Thread: MPD officer to plead guilty to falsifying identity

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=620524

MPD officer to plead guilty to falsifying identity
Illegal immigrant agrees to leave U.S. after possible incarceration

A man born in Mexico who assumed a dead relative's identity and became a Milwaukee police officer has agreed to plead guilty to a federal felony, according to court documents filed Friday.

Oscar Ayala-Cornejo, 24, will plead guilty to falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen, according to an agreement filed Friday.

Because of the plea, Ayala-Cornejo faces six to 12 months' incarceration, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mel Johnson, the prosecutor in the case. The U.S. attorney's office is recommending a sentence on the low side of that range, the document says. Ayala-Cornejo has agreed to leave the United States. He is a Mexican citizen.

Hearings for his plea and sentencing have not been scheduled.

Ayala-Cornejo's attorney, Michael Steinle, said his client agreed to plead guilty to settle the issue quickly.

"He's anxious to put this behind him," Steinle said.

Ayala-Cornejo has been removed from the city payroll, a department spokeswoman said. He was suspended the day he was arrested by federal immigration agents on May 30.

His brother, Alex Ayala, also an officer, has been placed on administrative duty. The Milwaukee district attorney's office continues to investigate possible charges against an unnamed person in connection with the case. Also, there is an internal police investigation into whether others knew about Ayala's true identity and immigration status and didn't report it.

Ayala-Cornejo told investigators that he was born in Mexico on Oct. 10, 1982, according to the plea agreement. Ayala-Cornejo's father procured identification papers of his cousin, Jose Morales, who died earlier, it says.

Ayala-Cornejo admitted he falsely represented himself as Jose Morales to ultimately become a police officer, the agreement says.

Ayala-Cornejo changed his identity in 1999, according to a criminal complaint. He attended Pulaski High School under his real name but in 1999 moved to Hamilton High School as Morales. Three years later he was hired as a Milwaukee police aide and underwent the same background investigation that officers get. He became an officer in December 2004.

Chief Nannette Hegerty said her department "did everything it possibly could" to determine his identity.

Steinle said as a teenager, Ayala-Cornejo went along with a bad decision made by his parents.

"You can't undo a decision, and that's the problem he faced," Steinle said. "After living it, there was no turning back."

Milwaukee Officer Found To Be Illegal Immigrant
Policeman Had Assumed the Identity of a Dead Cousin

By Kari Lydersen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 18, 2007; A03



MILWAUKEE -- Fellow Milwaukee police officers knew him as Jose Morales.

But after an anonymous phone tip this winter, an investigation revealed that the Morales in question is actually dead, and the officer is a cousin, Oscar Ayala-Cornejo, 24. He is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who had assumed Morales's identity as a high school student in 1999.

In court papers filed June 15, Ayala-Cornejo agreed to plead guilty to a federal felony charge of falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen. Under the plea agreement, he will face six to 12 months in jail. The charges can carry up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Ayala-Cornejo has agreed to leave the United States after his jail term. A sentencing date has not been set.

The police department suspended Ayala-Cornejo from his job after he was arrested on May 30 and has now taken him off the payroll. Brother Alexander Ayala, 26, a U.S. citizen who is an officer in the same South Milwaukee district, has been placed on administrative duty. Police are reportedly investigating who else may have known about Ayala-Cornejo's identity.

John Balcerzak, president of the Milwaukee Police Association labor union, said the incident shows that the department should beef up its background-check process.

"This is a wake-up call to our department and departments around the country," he said. "When I was hired 20 years ago, they went to old neighbors and high school teachers. People are really concerned he was able to do this, and they feel let down by him."

Department spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz declined to comment.

Ayala-Cornejo had documentation of his assumed identity, including a driver's license. He attended one high school using his given name, then switched to another school where he enrolled as Morales and graduated in 2001. That yearbook shows his picture with Morales's name. Ayala-Cornejo could not be reached to comment.

Ayala-Cornejo joined the police department as an aide in 2001. He became an officer in December 2004 and in 2005 was assigned to District 2, a heavily Latino area on the city's South Side, which is also home to many residents of German and Polish descent.

