail and placed under a "no bond" order signed by Cahill. Mancera-Ramirez, who does not speak English, stayed in jail for more than 20 days, spending most of that time in a cell with convicted inmates who did not speak Spanish, the suit says.

According to the suit, Mancera-Ramirez felt isolated and intimidated, and she pleaded guilty to the charge on June 21. She was sentenced to 50 days or time served. On July 18, she was released into federal custody and taken to a federal cell in Etowah County. At the end of August, she "was transported across the border from Brownsville, Texas, to Matamoros, Mexico, where she was abandoned," according to the suit.

The suit claims the actions violate constitutional rights to due process and equal protection of laws, as well as guarantees against unreasonable searches and seizures.

E-mail: dkent@bhamnews.com

It's outrageous that a foreign national, who was here illegally, can bring a suit against U.S. citizens. Hopefully the courts will reject her case. I wonder where she's getting the money to bring this suit?