Thread: NC: Report: Alamance Co. sheriff deputies targeted Latinos, violated Constitution

Report: Alamance Co. sheriff deputies targeted Latinos, violated Constitution

Posted on: 2:47 pm, September 18, 2012, by Scott Gustin, updated on: 03:09pm, September 18, 2012


ALAMANCE COUNTY, N.C. – A two-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice has determined the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office routinely discriminated against Latinos and engaged in a pattern or practice of misconduct that violated the Constitution and federal law.


Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson has been a vocal cheerleader for a federal program that allowed local law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of those they stopped, potentially triggering their deportation.


The Department of Homeland Security announced this year it was discontinuing the program following widespread complaints of racial profiling.


The investigation was initially opened in June 2010.
According to the report, the Justice Department finds reasonable cause to believe that ACSO “engages in a pattern or practice of discriminatory policing against Latinos in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and Title VI.”


“The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office’s egregious pattern of racial profiling violates the Constitution and federal laws, creates distrust between the police and the community and inhibits the reporting of crime and cooperation in criminal investigations,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.
According to the Department of Justice, some of the discriminatory policing activities include:

• ACSO deputies target Latino drivers for traffic stops;
  
• A study of ACSO’s traffic stops on three major county roadways found that deputies were between four and 10 times more likely to stop Latino drivers than non-Latino drivers;
  
• ACSO deputies routinely locate checkpoints just outside Latino neighborhoods, forcing residents to endure police checks when entering or leaving their communities;
  
• ACSO practices at vehicle checkpoints often vary based on a driver’s ethnicity. Deputies insist on examining identification of Latino drivers, while allowing drivers of other ethnicities to pass through without showing identification;
  
• ACSO deputies arrest Latinos for minor traffic violations while issuing citations or warnings to non-Latinos for the same violations;
  
• ACSO uses jail booking and detention practices, including practices related to immigration status checks, that discriminate against Latinos;
  
• The sheriff and ACSO’s leadership explicitly instruct deputies to target Latinos with discriminatory traffic stops and other enforcement activities;
  
• The sheriff and ACSO leadership foster a culture of bias by using anti-Latino epithets; and
  
• ACSO engages in substandard reporting and monitoring practices that mask its discriminatory conduct.
  
  

The investigation included an in-depth review of ACSO policies, procedures, training materials, and data on traffic stops, arrests, citations, vehicle checkpoints and other documentary evidence. Department personnel also conducted interviews with more than 125 individuals, including Alamance County residents and current and former ACSO employees.


Addressing these findings and creating sustainable reforms will require ACSO to commit to long term structural, cultural and institutional change, according to the report.


According to the report, the department will seek to obtain a court enforceable, comprehensive, written agreement remedying the violations and incorporating these reforms by attempting to work with ACSO officials.


A press conference is scheduled for this afternoon.

Report: Alamance Co. sheriff deputies targeted Latinos, violated Constitution | MyFOX8.com

The Department of Homeland Security announced this year it was discontinuing the program following widespread complaints of racial profiling.

This is BOGUS.

To bad Hispanic,Latino is not a RACE.

They've been chewing on Sheriff Johnson's tail for a long time now. He's a good guy trying to do the right thing - His Job.

They said the same thing about Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County department and DOJ sued them and then had to drop the case because it was BOGUS!

Anyone that has studied the Obama administration and Eric Holder's Justice Department closely knows that they are politicians more than law enforcers and they are attacking the Alamance County Sheriff department to protect their illegal immigrants they facilitate!

W

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement terminates 287 (g) jail model agreement with Alamance County Sheriff's Office

September 18, 2012 1:52 PM
Chris Lavender / Times-News



GRAHAM — The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday released the results of a two-year investigation into the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office and says it “has engaged in a pattern or practice of violations of the United States Constitution and federal law” in regard to Latinos.

Sheriff Terry Johnson vehemently denied any wrongdoing on the part of his department during a press conference, saying the “Obama Administration has decided to continue to wage war on local law enforcement.”

Justice Department Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez said in a memorandum statement that reasonable cause exists to “believe that ACSO engages in a pattern or practice of discriminatory policing against Latinos in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and Title VI.”

The statement, dated Sept. 18, was addressed to County Attorney Clyde Albright and attorney Chuck Kitchen who is representing Johnson.

After the DOJ’s findings were released on Tuesday, U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement Press Secretary Barbara Gonzalez released a statement.

“The Department of Homeland Security is troubled by the Department of Justice’s findings of discriminatory policing practices within the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office. Discrimination undermines law enforcement and erodes the public trust. DHS will not be a party to such practices,” Gonzalez stated.

“Accordingly, and effective immediately, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is terminating ACSO’s 287(g) jail model agreement and is restricting their access to the Secure Communities program. ICE will utilize federal resources for the purpose of identifying and detaining those individuals who meet ICE immigration enforcement priorities. ICE will continue to enforce federal immigration laws in Alamance County in smart, effective ways that focus our resources on criminal aliens, recent border crossers, repeat and egregious immigration law violators and employers who knowingly hire illegal labor,” Gonzalez stated.

The Sheriff’s Office implemented 287 (g) in 2007. The program trained and authorized local law enforcement and jailers as federal Bureau of Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers for the purpose of deporting people in the country illegally.

ACSO spokesman Randy Jones said on Tuesday night he had heard that ICE was going to terminate the 287 (g) jail model agreement with ACSO.

