Thread: CA-JUDGE SAYS FAMILY KILLED BY ILLEGAL CAN SUE CITY

Judge Lets Victims' Kin Take City of S.F. to Court

San Francisco Chronicle
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, September 14, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO -- The family of a father and two sons who were slain in San Francisco last year can go to state court with a claim that the city is to blame for failing to turn their alleged killer over to immigration authorities when he was arrested earlier as a juvenile, a federal judge has ruled.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera had asked U.S. District Judge Susan Illston to rule on the claim herself after dismissing the rest of the suit last month by Tony Bologna's widow and daughter. But Illston said Friday that the remainder of the family's case - that the city's negligence caused the killings - belongs in Superior Court because it is based on state law and challenges San Francisco's policies.

Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16, were shot to death near their home in the Excelsior district in June 2008. Edwin Ramos, 22, is charged with murdering them.

Ramos, a native of El Salvador whom prosecutors describe as a member of the MS-13 gang, was arrested twice as a juvenile, for an assault in October 2003 and an attempted purse-snatching in April 2004. Juvenile courts sent him to a shelter after the first incident and to the city-run Log Cabin Ranch in the Peninsula hills after the second.

Case records don't show whether police or juvenile courts knew that Ramos had entered the United States illegally. But under juvenile authorities' interpretation of the city's sanctuary policy at the time, they would not have passed that information along to federal immigration officials. Federal authorities learned of Ramos' status later but did not take him into custody for deportation proceedings.

The family's lawsuit says the city was responsible for the shootings because its policy allowed Ramos to go free.

Last month, Illston rejected the family's claim that the city's actions violated the shooting victims' constitutional right to due process of law. She said the city might be held to account if it knew Ramos posed a specific threat to the Bolognas, but not for releasing someone who allegedly endangered a large segment of the public.

Herrera's office urged Illston to address the negligence claim as well, arguing that it was governed by the same legal standard: a requirement that the plaintiffs show city officials knew the Bolognas were in danger and had a duty to protect them.

But Matthew Davis, the family's lawyer, said Monday that California law makes it easier to hold government officials accountable for allegedly harboring illegal immigrants or preventing police from reporting them to federal authorities.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... z0R7F5VzHR

God bless the Bologna family!!!!!!!!!!

I hope they see justice and that the judge throws the book at that God forsaken San Fransicko AND the scum that killed them!

Thank God! Thank God!
God bless this judge for standing up for American citizens!

Moved from Other Topics to News.

I hope she gets some justice, it won't bring back her family but maybe it will make it a little easier to live with knowing she won something for them.

Now maybe the families of murder victims in other Sanctuary Cities such as Houston and Los Angeles can sue their local governments and hold them responsible.

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-4514--0-0.html

I would think that 5 million, PLUS the deportation of any ILLEGAL family members left from this murderers family. That is fair.

She said the city might be held to account if it knew Ramos posed a specific threat to the Bolognas, but not for releasing someone who allegedly endangered a large segment of the public.

Apply this logic to someone carrying a gun without a permit and because he didn't shoot anyone yet he should be turned loose.

Originally Posted by SicNTiredInSoCal

God bless the Bologna family!!!!!!!!!!

I hope they see justice and that the judge throws the book at that God forsaken San Fransicko AND the scum that killed them!

ITS ASHAME THAT THOSE PEOPLE ARE ALLOWED TO COME HERE ILLEGALLY AND COMMIT CRIMES AGAINST AMERICAN CITIZENS AND ALL THAT HAPPENS TO THEM IS THAT THEY ARE DEPORTED JUST TO TURN AROUND AND SNEAK BACK IN THE COUNTRY TO COMMIT MORE CRIMES. THIS FAMILY AND THEIR LOVED ONES WHO ARE GONE TOO SOON DESERVE JUSTICE. JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED I PRAY THAT THIS DOSEN'T HAPPEN TO THE SURVIVING FAMILY MEMBERS. WHAT IS THIS COUNTRY COMING TO?