Thread: Hispanic workers not charged but still languish in jail

Hispanic workers not charged but still languish in jail
Benjamin Alexander
See the sob storey here at blog.nola.com


After another day of hard work last spring, seven Hispanic construction workers spent the evening relaxing in the run-down trailer they shared near Slidell. Some were eating fish and watching TV.

Jose Luis Martinez-Carpio, 36, was cooking and talking on the phone with his girlfriend in his homeland of El Salvador.

Suddenly, two masked gunmen burst in, demanding money. And the workers watched in horror as Martinez-Carpio was fatally shot three times by the intruders, who then shot at the witnesses and fled empty-handed.


For the six remaining migrant workers -- from El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico -- their nightmare had just begun.

Because they were illegal immigrants as well as material witnesses to the April 29 crime, the men were immediately taken into custody and have remained in jail for the past seven months: first in St. Tammany, then in federal custody, then back to the north shore. For the first six months, they didn't have an attorney.

They're stuck in a perilous limbo, in the fissure between state and federal government -- trapped between prosecutors, who need them to testify at the trial of four suspects, and immigration officials, who would deport them if they were released.

Local and national attorneys, government officials and immigration rights advocates say they have never heard of a case quite like it.

The witnesses -- Jose Roberto Romero Echegoyen, Luis Fernando Martinez Avila, Santos Medardo Valle Meza, Marco Tulla Varela Maradiaga, Juan Carlos Reyes Gonzalez and Pedro Antonio Lopez -- whose only crime is being in the country illegally, could remain in jail until the murder trial is held, even if that takes years.

"They witnessed a murder, and their testimony is necessary for the prosecution's case," said Rick Wood, the St. Tammany district attorney's spokesman. "If we release them, they will be deported."

"It is unfortunate that they must remain in jail, however, it is necessary."

All six still languish in jail, and three of the four men arrested by the St. Tammany Sheriff's Office in the murder case remain behind bars: the alleged triggerman, Glenn Carter, 17, of New Orleans; another gunman, Jace Washington, 19, of Slidell; and an alleged accomplice, Edric Cooper, 19, of Slidell.

Another alleged accomplice, Grant Gethers, 18, of New Orleans, left jail on a $100,000 bond after two months behind bars. The four suspects were arrested about a week after the slaying on Madison Street, and each faces second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder charges.

Precedents may not exist

The witnesses' plight is "unfortunate but necessary," several state and national law enforcement officials said.

Katie Schwartzmann, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who recently began looking into the matter, said she was unable to find any legal precedent.

"From a constitutional perspective this raises serious concerns," she said.

After the shooting, the Sheriff's Office informed the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the witnesses and their questionable immigration status.

"We are dictated by their rules and regulations," said Fred Oswald, chief of detectives for the Sheriff's Office.

Typically, illegal immigrants from Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador are detained for about a week before being deported home, according to Temple Black, the spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee.

But the six foreign witnesses already have spent 25 times that long in the St. Tammany jail in Covington.

Although they initially were handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a motion for arrest of the material witnesses was filed by the St. Tammany district attorney's office on May 31 and signed by state Judge William J. Burris.

Then on June 4, the St. Tammany clerk of court's office sent a letter to the detention center in Oakdale. It included a certified copy of the arrest warrant and asked that the "warden produce the enlisted persons to the St. Tammany Parish courthouse," the letter states.

On June 6, the witnesses arrived at the St. Tammany jail, where they have remained.

A unique case

Wood said that material witnesses normally are held only during the time of the trial, and even then it usually is only because they have failed to appear at previous hearings for needed court testimony.

He said the case of the current witnesses is unique because the fear is that federal officials would immediately deport the men if they were released.

Black said the state's fear is justified.

"Normally, if someone is released from jail, we will pick them up and deport them," he said. "Although generally it is because if someone is a criminal, then we are trying to deport them before they can commit a similar crime again."

Like Wood, he pointed out that because the witnesses in St. Tammany jail did not commit a crime -- other than being illegal immigrants -- their situation is atypical.

Both Wood and Black pointed fingers at one another.

Black emphasized that it sounded like "a state legal issue."

