Thread: Accused day laborer prevails over city citation

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_p ... p?id=63606

Accused day laborer prevails over city citation
By Michelle Durand, Daily Journal Staff



Undercover stings used by San Mateo police officers to nab day laborers soliciting work in unauthorized areas are akin to entrapment, according to a defense attorney whose client earlier this week fought his citation and won.
Jurors deliberated 10 minutes before acquitting Ramirez Lopez Sofonias of the misdemeanor charge of entering an illegally parked vehicle, said defense attorney Tanya O’Malley.

Sofonias is believed to be among the earliest, if not the first, to fight the citation in court.

“Most do not want to go to trial and would rather get it over with quickly than go back to court,” O’Malley said.

Sofonias was charged in March after entering an undercover cop’s vehicle. Sofonias was walking alone down Cypress Avenue near Fremont Street when a man parked six feet from the curb and asked if he wanted a gardening job for $15 an hour. Sofonias agreed and three blocks later waiting police cited him.

The stings are supposed to target day laborers who solicit work on the corners near downtown San Mateo instead of waiting at the Worker Resource Center at Fifth and Railroad avenues. O’Malley, however, said the operations may also be nabbing others.

“The whole point is how did the officer even know he was a day laborer? He was just a Hispanic male and told the officer he was on his way to get medicine for his baby,” O’Malley said. “This is clearly a case of entrapment.”

The Worker Resource Center was created in 2003 by the City Council to reduce the number of day laborers on Third and Fourth avenues near residential neighborhoods. It is run by Samaritan House but costs the city $200,000 a year for police presence at and nearby the site.

The police still field the occasional complaint about loitering but the number has dropped dramatically since the center opened, said police Sgt. Bob Szelenyi.

“I definitely think an overwhelming majority are using the center and it’s very successful,” Szelenyi said.

He did not immediately have details about the nature of the undercover stings.

Those cited face fines ranging from $100 to several hundred dollars.

The citations are prosecuted by the city attorney because they are deemed civil infractions. San Mateo City Attorney Shawn Mason did not return a call for comment about the cases.

O’Malley said she has a number of clients cited similarly to Sofonias in San Mateo. None were nabbed near the former day labor center in North Fair Oaks or in other sections of the county, she said.


Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.

Why should the city cater to illegals so they can get jobs here and send the money back home thereby supporting their homelands economy. The illegals should all be picked up by ICE and deported. In South Miami there are several areas such as the one mentioned previously but they are smart. They follow picked up workers, as well as others they have learned about, to their job site and uncover numerous other illegals there and then nab them all.