Thread: Prop. 100 Hearing Fails to Hold Mexican Without Bond

Prop. 100 hearing fails to hold Mexican defendant without bondBY JONATHAN CLARK
HERALD/REVIEW

Published on Thursday, May 03, 2007

BISBEE — For the second time in two days, a judge ruled Wednesday that an accused felon from Mexico could not be held without bond under new Proposition 100 regulations.

According to Prop. 100 rules, people who enter the country illegally and are charged with serious felonies cannot be granted bond.
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However, Superior Court Judge James Conlogue ruled the state had not produced enough evidence to show that Mario Yates-Moreno, 20, of Hermosillo, Sonora, was in the country illegally when he was arrested for allegedly transporting marijuana for sale.

Conlogue set Yates-Moreno’s bond requirement at $15,000.

In cases in which the state wants to hold a defendant without bond under Prop. 100 rules, a judge must hold an evidentiary hearing within 24 hours of a defendant’s initial court appearance. The judge must then determine “if the proof is evident or the presumption is great” that the defendant committed the alleged offense and entered the U.S. illegally.

On Tuesday, Conlogue ruled Ricardo Carillo-Mendez, a 28-year-old Mexican national, could not be held without bond because police investigators had not yet gathered enough proof that he had stolen a car. Carillo-Mendez’s bond was set at $10,000.

Yates-Moreno was arrested Monday night in Naco after reportedly fleeing from a home where a vehicle had been loaded up with 178 pounds of marijuana.

Roman Brambila, a deputy at the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office, testified that Yates-Moreno told him that he had been hired by a man he knew only as “Torito,” or “Little Bull,” to keep an eye on the car while it was at the Humphrey Avenue residence.

Yates-Moreno also said he had crossed illegally into the U.S., Brambila said.

However, Yates-Moreno testified he crossed legally through the Naco Port of Entry using a short-stay permit known as a “laser visa.”

“They (the police) were telling me that I crossed illegally, but what I was saying to them was that I had a permit and that I was allowed to cross,” he said.

Martin Peterson, booking corporal at Cochise County Jail, testified that Yates-Moreno told him that his visa card was hidden in a sneaker he was wearing when he was arrested and booked. When Peterson checked the sneaker, he said, he found a valid visa bearing the defendant’s name and photograph.

“In these first two cases presented by the state, the facts simply did not support the level of proof needed,” said Legal Defender Mike Politi, who represented both Carillo-Mendez and Yates-Moreno at their hearings.

“You still have to have the hearing anyway,” added Deputy County Attorney Doyle Johnstun, the prosecutor at Wednesday’s hearing. “We don’t have any heartburn over these.”

Pending payment of bond, Carillo-Mendez and Yates-Moreno remain in jail as they await trial.

JONATHAN CLARK can be reached at 515-4693 or by e-mail at jonathan.clark@bisbeereview.net.


http://svherald.com/articles/2007/05/03 ... 524951.txt

I hope the state atty general holds this judge in contempt. This is an obvious violation.

I wish these judges would just enforce the law and not try to issue new laws fron the bench.