Wood said that it "is basically a federal issue," because "the very fact that they have not yet been deported means that the federal authorities must have sanctioned them being in our jail."

"We can't supersede federal law," Wood said.

Finally given a lawyer

The six witnesses were not assigned an attorney until a few weeks ago, a few days after a reporter began asking questions about the situation.

Attempting to explain why his clients did not have representation for about six months, Warren Montgomery said that oversights can happen.

"People can get lost in the system," he said. "It's taken much longer than necessary for all this to come to light but I think everyone was acting in good faith."

Before the men were provided a defense attorney, both the district attorney's Office and the Sheriff's Office refused to publicly release the witnesses' names.

"I am not going to release their names because they aren't being held in any criminal wrongdoing," Capt. George Bonnett, the sheriff's spokesman, had said in response to a reporter's inquiries.

After Montgomery was assigned to their case, the witnesses' names were added into the St. Tammany clerk of court's criminal database. Their names now are public, but no charges are listed in their files. Federal officials confirmed that the men were in the country illegally, but it is unclear if any federal charges have been filed against them.

There are only names and birthdays: Reyes Gonzalez, 23; Martinez Avila, 24; Lopez, 32; Valle Meza, 37; Varela Maradiaga, 38; and Romero Echegoyen, 38.

Cut out with scissors

Along with their mug shots, all other information was cut from the paper record at the jail -- literally cut with scissors, resulting in odd-shaped pieces of paper resembling a sixth-grade art project. Officials said the information was not public record.

The sheriff and the district attorney's office did say some of the witnesses are from El Salvador and Honduras. ICE officials have stated that a few of them are from Mexico.

None of the departments would identify the specific nationalities of each individual.

State Judge William J. Burris , who signed their arrest warrants, said that he was unaware the witnesses were being held in the jail until a reporter asked him about the matter. He said that he signs so many warrants that it can be hard to keep track.

Now aware of the situation, he said he would look into the legal issues involved.

Montgomery declined to comment on most details within the case because he said he was worried about creating bad faith with law enforcement officials and thereby hurting his clients' chance at freedom.

He said the witnesses declined to be interviewed by a reporter.

"They would prefer to just cooperate, give their testimony and go home," he said. "They don't want to say anything that would in any way further delay their return to their homeland."

Paromita Shah, the associate director of the National Immigration Project, suggested that perhaps a type of probation could be arranged wherein the immigrants could be released from jail contingent on their checking in with ICE every week to prove they still are in the immediate area.

The National Immigration Project is a legal advocacy organization based in Boston that provides legal support on immigrant rights issues.

Malvern Burnett, a private immigration lawyer in New Orleans, added that occasionally in cases where illegal immigrants are encouraged to testify they are given temporary visas.

"You can't have them in this quasi state forever," he said. "Illegal aliens have rights as well, meaning they can't just be detained indefinitely without a hearing."

Both Shah and Burnett, who has practiced immigration law in New Orleans for more than 20 years, said they had never heard of any situation like this one.

Montgomery is planning to push for resolution during the next scheduled trial date, Dec. 21 in Burris' courtroom.

Taped testimony?

He said he hopes the witnesses can give their testimony on the record this month "so that they can get home for Christmas."

The thought would be that the witnesses could be questioned by the prosecution and defense on the record -- either recorded on tape or video -- and then that testimony could be replayed for the jury whenever the trial takes place.

"But I understand that the judge is involved in a very delicate balancing process here between the state's interests to pursue and convict violent deadly criminals, the defense attorneys' interests in protecting their clients' rights and the interests of these six poor working men who are illegal in the country but who have not committed a violation of law that would mandate them to be in prison for this length of time," Montgomery said.

Shah said that while anything to get the witnesses back home would be warranted, pre-recording testimony is generally not the best solution because it curtails attorneys from fluidly responding to a jury trial's occasional surprises. For example, it prevents attorneys from changing their questions to the witnesses in response to sudden curve balls introduced during the trial itself.

Montgomery agreed that there is no simple solution.

"Frankly, what the legal parameters are for material witnesses under these circumstances is not completely clear," he said. "I think it's fair to say that due process under the law requires that they not be held indefinitely, but what exact time period is justified is not a black-and-white question."