“I figured that was going to happen,” Jones said. “They are eliminating 287 (g) all around the country.”

In summer 2011, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Alamance County and Sheriff Terry Johnson seeking access to interview sheriff’s department employees outside the presence of Albright. The Justice Department asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit on Tuesday which the court agreed to do.

Albright received a memorandum from the DOJ on Tuesday which stated the investigation’s findings and forwarded copies to members of the Alamance County Board of Commissioners.

In that email to the commissioners, Albright accused the DOJ of making allegations and conducting an investigation “without ever telling the sheriff what exactly he is being accused of and all while apparently ignoring the facts set forth in the 100’s of thousands of pages of documents delivered to the DOJ.”

Albright also questioned the validity of the DOJ’s investigation and hints that the possibility of a new administration post-election might put an end to the suit.

“The DOJ again asks the sheriff to sign a settlement agreement and threatens a suit against the sheriff if he does not. However, if a second suit is filed after the DOJ Sept. 30 deadline, the answer will not be due until after the election and if the case continues, discovery will allow the sheriff to obtain copies of these interviews if they indeed exist at all,” Albright wrote.

Reached Tuesday afternoon, County Manager Craig Honeycutt also questioned the veracity of the DOJ’s claims.

“Just because the Department of Justice has made these allegations doesn’t mean they would stand up (in court) or that they are true,” Honeycutt said.

In June 2010, the Justice Department notified Alamance County and Johnson of the investigation into allegations of discriminatory policing and unconstitutional searches and seizures.

“While law enforcement agencies typically cooperate with our investigations, ACSO and Alamance County have persistently delayed providing important information and otherwise obstructed the Division’s investigation,” the DOJ memorandum stated.

The Justice Department sought private interviews because numerous current and former officers expressed fear that Johnson or other county or ACSO officials would retaliate against them if they cooperated with the investigation, according to the memorandum.

During the investigation, aided by what the DOJ described as leading experts on police practices and statistical analysis, the Justice Department reviewed ACSO policies, procedures, training materials, data on traffic stops, arrests, citations, and vehicle checkpoints. The DOJ interviewed 125 individuals including county residents and current and former ACSO employees as part of the process.

Johnson held a press conference on Tuesday afternoon at the Sheriff’s Office with Kitchen in response to the allegations.

“Even though the Department of Justice has moved to dismiss this baseless lawsuit this afternoon against me and my department, the Obama Administration has decided to continue to wage war on local law enforcement,” Johnson said.

Johnson said neither he nor the Sheriff’s Office had ever discriminated against “Spanish-speaking persons” and he had cooperated fully with the DOJ’s investigation handing over requested documents.

“Whatever the future holds let me be clear that neither I nor the men and women of Alamance County Sheriff’s Office will be distracted from our sworn responsibility of protecting the citizens of Alamance County,” Johnson said.

Kitchen said he was notified on Monday by the DOJ that a motion to dismiss the lawsuit would be filed on Tuesday and he consented to the motion.

Kitchen said he was disappointed the DOJ decided to attach a memorandum letter to the motion to dismiss.

“Apparently, instead of trying the lawsuit next Wednesday as it was scheduled the Department of Justice has decided to try this case out in the media,” Kitchen said.

Kitchen said the Sheriff’s Office had not targeted Latinos as alleged by the DOJ. Kitchen also said claims made by the DOJ that Johnson uses derogatory epithets such as the phrase “taco eaters” when referring to Latinos in speaking with his staff are baseless. He also disputed claims that the sheriff’s command staff tolerates the use of derogatory racial and ethnic epithets by deputies and correctional officers.

Kitchen said Johnson’s comments reported in the investigation’s findings were taken out of context. The DOJ had taken snippets of Johnson’s comments from staff meetings and public speaking appearances and pieced them together to paint an inaccurate picture and were unfair to Johnson.

The Justice Department reported that Johnson said “We’ve had a big drop in the Hispanic population, but we still got a lot dealing dope and we still got a lot of citizens in this country dealing dope with them.”

Johnson allegedly described ACSO’s heightened enforcement efforts against Latino areas as “Hell will come to these places and the devil gonna come with him. And you folks (the Special Ops Unit) gonna be the devil.”

The report also included another comment attributed to Johnson stating, “Their values are a lot different, their morals, than what we have here. In Mexico, there’s nothing wrong with having sex with a 12 -, 13- year old girl…..They do a lot of drinking down in Mexico.”

Johnson also allegedly told his supervisory officers to tell their subordinates “If you stop a Mexican, don’t write a citation, arrest him.”

After the ACSO press conference, ACLU of North Carolina Racial Justice Attorney Raul Pinto spoke with the media outside the sheriff’s office building.

“We are happy with the fact that the DOJ came out with its investigation and its findings,” Pinto said. “We liked the fact they have recommended policy changes and hope they happen promptly.”

Pinto said the community needed to have trust in local law enforcement and that trust couldn’t exist if there was selective enforcement of the law.

The DOJ has asked ACSO to commit to long term structural, cultural, and institutional change and will seek to obtain a court enforceable written agreement remedying the alleged violations and incorporating reforms with ACSO officials.

DOJ has given ACSO until Sept. 30 to respond whether it will work cooperatively to develop and implement sustainable reform measures.

“We remain prepared to take prompt, appropriate legal action if you choose to forego collaboration,” the memorandum stated.

Sheriff denies DOJ claims that his department violated federal law | department, office, justice - Burlington Times News