Thread: Judge Lets Drunk Illegal Immigrant Go After Killing Nebraska Woman

by WARNER TODD HUSTON 23 Feb 2016

Judge Lets Drunk Illegal Immigrant Go After Killing Nebraska Woman: Hearing Lasted Just Minutes

More information has emerged on just how an illegal immigrant, who killed a Nebraska woman in a drunk driving incident, was allowed to get out of jail and skip town and future punishment.

Omaha police charged illegal alien Eswin Mejia with killing 21-year-old Sarah Root while driving drunk and street-racing the night of January 31, but in short order Mejia vanished after posting a small bond, skipping out on future court dates and being held accountable for killing the young woman.

Sadly, the day before the crash, Root graduated from Bellvue University with a 4.0 GPA and a B.S. in crime investigation. A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help her family as they mourn her loss.

Before he absconded, police had asked U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to detain Mejia. ICE officials, however, decided to deny the request for an immigration detainer, saying the suspect didn’t meet their requirements for a hold.

As ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer explained to Breitbart News:

At the time of his January 2016 arrest in Omaha on local criminal charges, Eswin Mejia, 19, of Honduras, did not meet ICE’s enforcement priorities, as stated by the Nov. 20, 2014 civil enforcement memo issued by Secretary Johnson, because he had no prior significant misdemeanor or felony conviction record. As such, ICE did not lodge a detainer. Mejia is scheduled to go before an immigration judge on March 23, 2017, and it will be up to the immigration courts under the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) to determine whether he has a legal basis to remain in the U.S.

Without a federal hold on the suspect, judge Jeffrey Marcuzzo set the suspect’s bond at a low $5,000. Mejia promptly disappeared as soon as he left the court that day.

“My daughter’s life accounts for more than freakin’ $5,000 to bail him out,” the victim’s mother, Michelle Root, said at the time.

So, why was Mejia given such lenient treatment? It appears he shouldn’t, as the suspect had a long history of brushes with the law, not to mention his immigration status that was never brought up in court.

It turns out there were many reasons for a hold. Not only was Mejia an illegal alien, but he was a flight risk because he had a history of skipping out on other charges. In fact, the court never even heard Mejia was an illegal immigrant, nor did it hear of his history with the law.

But there is failure all over this case. Not only did the prosecution never offer the suspect’s immigration status or past failures to appear in front of a judge, the judge also never asked for such information. Further, not only did the prosecution not ask for a higher bond despite what it knew, the judge didn’t ask the prosecution what recommendations it might have.

Everyone just pushed the suspect’s case through in a matter of minutes and moved on.

Seeming to admit there are problems communicating such things in these cases, Douglas County attorney Don Kleine told KETV Channel 7 it could all have been handled better.

“We’ve talked about that, how we handle that even if the judge doesn’t ask us, if we should interject, or we should be involved more,” Kleine told the news station. “So he thought he had laid out the facts enough that the judge knew how serious this was, that the judge would set a higher bond, but he didn’t.”

Worse, Douglass County, in which Omaha resides, is a so-called sanctuary for illegal immigrants, and it appears judges aren’t even allowed to ask these questions.

According to KETV, a spokesman from the Nebraska State Court, judges cannot even ask such questions about suspects.

According to judges, they do not get any paperwork from pretrial release, rather simply a score. “The score encompasses a number of things. Judges have no way of knowing if there were previous failures to appear unless the prosecutor mentions it during the hearing. I am not sure it is appropriate to address Mejia’s legal status when he was in front of the judge at the bond hearing. It wasn’t an issue. The issue was whether or not he was drinking, not whether or not he was a U.S. Citizen, which makes it hard to address. A judge can’t ask a defendant their immigration status or assume anything from their appearance.”

It appears the whole system was rigged to give Mejia lenient treatment, to disallow pertinent information about his immigration status and his criminal past, and to allow him all the leeway possible to skip town once freed.

Judge Lets Drunk Illegal Immigrant Go After Killing Nebraska Woman: Hearing Lasted Just Minutes - Breitbart

Absolutely disgusting - this sanctuary city thing has got to stop. They just pretend there is no such thing as an illegal alien - guess that is the game plan for criminal actions, for voting etc. The judge should be removed. The life of a young innocent American citizen meant nothing to him.

Bad judgement calls made in our judicial system should have consequences. Judges and prosecutors should be held to a high standard and any obvious dereliction of duty should be punished.

In this case both the judge and the prosecution was derelict in their duties.

This is so disgusting and should be brought up as a question in the next debate. Enough is enough!!!!! Americans need to be more aware of what the hell is going on here with illegals driving, committing crimes and walking away.....unheard of.

