Thread: Not first run-in for driver UPDATE 10th death in Yuma

Published: 08.11.2006

9 killed: Not first run-in for driver
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
YUMA — A man accused of driving an SUV packed with illegal entrants that crashed this week, killing nine and injuring a dozen, was prosecuted after a similar chase last year, federal court records show.
Adan Pineda Doval, 20, is in federal custody on a charge of felony transportation of illegal aliens for Monday's crash north of Yuma. Federal officials said he was trying to avoid a Border Patrol checkpoint and led agents on a chase before trying to make a U-turn and overturning the SUV.
Pineda led agents on a similar pursuit in June 2005, according to documents filed in federal court in Yuma. He drove a truck from Yuma to Quartzsite with Border Patrol agents and Arizona Department of Public Safety officers in pursuit.
"The defendant drove erratically ... putting the lives of the agents and his passengers in danger," said a statement included with the complaint.
Pineda had entered the United States illegally near Andrade, Calif., and was charged with illegal entry.
The federal statement also listed aggravated assault against a law enforcement officer, criminal damage, resisting arrest, unlawful flight from a law enforcement vehicle and endangerment, but he never faced those charges. Instead, less than a week after the chase, Pineda was sentenced to six months in prison on the misdemeanor entry charge.
It appears Pineda was the recipient of what federal prosecutors call a "flip-flop," used because there are so many smuggling cases, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.
In a flip-flop, normally offered to smugglers who didn't endanger those they were smuggling, prosecutors charge the smuggler with a felony and a misdemeanor, he or she accepts a plea agreement and is found guilty only of the misdemeanor.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/141661

http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clickt ... ts-ON.html

10th person dies from injuries in immigrant smuggling crash

Associated Press
Aug. 12, 2006 03:55 PM


YUMA, Ariz. - A 17-year-old boy injured Monday when a Chevrolet Suburban packed with illegal immigrants rolled while fleeing the U.S. Border Patrol has died, bring to 10 the number killed in the wreck, a Mexican Consulate official said.

The boy died Friday at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, where four other injured migrants remain hospitalized, said Jorge Solchaga, head of the protection department of the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix. A premature baby girl born to an injured woman also remains hospitalized.

The rollover happened Monday morning about 30 miles north of Yuma while the Suburban was being pursued by Border Patrol agents. The driver lost control and the SUV rolled while trying to avoid a spike strip agents had placed in its path.

The consulate has identified five of the six illegal immigrants originally sent to the Phoenix hospital, but has not released their names or the names of the dead. Solchaga said a woman remains unidentified, and one person was released Thursday.

The Suburban was packed with 20 migrants and an alleged smuggler, who is being held on a federal charge of felony transportation of illegal aliens. Federal officials said additional charges are possible against 20-year-old Adan Pineda Doval.

Pineda was jailed after a similar chase last year but was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor.

Solchaga said those who remain hospitalized, two males and two females, are in stable condition, including the baby's mother. The baby girl was born by Caesarean section prematurely and weighed only 3 pounds and 11 ounces. He said she was nicknamed "Miracles," or "Milagros," and is in stable condition.

It appears Pineda was the recipient of what federal prosecutors call a "flip-flop," used because there are so many smuggling cases, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.
In a flip-flop, normally offered to smugglers who didn't endanger those they were smuggling, prosecutors charge the smuggler with a felony and a misdemeanor, he or she accepts a plea agreement and is found guilty only of the misdemeanor.

It's funny isn't it, two BP agents are facing 20 years a piece for shooting at a fleeing drug smuggler (smuggler received immunity from prosecution), yet an illegal alien smuggler is charged with a misdemeanor and only does six months. There is something very wrong with this picture.

It is getting very difficult to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys anymore. IMHO, U.S. Attorney General Gonzales and those that work for him are starting to look very much like the bad guys!

If you think this system of 'flip-flopping" is bad, at least he was sentenced at all. Here in San Diego, our U.S. Attorney Carol Lam refuses to even indict or prosecute illegal alien smugglers, she just lets them walk, saying they have higher priority cases to worry about. In fact in 2004, she charged only 6% out of nearly 300 smugglers with a crime. That's right, only 6% of the illegal alien smugglers caught were even prosecuted by this dedicated servant of the people. So 94% of these scumbag criminals walked free, so tell me, if you were caught with a crime and you were just let to go free, would you fear doing it again?


From AZCENTRAL.COM:

Border Patrol demoralized by lack of smuggling prosecutions, report says

SAN DIEGO - The vast majority of people caught smuggling immigrants across the border near San Diego are never prosecuted for the offense, demoralizing the Border Patrol agents making the arrests, according to an internal document obtained by The Associated Press.

"It is very difficult to keep agents' morale up when the laws they were told to uphold are being watered-down or not prosecuted," the report says.

The report offers a stark assessment of the situation at a Border Patrol station responsible for guarding 13 miles of mountainous border east of the city. Federal officials say it reflects a reality along the entire 2,000-mile border: Judges and federal attorneys are so swamped that only the most egregious smuggling cases are prosecuted. advertisement

Only 6 percent of 289 suspected immigrant smugglers were prosecuted by the federal government for that offense in the year ending in September 2004, according to the report. Some were instead prosecuted for another crime. Other cases were declined by federal prosecutors, or the suspect was released by the Border Patrol.



The lack of prosecutions is "demoralizing the agents and making a joke out of our system of justice," said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents agents. "It is certainly a weak link in our immigration-enforcement chain."

The 41-page report says federal prosecutors in San Diego typically prosecute smugglers who commit "dangerous/violent activity" or guide at least 12 illegal immigrants across the border. But other smugglers know they are only going to get "slapped on the wrist," according to the report.

The report cites a 19-year-old U.S. citizen caught three times in a two-week period in 2004 trying to sneak people from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego in his car trunk, two at a time.

"This is an example of a kid who knows the system," the report says. "What is true is that he will probably never be prosecuted if he only smuggles only one or two bodies at a time."

The report also cites a Mexican citizen who was caught in Arizona and California driving with illegal immigrants and was released each time to Mexico. He was prosecuted the fourth time, when two illegal immigrants in his van died in a crash, and sentenced to five years in prison.

U.S. Attorney Carol Lam in San Diego said about half her 110 attorneys work on border cases in an area where the Border Patrol made nearly 140,000 arrests last year. She said she gives highest priority to the most serious cases, including suspects with long histories of violent crime or offenders who endanger others' lives.