According to Patricia Ducre, a former neighbor of the migrant workers on Madison Street near Slidell, the men had been living in the trailer for about eight months. The yard surrounding them was littered with broken bicycles, car tires, busted furniture and an overturned washer and dryer.

"They worked hard all day and would come home at night and sit around outside, eating chips and drinking Cokes," she said.

And she said sometimes the men would meander across the street, sit on her porch swing and talk about going home again.

"According to Patricia Ducre, a former neighbor of the migrant workers on Madison Street near Slidell, the men had been living in the trailer for about eight months. The yard surrounding them was littered with broken bicycles, car tires, busted furniture and an overturned washer and dryer. "

Great neighbors to have

Derek Kichline was murdered in cold blood by 2 illegal alien criminals, which sparked the last straw that enabled Mayor Lou Barletta to enact the IIRA in Hazleton, PA. Police failed to have the illegal alien criminal witness held as a key witness in a murder trial, and he was subsequently deported. The star witness REFUSED to return to the US to testify.

The cops are doing the RIGHT THING in the article above.

PS

sob story alert.

They are correct in doing what they are doing. The stupid legal system in Florida allowed Cubans who never made land stay on land if they agreed to testify against smugglers. That case happened not that long ago and people were injured and one person died as the smugglers refused to stop for the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard was forced to shoot the boat engines in order for the smuggler to stop. Guess what the Cubans were allowed to stay and they all pleaded the 5th. The government cannot make deals with those people as they are unreliable in the majority of the cases.

Immigrants held as witnesses may get home soon
by The Times-Picayune
Thursday December 27, 2007, 7:54 PM
By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch
St. Tammany bureau

The last of six illegal immigrants being held as material witnesses to a murder may return home soon to their families in Central America after being imprisoned for eight months, trapped in a chasm between federal and state governments.

State Judge William J. Burris in Covington released the men from the state's hold Thursday, about a week after he did the same for three of their friends, allowing them to be turned over to federal officials for deportation.

The six have been held in the St. Tammany Parish Jail -- without a single state charge leveled against them -- since being detained as material witnesses to a friend's murder near Slidell in April.


The St. Tammany district attorney's office has maintained that it was necessary to hold them because otherwise they would have been deported by federal authorities before they could testify at the murder trial. But in the end, prosecutors didn't even seek testimony from three of the men.

National, state, and local law enforcement officials, attorneys, judges and immigrant rights advocates have said they have never heard of a case quite like it.

The six witnesses -- from Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador -- just wanted to be free, even if that meant being deported. They have been held since spring, until recently without a lawyer, translation services or any way to contact their families.

Worried about families

They came to the New Orleans area to help with reconstruction efforts after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Despite the recent hardships of jail, the men worried most about their lost income and about not being able to support their families back home, said Warren Montgomery, the attorney recently assigned to represent them.

"They are tired of waiting," Montgomery said. "Their families have been without their financial contributions and they feel, what they mainly talk about, is their families' suffering.

"Being in jail is terrible, but when they consider that their children may not have food or a roof over their head, they are concerned first with their family and then with themselves."

Released from the state's hold Thursday were Jose Roberto Romero Echegoyen, Luis Fernando Martinez Avila and Santos Medardo Valle Meza, who testified about the slaying at a court hearing last week.

Romero Echegoyen, 38, has two sons and two daughters back home. In El Salvador, he was a bus driver who never got past seventh grade.

The night of the April 29 slaying, he was lying on his bed talking on the phone with his wife, according to his testimony.

The last time he saw friend and countryman Jose Luis Martinez Carpio alive was outside the mobile home they shared with four other immigrants near Slidell.

Martinez Carpio, 36, also was talking on the phone with his family moments before he was killed by robbers who burst into the trailer, according to Romero Echegoyen's testimony.

"He was an active type of person. A humble person. He was a good person, friendly with everyone," Romero Echegoyen said.

Gunmen burst in

Another roommate, Martinez Avila, had been a fisher in Honduras. The 24-year-old had made it only through second grade.

After his mother died, Martinez Avila came to the United States to make some money to help support his little brothers, according to George Roig Jr., a Slidell neighbor and friend.