Updated: Fri 9:17 PM, Feb 26, 2016
John Chapman


OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Police say he was drunk, his blood-alcohol content more than three times the legal limit, when he was street racing near 33rd and L streets last month. Eswin Mejia was driving with a suspended license and was in the country illegally when he crashed into an SUV and killed 21-year-old Sarah Root. Mejia was scheduled for a preliminary hearing Friday, but never made it to court.

The judge revoked Mejia's $50,000 bond when he failed to appear.

Root's family is upset with the way the incident has been handled by the court. Her mother, Michelle Root, didn't think he was going to show up. "No, no he's a little coward. I dare him to show up, I dare him because justice will be served."

Emotions ran high after the 19-year-old Mejia failed to show up. He posted 10 percent of the $50,000 bond and hasn't been seen since. "I knew when they posted a $50,000 bond he was going to be gone," said Sarah's father, Scott Root. "Five grand, that's nothing, so my kid was worth five grand and four days in jail. No, I don't think so."

Police say Sarah, of Council Bluffs, was killed in a high-speed drunken driving crash caused by Mejia on January 31st. Prosecutors are upset over what they say was a low bond and the lack of communication with federal officials.

"If there's a question and if this person is here illegally, I don't understand why the federal government doesn't put some sort of detainer on that person when we file the charges that show probable cause," said Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine. "They've committed some sort of serious crime, you know, some sort of a hold on them to make sure they can't get out just like this situation we have here." Kleine wants to look for a solution to this communication problem and hopefully prevent this kind of pain in the future.

Mejia faces charges of motor vehicle homicide and drunk driving. Prosecutors have added a failure to appear charge, another felony.

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/S...370283421.html

This is why the people are rejecting the establishment. This is happening all over the country and we could respect the law, but their is no justice here and this loser is somewhere out there and will probably drink and drive again. As a society we should share certain values regardless of our political position and this would be one. If it were up to me, I would aggressively seek and deport all criminal illegal aliens right now. All these losers need to go with these repeat patterns of drunk driving without a valid license, assaults, homicides, etc. I sincerely feel terrible for this family and all the others that similar tragedies have happened to and the criminals end up disappearing.

Why isn't the media showing a picture of this guy every night until he is located and apprehended?

Updated: Wed 7:36 PM, Mar 02, 2016
Lena Tillett

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) -- How judges set bond for suspects is a hot topic in the metro. There have been two very different bonds in two high-profile DUI cases.

Eswin Mejia is accused of driving drunk while street racing. Police say he slammed into Sarah Root's SUV on her graduation day. She later died from her injuries. Mejia is still missing after posting $5,000 on a $50,000 bond. Mejia hasn't been seen since, forcing Judge Jeffrey Marcuzzo to forfeit Mejia's bond.

Root's mother Michelle says the past four weeks have been a nightmare.

"You realize, she's not coming home and you get sad,” said Michelle.

Root's family maintains the bond was too low to begin with.

“He was speeding, he was underage and he wasn't even a legal citizen here. So all those piled up and he still got a less bond than this guy that injured three people," said Michelle.

She's referring to Andrew Williams who was arrested Friday for allegedly driving drunk, and injuring three people in a crash. Williams’ bond was set at $500,000. Defense Attorney Bill Gallup said that bond is unusually high.

"That bond to me is excessive. There is no homicide there and I think probably the judge was reacting to the unfavorable publicity that was showered upon Judge Marcuzzo," said Gallup.

Other defense attorneys agree, $50,000 for a motor vehicle homicide is standard and it's not up to the judge to punish defendants before they are found guilty.

The timeline of how prosecutors found out critical information about Mejia also might have changed the outcome. County Attorney Don Kleine told WOWT 6 News that Omaha Police learned Mejia was an undocumented immigrant after his bond was set. They said prosecutors could not make that case to the judge.

Police asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement called “ICE” to put a detainer on Mejia before he bonded out, but Kleine says ICE said they could not until Mejia was convicted of the crime. Gallup says had Marcuzzo known Mejia was not here legally he might have set a higher bond.

"The fact that this fellow was here illegally wasn't communicated to the judge. So how could you criticize him for that?" asked Gallup.

Meanwhile, Michelle Root said if one by-product of her daughter's tragic death is that judges set bonds higher for DUIs is a good thing. She said, "I'm not saying it's going to be a cure-all but maybe people are going to start thinking about drinking and driving."

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine says he plans on meeting with ICE and make the case that prosecutors should know about the immigration status of defendants. He says this is a critical piece of information that could make them a flight risk.

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/c...370866081.html