http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=43955


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INVASION USA
Feds question release
of reservist Sgt. Haab
Immigration-rights group to file complaint with Organization of American States in D.C.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: April 23, 2005
5:00 p.m. Eastern


© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com


Sgt. Patrick Haab, the U.S. Army reservist jailed for holding seven illegal aliens at gunpoint until Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff's deputies arrived – and who was freed by that same county's district attorney after determining he had made a legal citizen's arrest – should have been prosecuted, say immigration rights activists and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona.

The 24-year-old Haab was arrested and charged with seven counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after drawing a pistol on a group of men he said charged him at an Interstate 8 rest stop. The men later were determined to be illegal aliens from Mexico.

After review of the charges, Maricopa County District Attorney Andrew Thomas determined that Haab's actions were legal under a Arizona law that authorizes citizens to make arrests if a felony or certain specified misdemeanors have been committed. The "coyote" smuggling the six other illegal immigrants committed a felony, Thomas said, as did his passengers who committed felonies when they conspired to illegally enter the U.S.



Thomas' legal reasoning, however, is being disputed by the Arizona office of the U.S. Attorney, who will only be prosecuting the smuggler on felony charges. Illegal entry to the U.S. is not a felony on the first incident nor one of the specified misdemeanors covered under Arizona's citizen's arrest law. None of the smuggler's illegal clients will be charged by the Feds.

"Individuals can't be charged with aiding and abetting their own smuggling," Sandy Raynor, public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona, tells the Arizona Republic. "If the people being smuggled are only being transported, then there is no conspiracy. ... That is federal law."

"The only federal charge pending at this time is against the driver of the vehicle who is the alleged smuggler," adds Raynor.

Barnett Lotstein, special assistant to the Maricopa County attorney, defends his boss's decision not to prosecute and disputes the U.S. Attorney's interpretation of the law.

"When individuals by action agreed to be transported, or when they got into the vehicle to be transported, a crime of conspiracy was committed," Lotstein explains. "If they had never even gotten in the car, or had changed their minds ... they still would've been guilty of conspiracy."

Unlike police, who can only arrest when they have probable cause to believe a crime has been committed, citizens do not need probable cause – but they need to be right, or they can face prosecution after the fact.

Pointing a gun at someone without probable cause or the need for self-defense is a felony in Arizona, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Because conspiracy is a felony, Haab was covered by the citizen's arrest law, Thomas argues.

"If he had guessed wrong, he'd be prosecuted for a heck of a lot of offenses," Lotstein tells the East Valley Tribune. "He didn't beat the rap. He acted legally."

"That's not true," counters federal public defender Jon Sands of Thomas's charge of conspiracy to illegally enter the U.S. "Legally, that's just not the case."

According to Sands, immigrants who cross the border illegally usually become material witnesses against their smuggler.

Immigrant rights groups reacted angrily to Thomas' decision, holding a demonstration at the Maricopa County courthouse yesterday.

"The county attorney's decision will grant the license to hunt for Mexicans, or anyone with brown skin," Phoenix attorney Danny Ortega said. "We firmly and unequivocally believe that the decision was an abuse of discretion and of flawed legal reasoning."

Alfredo Gutierrez, former state senator and Spanish-language radio talk-show host weighed in on other immigrant-related issues facing Arizonans.

"This is the last hit," he told the crowd. "In the face of the Minutemen at the border (and) in the face of the pieces of legislation moving through the Legislature, to allow a citizen to pull a gun out because he was 'rushed' by Mexicans is an outrage."

"It is another notch in the disturbing pattern of impunity that vigilantes enjoy in Arizona," Border Action Network's Jen Allen told the Tucson Citizen, adding that her organization had prepared a complaint to be presented to the Organization of American States' Inter-American Commission on Human Rights next week in Washington.