Thread: Milwaukee:Illegal working a Police Officer after Stealing ID

Yearbook photos show conflicting identities

MPD officer charged with falsely claiming citizenship

By JOHN DIEDRICH
jdiedrich@journalsentinel.com
Posted: May 31, 2007

Oscar Ayala-Cornejo, the Milwaukee police officer suspected of being an illegal immigrant, was betrayed by information in his high school yearbook, according to a federal criminal complaint filed Thursday.

5/31/07: Officer arrested; citizenship questioned

Prosecutors say Ayala-Cornejo, 24, attended Pulaski High School under his real name but in 1999 moved to Hamilton High School and started using the name of his dead cousin, Jose A. Morales.

Immigration agents found that the two yearbook photos matched but the names differed, a key piece of evidence in an exhaustive investigation to prove this police officer is not who he says he is, the complaint says.

At a hearing in federal court, Ayala-Cornejo was charged with falsely representing himself as U.S. citizen. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The five-year department member was ordered held by Magistrate Judge Aaron Goodstein until a detention hearing on Monday.

He was taken away by U.S. marshals. Several family members were on hand and wept. They declined to comment afterward.
He is suspended from the force and is being paid, per state law.

State prosecutors are reviewing possible charges against the officer, said Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm. Others also are under investigation on suspicion of lying to agents during the investigation, sources said.

Agents learned of the case by an anonymous telephone tip on Feb. 20, the complaint says.

The real Jose A. Morales was a U.S. citizen, but died of cancer in Mexico in 1989 or 1990, the complaint says, quoting the deceased's brother, Jamie Morales, who said he attended the funeral.

Jose Morales' father offered to give his dead son's identity and all the paperwork to prove it to Oscar Ayala-Cornejo, said Jamie Morales, according to the complaint.

The man, identified as Ayala-Cornejo by prosecutors, was born in Mexico and is not a U.S. citizen, the complaint said. His brother, Alex Ayala-Cornejo, also a Milwaukee police officer, is a U.S. citizen, it said.

Immigration agents discovered that in citizenship paperwork filed by Alex Ayala-Cornejo on behalf of his parents, the complaint says.

The complaint says Oscar Ayala-Cornejo began using his dead cousin's name and a new date of birth in 1999 when he changed schools.

Three years later he was hired as a Milwaukee police aide and underwent the same background investigation that officers received. He became an officer in December 2004. His personnel file was not released Thursday.

In his police file, federal agents found a birth certificate and school records identifying the officer as Jose A. Morales, the complaint says. The records go up to 1999 when, investigators say, Ayala-Cornejo began living as Morales.

Agents also found that a passport was issued to someone claiming to be Jose Morales in 1998, at least eight years after he died, the complaint says. Agents discovered a Mexican birth certificate showing that Oscar Ayala-Cornejo was born in Mexico, it says.

In interviews with federal immigration agents and Milwaukee police officers on Wednesday, at least seven relatives of the officer admitted to the deceit, the complaint says, including his mother and sister.

Chief Nannette Hegerty said the department "did everything it possibly could to determine this young man's identity," adding that immigration agents agreed. An official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment.

"No matter what kind of background we did, we wouldn't have been able to find it, which is unfortunate," Hegerty said.

She said the department does not believe there are any other illegal immigrants in the ranks and she doesn't see a need to change background checks. She also didn't anticipate losing criminal cases, saying high-profile cases are handled by detectives.

Chisholm said his office was reviewing cases to see if the officer was a key witness in any of them. When an officer is accused of lying, the officer cannot be used as a witness and old cases in which the officer was a central witness could be appealed, he said.

Linda Spice of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this story.


http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=613357

President Bush will PARDON him.

And the government wants to do background checks on illegal immigrants who apply for a Z-visa?

This is all we need an illegal who broke the law to get into our country, broke the law by stealing an ID, broke the law by claiming to be a US Citizen and then this corrupt person becomes a police officer! Shouldn’t he be in a Mexican Police Department? They are used to having corrupt police. Of course, any Politicians who support the AMNESTY BILL OUGHT TO BE DEPORTED WITH HIM.

Officer Accused Of Being Illegal Immigrant Had Reprimand On Record
Oscar Ayala-Cornejo Expected In Court Monday

POSTED: 3:49 pm CDT June 1, 2007


MILWAUKEE -- There is new information about a Milwaukee police officer suspected of being an illegal immigrant.

WISN 12 News has obtained Oscar Ayala-Cornejo's police department record.

Cornejo had been going by the name of José Morales.


It shows Cornejo received a reprimand in 2005 for failing to abide by the ordinances of another jurisdiction while in that area.

Cornejo faces federal charges of falsely representing himself as a United States citizen.

A criminal complaint says he assumed the identity of his dead cousin.

Cornejo faces up to three years in prison and a $250 fine if convicted.

He is expected back in court on Monday.

http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/news ... etail.html

June 01, 2007
Illegal Immigrant Uses Fake ID To Join Police
Demonstrating a need for more efficient background checks of law enforcement officers, an illegal immigrant who used the fake identity of an American citizen has served on a major city’s police force for five years.

Even scarier is that it took an anonymous tip for officials in the Milwaukee Police Department to discover that an illegal alien easily passed its supposedly rigorous background screening years ago. The Mexican man, Oscar Ayala-Cornejo, assumed the identity of a deceased cousin named Jose Morales about a decade ago.

Incredibly, Milwaukee Police Chief Nannette Hegerty maintains that her department conducted a thorough background check on the illegal immigrant and there was no way to know that he was using someone else’s identity. “No matter what kind of background we did, we wouldn’t have been able to find it, which is unfortunate,â€

[quote]“No matter what kind of background we did, we wouldn’t have been able to find it, which is unfortunate,â€

bump

Originally Posted by jp_48504

This is all we need an illegal who broke the law to get into our country, broke the law by stealing an ID, broke the law by claiming to be a US Citizen and then this corrupt person becomes a police officer! Shouldn’t he be in a Mexican Police Department? They are used to having corrupt police. Of course, any Politicians who support the AMNESTY BILL OUGHT TO BE DEPORTED WITH HIM.

You know you have every right to say what you want, but its expected for someone like you who knows nothing about him to say that...but if it was a very close friend to you, you know damn well you would back them up, and in my case yes, he's one of my closets and best friends, and he's not a corrupt cop, he's actually better than the majority of the cops here in Milwaukee, WI....even when not on duty he's always thinking about protecting us as friends and everyone around us incase something crazy decides to happen. Yes what he did was wrong but he wanted to stay with the only family he had left and well his cousins father arranged this, so its not like he really had much of a choice, he didnt use the Alias to do such things as most identity theives do which is steal SS#'s and get false credit cards and what not and never pay them back, he actually was doing the right thing and paying his bills and helping his family out...i knew that there were people out there that have the same perception as you, but hey to each their own, I guess im taking it harder than you would because he's like family to me and someone I know.

So you're saying end justifies the means?

Sorry but that won't fly here. Your "friend" is no better than any other illegal alien to follow US laws. What was he doing here illegally in the first place?

Not only did he use somebody else's SS# to stay in the US, he went on to work in law enforcement knowing he was here illegally.

HE MADE A MOCKERY OF THE LAW WHILE PRETENDING TO ENFORCE IT. YES, HE PRETENDED AS EVERYTHING HE'S DONE AS A POLICEMAN IS NOW SUSPECT.