http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jan06/388531.asp


Milwaukee has few options to snare fugitives
By JOHN DIEDRICH
jdiedrich@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 29, 2006
Early on Jan. 13, 2001, Angel Saldana-Mendoza appeared at the door of his daughter and son-in-law on Milwaukee's south side and announced that he was leaving for his native Mexico. Immediately.

Wanted Men

His daughter, Edith Saldana, thought it was odd and tried to talk him out of it but then gave him a ride to Chicago. When she returned, Saldana's husband mentioned that Saldana-Mendoza had thrown something in their trash. Inside a bag, they found bloody pillows and clothes, and in a car he was driving, a bloody rope.

They called police, who searched the home Saldana-Mendoza shared with his girlfriend, Maricela Garduno. Officers found Garduno's body in a plastic bag.

Detectives quickly contacted prosecutors for a warrant.

As soon as Saldana-Mendoza entered Mexico, investigators knew, the chances of getting him back would be next to nil. But if they caught him before he cleared customs, the U.S. warrant would bring him back.

Armed with the warrant, Detective Alfonso Morales called officials at the Mexico City airport, only to learn Saldana-Mendoza had just cleared customs.

They missed him by a half-hour.

Because of a 1978 treaty and a 2001 court ruling, Mexico generally has refused to return suspects to the United States if they face the death penalty or a life-without-parole sentence, paving the way for thousands of suspected drug kingpins and killers to flee to Mexico to avoid U.S. prosecution. Treaties let the U.S. get fugitives from other countries that, like Mexico, do not allow the death penalty, but fugitives don't flee to those countries in significant numbers, officials said.

In Milwaukee, 20 of the 23 suspects wanted for homicide or attempted homicide charges are Hispanic - and most are suspected of being in Mexico or Latin American countries, said Morales, now a lieutenant of detectives in the homicide division. Most of them are natives of these countries and were in the U.S. illegally, he said.

In the most recent case, Salvador Ochoa, 30, fled to Mexico in December after accusations that he killed his 2-month-old daughter by punching her in the abdomen, police said. Ochoa is charged with second-degree reckless homicide.

The district attorney is drawing up a request for a "provisional warrant," a laborious, expensive process to try to get Ochoa back. It is the first attempt by the Milwaukee County district attorney's office to get a fugitive from Mexico, prosecutors said. A similar warrant filed for a suspect in the Dominican Republic has, so far, not worked.

A Mexican Supreme Court ruling late last year clears the way for suspects who face life in prison, but not the death penalty, to be returned. The change could bear especially on cases from Wisconsin, which has no death penalty.

The ruling came just days after President Bush signed a law allowing foreign aid to be cut to governments that don't extradite suspects in homicides of police officers. That bill was prompted by the case of a Denver police officer who was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant who fled to Mexico.

In the case of Saldana-Mendoza, now 55, Milwaukee detectives think they have had good information on his whereabouts but haven't been able to act on it. Morales worries that a man with a history of domestic violence might do it again.

"It is extremely frustrating," Morales said. "It's been four years and he is getting to feel comfortable and he will get involved with another woman. . . . There is no lesson he learned. There are no repercussions for anything he did."

Expensive, time-consuming
The farther a suspect runs, the more difficult it is to get them back.

If someone is accused of committing a crime in Milwaukee, police from the city can arrest them anywhere in Wisconsin without a warrant, Morales said. For instance, in November, Scott Lewek was stabbed to death, allegedly by roommate Brian L. Devroy. It took Milwaukee police just three days to find Devroy in Marinette County.

If a fugitive crosses state lines, police have to get a federal warrant, good anywhere in the United States. If that same person goes to Mexico and are Mexican, the only way to get them back is to file a request for a "provisional warrant."

Local prosecutors must have their entire investigative file translated into Spanish, said Deputy District Attorney Jon Reddin, who is drawing up the request for Ochoa. Then the file must be approved by federal officials in Washington, D.C., before being sent to Mexico, where the suspect can fight the extradition.

Reddin said the Ochoa warrant is expected to cost thousands of dollars and might take months to finish - with no guarantee it will work.

Jim Schield, chief of the international investigations branch of U.S. Marshals Service in Washington, D.C., acknowledged that the process of getting suspects out of Mexico is burdensome.

"Sometimes it takes a long time in the court system, but we do get these people back," Schield said. "It costs money to convict people and get justice. Unfortunately, that is just the way the system works but it is not an impossibility."

More coming back
While Mexico remains a favorite getaway for suspects, it has actually gotten easier to get suspects back, Schield said. When he started in the 1980s, he said, it was nearly impossible.

But that has changed, he said, because of improved U.S.-Mexico relations. Mexico has been deporting more non-citizens and has started to send back Mexican citizens charged with crimes here, though in smaller numbers.

The U.S. marshals, who have an office in Mexico and work with law enforcement there, reported deporting 128 non-Mexicans and 25 Mexicans to the U.S. last year, Schield said. There were nine pending cases as of Sept. 30, he said.

In total, there were 194 outstanding provisional arrest warrants for Mexicans, awaiting action by the Mexican government, Schield said.

The Los Angeles district attorney's office estimates there are 3,000 fugitives from U.S. justice in Mexico, about 400 of them from southern California, said Janice Maurizi, director with the office. She said the figure comes from surveying prosecutors around the country.

"I think that people realize they can escape justice for the price of a bus ticket," she said.

In November, the Mexican Supreme Court overturned a 2001 decision barring the return of suspects facing possible life sentences, because some believe prison is rehabilitation, not punishment. Mexico has not executed a convicted criminal for more than 40 years.

The press attaché at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not return a call for comment.

Maurizi said she expects the new ruling will increase the return of fugitives.

Colorado case brings change
A case in Denver thrust the issue of fugitives fleeing to Mexico into the national spotlight.

Prosecutors say that on May 8, 2005, Raul Gomez-Garcia shot two off-duty Denver police detectives who were working security at a private party, killing one and injuring the other. Gomez-Garcia fled to Mexico. To get him back, the Denver district attorney agreed to lesser charges that carry a possible sentence of 96 years in prison. Gomez-Garcia, 20, who didn't fight extradition, was returned to Denver in December.

In response to the case, U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez (R-Colo.) introduced legislation that would allow the State Department to cut foreign aid to countries that refuse to extradite people suspected of killing police officers. That bill was signed into law by Bush in November.

"It is absolutely maddening," Beauprez said. "We need cooperative relations, especially with our neighbors, to arrest the most egregious criminals out there."

First thought was to run south
Milwaukee prosecutors said they are pursuing extradition of Ochoa because they think they can find him. He is charged in the killing of his 2-month-old daughter by punching the infant in the abdomen, which perforated her bowel and in turn ruptured internal organs, according to a criminal complaint.

The baby, Rubi Ochoa-Cervantes, died Dec. 12. The baby's mother told police that after Ochoa found out police were treating it as a homicide, he called his brothers and said he had to go to Mexico because he feared arrest. Ochoa told a brother to get a flight for him, she said.

Detectives knew which flight Ochoa was on and were waiting for him at the airport, said Assistant District Attorney Mark Williams, who handles homicides.

"He was the only passenger who did not get on that flight," Williams said.

Williams said he is disturbed that suspects can flee justice by crossing the border.

"It was his first thought, to go to Mexico," Williams said of Ochoa. "People can't just run to Mexico and find a safe haven."

But that is exactly what fugitives have been doing for years.