Latino leaders note that working under someone else's identity is common practice for many of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

"Their personhood is not recognized since they don't have the right piece of paper, but they're working and they're not harming anyone," said Arnaldo Garcia, enforcement and justice program coordinator of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "It's very typical that a citizen daughter would lend her Social Security number to her mother so she can work or cousins would use the same driver's license if they look alike. The problem is that the system is set up to criminalize people for working."

At a Mass devoted to Ayala-Cornejo at St. Adalbert's Catholic Church on June 3, several fellow officers and relatives described him as hardworking and devoted to his community.

"Like the priest is saying, no one should have to suffer like his family is now," parish secretary Carmen Arenas Hernandez said. "We pray for all the families in the same situation, and there are a lot."

But Albert Kroll, 72, a retired school board member washing the sidewalk near the church, said Ayala-Cornejo and his brother should face consequences. "They were both wrong," he said. "It's amazing that his brother was a police officer and said nothing."

Balcerzak said the department could suffer consequences.

"This is going to mushroom and cause problems down the road because even when you issue a citation you're swearing everything in it is true and correct," he said.

"Since he wasn't even who he said he was, that could cause all sorts of problems. Luckily, he hadn't been an officer for that long."

At a South Milwaukee bar, feelings were mixed.

"If he could sneak into the force, how many others could sneak in?" asked machinist Victor Rivera, 53. "Why didn't the people who interviewed him make a better investigation of who he really was?"

"This guy was working to support his family," countered Faustino Lopez Aleman, 54, who works in housing rehabilitation. "If he was a good policeman, he shouldn't be punished. Think of all the corrupt police who get nothing done, and they're still on the force."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01019.html

U.S.: Officer Is Illegal Immigrant

MILWAUKEE, Jun 18, 2007 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- A police officer has agreed to plead guilty to falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen for taking his dead cousin's identity as a teenager, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

A plea agreement released last week says prosecutors will recommend a sentence of six to 12 months for Oscar Ayala-Cornejo, 24. The maximum sentence is three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Ayala-Cornejo also agreed to be deported after his prison sentence and resign from the Milwaukee police department, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mel Johnson said. The officer, who authorities said was not involved in any major cases, had been taken off the department's payroll earlier this month.

In February, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent received an anonymous call from someone reporting Ayala-Cornejo was an illegal immigrant but was using the identity of his dead cousin, the complaint says.

Investigators compared Ayala-Cornejo's driver's license to yearbook photos from two high schools he attended as two different identities, the complaint said. Relatives also admitted Ayala-Cornejo took the identity of Ayala-Cornejo's cousin Jose Morales, who was born in Chicago about seven months before Ayala-Cornejo.

Ayala-Cornejo's mother, Maria, told authorities her now-dead husband helped arrange the identity theft with relatives in Chicago, according to the complaint.

Jose Morales died of cancer, Morales' brother, Jamie, told authorities. Jamie Morales said his father volunteered Jose's identity when he died, the complaint said.

Ayala-Cornejo moved from Mexico to the U.S. around 1992, Johnson said.

He started using Morales' identity in 1999 when he changed high schools in Milwaukee, according to the complaint.

Johnson said Ayala-Cornejo could have gone through the administrative process, but instead took the illegal method.

"That was just perceived as the easy way to do it but it turned out to be a bad decision," Johnson said.

No sentencing date has been set.

Police say Ayala-Cornejo's brother, Alexander Ayala, who is also a Milwaukee police officer but is a U.S. citizen, has been assigned to administrative duty.

Messages left at Ayala-Cornejo's home and for his attorney, Michael Steinle, were not returned Monday.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Jon Reddin said Ayala-Cornejo was involved in 23 cases since he's been on the force; of those the defendant pleaded guilty, the charges were dismissed or Ayala-Cornejo wasn't a crucial witness, Reddin said.

"He doesn't appear to be a terribly active officer," Reddin said Monday. "We're fortunate he wasn't involved in any major cases."

Copyright (C) 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

This is the perfect example of why there should be NO PATH TO CITIZENSHIP FOR THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY CRIMINALLY/ILLEGALLY ENTERED THIS COUNTRY.

That line about coming out of the shadows is nothing more than a line. Who is to say that any of the 30 million will be who they claim to be? Its not like the majority of our dumbed down lazy government employees who can't even handle the passport backlog, airport security or anything else efficiently are going to do anything other than rubber stamp these buffoons into instant citizenship as they will be ordered by King Jorge to do.