"He was almost like one of my kids," said Roig, whose son had become friends with Martinez Avila during the two years they lived next door to each other.

The night of the killing, Martinez Avila had just walked into the trailer after a soccer game. He was about to call his girlfriend in Honduras.

"I took off my shoes and shirt and lay down and when I was about to dial, that's when they came in and pushed the door open," he testified.

Martinez Avila and Romero Echegoyen shared a bedroom in the trailer. They both testified that two men, dressed entirely in black and wearing ski masks, burst into their room and demanded money while wielding black 9 mm pistols.

Martinez Avila reached into his pockets and handed them all he had on him: a $5 bill.

Then all four men in the room heard four gunshots from the living room. One of the intruders -- the taller of the two, according to testimony -- immediately ran off.

The shorter gunman stayed put and shot at Martinez Avila, but the bullet missed.

"But then the gun got locked up and he pointed it at me and tried to make it fire but he couldn't get it to fire again, so he ran off," Martinez Avila testified.

After the intruders had fled, the two men went into their living room and found their friend dead. Valle Meza, 37, the last witness who testified last week, said he didn't see a thing.

He shared a room in the trailer with Marco Tulla Varela Maradiaga, 38, also from Honduras.

Four suspects arrested

"When we heard the shots, we were trying to eat," he testified.

He said they both dropped to the floor of their bedroom and stayed there.

"I saw absolutely nobody," he said.

In Honduras, he was a painter with a fifth-grade education. He has a 3-year-old son back home.

A week after the shooting, four teenagers were arrested in the killing: the alleged triggerman, Glenn Carter, 17, of New Orleans; another alleged gunman, Jace Washington, 19, of Slidell; and alleged accomplices Edric Cooper, 19, of Slidell, and Grant Gethers, 18, of New Orleans.

Gethers left jail on a $100,000 bond after two months behind bars.

Last week, Burris allowed the witnesses' testimony to be videotaped and transcribed so that the men would not have to remain in jail until the case comes to trial, which could take years, depending on continuances.

Three of the six men were not even called to the stand last Friday to testify. They were Juan Carlos Reyes Gonzalez, 23, and Pedro Antonio Lopez, 32, both of Mexico, and Varela Maradiaga.

Because it turned out, after eight months behind bars, that they weren't needed after all, Burris immediately released them from state custody. They were picked up by federal authorities on Wednesday.

The night of the shooting, Reyes Gonzalez was out wiring money to his family in Mexico, said Assistant District Attorney Bruce Dearing.

Lopez didn't live in the trailer, but he was friends with some of the men and happens to own a white truck. Some people said they saw a white truck around the scene of the killing, Dearing explained.

Varela Maradiaga was in the bedroom with Valle Meza; he heard the shots but didn't see the killing.

Trying to get visas

Montgomery had asked the court to wait until Thursday to rule on whether to release the three witnesses who had testified. He said he was attempting to secure a special visa that would allow them to remain in Louisiana until the trial.

But by Thursday, Montgomery had not secured the visa, so he asked the judge to rule. Before the judge ordered them released by the state, the three men spent hours meticulously reviewing the testimony they had given to verify its accuracy.

The Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has until Monday -- or 48 hours after they are notified of witnesses' release, not including weekends or holidays -- to pick up the immigrants from state custody. The federal authorities then would deport them to their home countries.

Montgomery said he will continue to work to obtain visas for the three men who testified so that they can remain in the state and testify.

The three witnesses said they would prefer to stay in the country so that they could scrape together some money to make up for the financial dry spell caused by their incarceration.

The suspects' defense attorneys also advocated having the witnesses remain so that they could testify in person during the trial.

The prosecutor is also rallying for possible visas.

"Our preference is to have live testimony at the trial," Dearing said.

The Department of Homeland Security would determine whether to give the witnesses the visas that would allow them to remain in the state.

www.nola.com

Originally Posted by Benjamin Alexander-Bloch

The six have been held in the St. Tammany Parish Jail -- without a single state charge leveled against them -- since being detained as material witnesses to a friend's murder near Slidell in April.

You come here illegally and then complain about not getting habeas corpus?

Tell yer sob story to José Padilla.