Thread: Part II- Houston Chronicle: An abuse of freedom

An abuse of freedom
Dozens of illegal immigrants out on bail commit another crime or vanish before trial
By SUSAN CARROLL
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 17, 2008, 6:51AM

The bailiff called the murder suspect's name for the second time, scanning the courtroom. "Juan Sanchez?"

It was June 30, the day Sanchez's trial was scheduled to start in Harris County District Court in the killing of Gregorio Diaz, a 25-year-old paramedic and U.S. Navy veteran.

Even though Sanchez told Harris County jailers he was in the country illegally when he was booked on the murder charge in July 2007, he was released on $35,000 bail, according to Harris County Sheriff's Office records.

Now, he was nowhere to be found.

Judge Joan Campbell called Sanchez's defense attorney and the prosecutor to the bench. "I am revoking bond on Juan Sanchez," she said. "Now."

Under her breath, the judge said, "So much for that murder case."

A Houston Chronicle investigation found dozens of cases in Harris County involving suspected illegal immigrants who posted bail and absconded on criminal charges, including murder, aggravated sexual assault of a child and drug trafficking.

The Chronicle examined arrest and immigration records for 3,500 inmates who told jailers that they were in the country illegally during a span of eight months starting in June 2007, the earliest immigration records available.

The review found at least 178 cases involving suspects who absconded, meaning they had their bails revoked for missing court dates or allegedly committing more crimes. Of those, 30 cases involved felony charges and two-thirds had initial bails set below $35,000 — the minimum recommended in the county's bail schedule for illegal immigrants accused of felonies.

Local officials said the problems stem from a shortage of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents dedicated to identifying illegal immigrants in the county's jails. When ICE doesn't file paperwork to detain illegal immigrants, prosecutors and pretrial services officers said, they have few tools to verify defendants' claims of legal status.

Lynne Parsons, Harris County district attorney central intake division chief, said the DA's Office runs criminal history checks on all defendants and sometimes gleans limited immigration information from an FBI database. But without word from ICE or other law enforcement, Parsons said, it generally must "rely on the person being charged to tell us the truth" when questioned about immigration status.

ICE officials have acknowledged difficulties screening all foreign-born inmates in the county's jails but said they have increased staffing and are identifying more criminals before they can post bail.

Campbell, the judge on the Sanchez case, did not return phone calls. Prosecutor Rifian Newaz took over the case in December from a colleague who said Sanchez had a Social Security number.


'No consistency at all'
The Chronicle review found a wide range of cases involving defendants who told jailers they were in the country illegally, posted bail and absconded.

The cases include:

•Jose Blanco, a 64-year-old accused of repeatedly sexually molesting a 6-year-old girl in southwest Houston, told jailers when he was arrested in June 2007 that he was in the country illegally. He was charged with indecency with a child and posted $10,000 bail. That charge was dismissed and replaced with more serious allegations: two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Blanco absconded after missing a court date in October 2007 and remains a fugitive.
•Juan Fernando Villalon, 43, told Harris County jailers twice in 2007 he was an illegal immigrant from Mexico — both times after being arrested on suspicion of assaulting his ex-girlfriend. He posted $10,000 bail in December 2007 and was released from Harris County Jail. In January, while out on bail, he tracked her down and punched her, leading to another felony assault charge. He was arrested in June and is serving a two-year prison sentence.
•Arturo Munoz Osorio, 62, was charged in August 2007 with aggravated sexual assault of a child. He told jailers he was in the country illegally when he was booked into jail Aug. 2, 2007. He posted $10,000 bail four days later and missed a September court date. A warrant for his arrest was issued in January.

Debbie Mantooth Stricklin, administrative judge for the county's 20-plus criminal district courts, said she did not know why felony defendants believed to be in the country illegally had initial bails set below the $35,000 guideline. She said the criminal judges adopted the higher bails for illegal immigrants in December 2006 to reduce their flight risk.

"There is no consistency at all," when it comes to illegal immigrants and bail, said S. Bruce Hiran, a defense attorney and a licensed bail bondsman in Harris County. "It depends on which court you land in. ... It depends on the Sheriff's Office personnel who input the data" into the computer system.


Lost in the crowd
In addition to ICE manpower shortages, the number of defendants moving through the court system makes it difficult to identify illegal immigrants before bail is set, officials said. More than 100,000 people were arrested and charged with Class B misdemeanors or higher in Harris County last year.

The bail-setting process generally moves quickly after an arrest. An initial bail amount is set using guidelines that factor in the severity of the charge and the defendant's criminal history.

Pretrial services officers interview most defendants about their personal history and prepare reports designed to help magistrates set bail.

In October, Harris County jailers were given access to a Department of Homeland Security database that allows them to check suspects' immigration records automatically. But prosecutors and pretrial services officers do not have direct access to that database.

Carol Oeller, the county's pretrial services director, said her department has tried different methods to verify immigration status over the years, including testing an immigration database in 2007 and calling ICE about individual cases. She said pretrial services officers note in their reports whether ICE has placed a hold on a defendant.

Oeller said she has found that most defendants are honest about their legal status. "They own up to it" if they're undocumented, she said.


