Thread: Alien's DUI sentencing questioned

http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index. ... xml&coll=3

When police stopped Luis Gonzalez-Mireles for drunken driving Dec. 18, his blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.

His arrest and conviction were unremarkable, but his sentence and resulting appeal were rare for Jackson County.

A team of lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday asked a Circuit Court judge to, essentially, invalidate his 93-day jail sentence. Defense attorneys contend District Judge Joseph Filip unfairly penalized the 21-year-old Ann Arbor man as an ``undocumented'' alien.

Assistant Prosecutor Jerrold Schrotenboer said judges have latitude in sentencing based on past criminal acts, and thumbing one's nose at immigration laws for seven years is an illegal act.

Circuit Judge Chad Schmucker said he would rule on the appeal in three or four weeks. If his comments Thursday are any indication, Schmucker seemed to indicate the three-month sentence was out of whack for the misdemeanor.

``I have never seen where a first-time offender got the maximum,'' Schmucker said. ``Nobody gets any time for first-time offenses, do they?''

Both prosecutors and the probation department recommended no jail time at sentencing May 17. But Filip, citing years of living as an illegal alien, sentenced Gonzalez-Mireles to 93 days on his guilty plea.

Michael Steinberg, an ACLU attorney, said Filip showed a bias against illegal aliens, sentencing Gonzalez-Mireles on a potential federal violation rather than on the drunken-driving misdemeanor.

He asked Schmucker to remand the case back to District Court for a proportionate re-sentencing.

``It must go before another judge,'' Steinberg said.

Schrotenboer said that if Schmucker decides the penalty was too harsh, he should send it back to Filip with an order to make the sentence fit the crime. Judges should trust that other judges will follow court orders, Schrotenboer said.

On June 19, acting on a motion, Schmucker issued a bond allowing Gonzalez-Mireles out of jail. Some type of action against the defendant at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service is pending, officials said.

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The ACLU says the original judge showed bias against this illegal alien and as such, he should get his conviction reversed and with no penalty (and of course, no arrest and deportation for being here illegally.

Duh! Why shouldn't the judge be biased? If the illegal alky is not an American citizen, he doesn't have constitutional rights.

What are going to do about the ACLU? They need to be deported with the illegals. I'm sick and tired of these illegals drinking and driving. By the grace of God, no one was killed in this case but it sure could have happened. And if it did, I have a bridge to sell if you think the ACLU would have gone to bat for the family of the dead individual. I'm sure no one in this forum would believe that.

ACLU = Anti-American Communists Loving "Undocumenteds".

We need a lot more "bias" if that's what they want to call it. I call it justice!