Thread: GAPS in Legal System Kept Suspect In 3(NJ) Killlings On

Gaps in legal system kept suspect in three killings on the streets
Prosecutor is mum on notification of illegal status to feds
Saturday, August 11, 2007




BY ROBERT SCHWANEBERG AND BRIAN DONOHUE
Star-Ledger Staff


He was in this country illegally. Ten months ago he was charged with assaulting bar patrons; last month he was indicted for sexually assaulting a young girl and threatening to kill her family.

But Jose Lachira Carranza was not in jail awaiting trial, or in de tention as an illegal immigrant. He was free to roam the schoolyards of Newark, where authorities say he took part in the murder of three college-bound students and the shooting of a fourth last Saturday night.


As Carranza was arraigned yesterday on murder, weapons and other charges -- and ordered held on $1 million bail -- authorities in Essex County faced tough questions about why a man who should not have been in the United States, and was accused of a seri ous crime, had remained on the streets.

Court records and statements by prosecutors, immigration authorities and legal experts show how routine bail procedures and wide gaps between law enforcement and immigration policy worked in Carranza's favor in the months before the killings behind Mount Vernon School.

At a news conference following yesterday's arraignment, Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow declined to comment on whether her office had reported Carranza's illegal status to immigration officials after his two previous arrests.


Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they had scoured their records and found no such notification.

"My sense is now we were not contacted or made aware," said Scott Weber, Newark field office di rector for ICE's office of detention and removal.


Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for Dow's office, said its policy is to refer cases of illegal aliens to federal immigration authorities only after the defendant is convicted and sentenced. He said to do otherwise would risk having the defendant immediately deported before he could be punished for the crime.

Dow added that New Jersey will retain jurisdiction over Carranza throughout the murder trial and, if he is convicted, until he finishes his sentence.

"He is not leaving our system until this matter is adjudicated," Dow said. "We have him and he is ours."



The federal government encourages, but does not require, local authorities to contact ICE when they arrest someone who ap pears to be in the country illegally. ICE can place a detainer on the suspect, notifiying jailers that it should be notified before the sus pect is released so the agency can seek deportation. After Carranza's arrest on the murder charge, a detainer was issued.

Mike Cutler, a retired federal immigration officer, said Essex County officials should have notified ICE after the earlier arrests, especially given the severity of the allegations against Carranza. If the two agencies were cooperating, Cutler said, immigration agents could have provided evidence for prosecutors to argue at Carranza's bail hearing that he might be a flight risk.





Cutler dismissed fears that the defendant would have been de ported before he could stand trial on the earlier charges.

"ICE would not go in and deport someone out from under a prosecution," said Cutler, now a fellow with the Center for Immi gration Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank that advocates lower immigration levels. "If you sit down and work cooperatively with ICE, then you're not going to have people step on each other's noses."

But Mark Ali, head of the Essex County Prosecutor's child abuse unit, questioned whether immigra tion officials would have taken any action to detain Carranza even if they had been notified of his prior arrests.

"In 19 years, I have called immigration maybe a dozen times, and not once have they come to put a detainer or arrest someone," Ali said. He said the attitude of immi gration officials is: "Call us when he is convicted."

Morristown Mayor Donald Cre sitello said Carranza's case demonstrates the need for local police to participate in a controversial program that deputizes them to ar rest illegal aliens. He has applied to have the Morristown Police Department enrolled in the program.

The nationwide program faces resistance from immigrant advocates and some law enforcement officials who say it would increase fear of police among immigrants and keep people from reporting crimes.

But Cresitello said if Essex County participated, it would have been able to keep Carranza behind bars on immigration charges following his first two arrests.

That might also have been the case had Carranza's earlier arrest been on federal rather than state charges. Federal law authorizes pretrial detention of defendants considered a menace to the community.

"It's very common day to day in the federal court system that violent criminals are detained without bail at our request," said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie. "If the judge agrees with us that they represent a danger to the community, those defendants are detained."

That is not an option open to state court judges. The New Jersey Constitution guarantees all criminal defendants the right to bail unless they are facing the death penalty and "the proof is evident."

Where state judges have more leeway is in setting the amount of bail. In practice, they are guided by bail ranges recommended by the Administrative Office of the Courts.

"They are adhered to fairly closely by most judges," Assistant Public Defender Dale Jones said. The public defender's office is not representing Carranza, who has a private attorney.

On the aggravated assault charge growing out of the bar fight, Carranza's bail was set at the high end of the scale: $50,000 with an option for the defendant to post 10 percent in cash, or $5,000.

The child-rape case was more complicated, involving different charges of abusing the same girl filed at different times. For the most serious charge, aggravated sexual assault, the guidelines set a bail range of $150,000 to $300,000 -- with no option of posting just 10 percent.

Orange police filed the first charges on Jan. 17 and bail was set at $200,000. Twelve days later, according to court records, Judge John Kennedy lowered it to $150,000, which Carranza made with a bond from Martell Bail Bonds in Paterson.

On May 3, Carranza was ar rested on new charges filed by Newark police, and the next day Judge Michael Ravin set bail at $300,000. On May 17, Judge Thomas Vena lowered it to $150,000 and allowed the bond from Martell to cover that amount. Carranza was released May 22 after almost three weeks in jail.

Ali said his office "always op posed any lowering of the $300,000 bail."

Jones of the public defender's office said the bail amounts set for Carranza "appear to have been correct" in that they achieved their purpose of keeping him in the state to stand trial.

"He didn't flee, and when called upon to surrender (for the murder charge), he surrendered," Jones said. "The goal of bail in this case was met."



Staff writer William Kleinknecht contributed to this report.




http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf ... xml&coll=1

"It's very common day to day in the federal court system that violent criminals are detained without bail at our request," said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie. "If the judge agrees with us that they represent a danger to the community, those defendants are detained."

I think raping a child is enough REASON to think this man was a danger to the COMMUNITY!

Also, hearing reports he was threatening the child's family in the case!


Related story:

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=77218

How can local governments continue to pay for these crimes? My understanding is that a murder case can cost around a million dollars for prosecution, appeals and incarceration. Even a typical death penalty case costs around one million dollars, to the community, these days. Maybe they cost a lot more; I don't have the latest figures.

Once I heard just an ordinary blue-collar American remark that maybe the Muslims had a better idea in their justice system. Any thoughts? If America always pursues a correctional approach to justice--believing that nearly anyone can be redeemed--it will always incur astronomical costs and be looking for a means to pay for that method. The money must come fom somewhere. In a society that has so many entitlements the average citizen surely does not make enough to keep paying for the rehab of criminals. Does it, ultimately, come from unethical behavior by corporate interests in other parts of the world? Is that why other countries are often mad at us? Just some questions. I would appreciate your thoughts.

It is beginning to appear that the Latin American countries are using the U.S. for a dumping ground for their most undesirable citizens.