Constitutional concerns
States and counties across the country have tried to address the issue of bail for illegal immigrants, but many proposals stalled because of constitutional concerns. In 2006, Arizona voters passed Proposition 100, which denies bail to illegal immigrants charged with serious felonies. Civil rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court in April, charging the law is unconstitutional.

Defense attorneys and immigrant advocates have criticized Harris County's $35,000 minimum bail policy, saying the Texas Constitution grants equal rights to bail to everyone who is arrested, except for capital defendants.

There is no conclusive research to show whether illegal immigrants are more likely than their U.S.-born counterparts to abscond on state charges while out on bail.

Patrick McCann, a Houston defense attorney who has lobbied for eliminating the higher bails, said the inflated bails unfairly discriminate against immigrants and may cause some to plead guilty, even if they're not. The practice may also invite racial profiling of Hispanic defendants, he said.

"What possible business is this of the state courts?" McCann said. "I thought we had immigration courts."

Stricklin, the administrative judge, defended the policy, saying, ''The fact that someone is here illegally is relevant to whether they are going to be a flight risk."


For family, no closure
Gregorio Diaz was Maria Martinez and Hipolito Diaz's only son. Over the years, the Mexican immigrants had split time between a ranch in the hills of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and the bustle of Houston. When Gregorio was 13, they moved the family to Houston with plans to stay permanently.

A U.S. citizen by birth, Gregorio joined the ROTC at Jefferson Davis Senior High School and signed up for the Navy, training as a paramedic. In 2004, Gregorio was stationed in Iraq, attached to a Marine unit: the 2nd Battalion 7th Marines.

On the night of June 10, 2007, Gregorio and some friends were in a southwest Houston bar when they got into an argument with two men police later identified as Juan and Adolfo Sanchez, records say.

The Sanchez brothers left the bar, returned with guns and shot Diaz at least five times, records say. As they tried to flee, the brothers were involved in a car accident and were stopped by police, records say. Juan Sanchez, 30, was taken to the hospital, and his younger brother was questioned and released.

Gregorio Diaz was pronounced dead at 1:48 a.m. That night, his mother said, she had a premonition of his death, awoke in the family's home in north Houston and reached for the prayer book on her nightstand. She opened it randomly and started reading, like she normally does when she can't sleep.

"Father," she read in Spanish, "receive the soul of our son."

Both Sanchez brothers were charged in Gregorio's slaying. Adolfo Sanchez disappeared the night Gregorio died. Juan Sanchez was arrested in July 2007 and skipped on his bail in late June.

After Juan Sanchez fled, Gregorio's mother and his two sisters, Elizabeth and Nora, printed up hundreds of Crime Stoppers fliers with photos of the Sanchez brothers. They posted them in the strip mall on South Post Oak where Gregorio was shot and in the neighborhood outside the Sam Houston Tollway where the Sanchez brothers used to live.

"They can't run away forever," said Nora, a college student.

"I think they can hide from us, and maybe from everyone else, but not the one up there," said Elizabeth, 25. "When it's their time, they'll answer for this."

Gregorio's white cowboy hat still hangs on a hook in the entrance to the family's home. A black mourning ribbon is tied to the front door.

On his birthday in April, Nora and her mother and sister baked a chocolate cake, his favorite, and brought it to the Houston National Cemetery, cutting it at his grave site in the cold rain.

susan.carroll@chron.com

I wonder if the Diaz family are in favor of amnesty for illegal aliens?

Originally Posted by miguelina

I wonder if the Diaz family are in favor of amnesty for illegal aliens?

I have no doubt that they do favor it, still. They are probably looking to blame America for this one.

I STILL can't comprehend bail on MURDER charges! And $10K? That's laughable if it weren't so sad. One more thing I don't comprehend, where the hell are they coming up with that kind of bail money?

All I can say is Thank GOD I don't live in Texas.

Originally Posted by nomas

I STILL can't comprehend bail on MURDER charges! And $10K? That's laughable if it weren't so sad. One more thing I don't comprehend, where the hell are they coming up with that kind of bail money?

All I can say is Thank GOD I don't live in Texas.

Well just a few days after the election the Chronicle did a story about local judges who got voted out. The judges were wondering what happened. They were doing their jobs and they got voted out. Well this is exactly why they got voted out. The DA's office was also changed. Harris County residents have grown tired of this blatant incompetency. The judges in these cases as well as those in the DA’s office should have been disbarred.

About the bail, they only need 10% of the bail money. So a $10K bail would be $1000.00 But then you have to wonder why a bail company would even touch the bail of a flight risk like an illegal. Thank goodness these bail companies have to pay some consequences for being doing bad business.

Miguelina I wonder what that baboso Tony Cheek would have to say about the poor Sanchez brothers.

"This is disturbing, and it is polarizing our communities. As a white guy, Latinos used to like me. For some reason they liked having a white guy as a friend. Senoritas seemed to be attracted to me. But nowadays it's a lot different. Some of the people are not as friendly. They're more wary than anything else. Senoritas don't seem to be as attracted to me anymore either. That really hurts." -Tony Cheek

Online he gives his motivation for being an amnesty advocate says he like Latinas hermana querida I don't suppose you would go out with him.