Thread: San Francisco: Honduran drug suspect gamed juvenile system

Honduran drug suspect gamed juvenile system
Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, August 30, 2008


When he was caught selling crack in San Francisco's Tenderloin in April, the Honduran immigrant who called himself Javier Martinez first told police he was 18. Then he said he was 16.

Because he insisted he was underage, police were duty-bound to take him to Juvenile Hall, where he would be shielded from deportation under the city's long-standing policy of not reporting juvenile offenders to federal immigration authorities. He was soon put up in a $7,000-a-month group home in Southern California at city taxpayer expense.

In short order, he became one of the eight offenders who walked away from unlocked homes in San Bernardino County, escapes that contributed to a national outcry over San Francisco's policies and prompted Mayor Gavin Newsom to announce that the city would no longer afford juveniles a refuge from deportation. Four of the offenders are now back in custody - and Martinez is one of them, arrested in San Francisco for allegedly dealing drugs.

Martinez now says he was 25 all along, and that his true name is Jose Mendoza Cerrato. On Thursday, he pleaded guilty in adult court to drug dealing and is expected to be transferred to immigration authorities for possible deportation as soon as next month.

The case raises questions about how diligently San Francisco's juvenile justice system works to confirm that immigrant suspects with little or no documentation are who they say they are. Despite apparent inconsistencies in what Cerrato told authorities, he had little trouble persuading the courts to treat him as a minor who did not belong behind bars.

It was 1:10 p.m. April 6 when police undercover narcotics officers made an arrest at Larkin and O'Farrell streets. One officer, posing as a customer, asked the suspected dealer to "hook me up with a 20," referring to $20 worth of rock cocaine. The dealer dutifully spat out a bag containing the drugs.

He gave his name as Javier Martinez and said he was born Jan. 6, 1990, making him 18. When officers took him to jail, however, he said he was 16. Jail officials refused to accept him and told police to take him to Juvenile Hall.

'Somewhat evasive'
After 17 days at Juvenile Hall, he went before Commissioner Abby Abinanti on April 23 for a disposition of the drug case. In a report to the court, juvenile probation officer Ana Villagran said she had gotten little out of the nervous and "somewhat evasive" young man, who was unwilling to provide anything but the most basic information.

He said he had been born in Tegucigalpa, but that there would be no record of it, Villagran's report said. He said he never knew his father, and that his unmarried mother sold tortillas. He never got past the second grade because he was too poor to go to school, and he and his four brothers scavenged the dump for items they could sell, he told the probation officer.

He said he left last year for the United States because it was "no life" to search through garbage for bottles and cans.

On the train ride north, the young man said, he was assaulted and robbed, leaving him with nothing. Once in the United States, he said, he fled without paying the smuggler who had helped him cross the border. He managed to get money from a friend for a bus ticket to Los Angeles, but he couldn't find work there and came to San Francisco in early 2008.

The probation officer noted some obvious gaps in the story.

The young immigrant she interviewed suggested that he kept in contact with his mother in Honduras, but said he had no phone and was illiterate, "so it is puzzling how he connects with her," Villagran wrote.

When he was taken to Juvenile Hall, he said his uncle was Eduardo Martinez and gave his phone number.

Villagran called the Oakland number and reached a man who said he was Eduardo Martinez. The man said he did not know anyone named Javier Martinez.

On the day of the detention hearing, the probation officer called the supposed uncle's number again. This time, another man answered and said he was Martinez's uncle Eduardo.

"The man sounded very nervous when this officer told him that someone else had said, the day before, that he was Eduardo Martinez and that he did not know the minor," Villagran's report to the court concluded.

When the probation officer asked his address, the man asked her to wait a moment. A few minutes later, someone hung up the phone, and repeated calls went unanswered.

Villagran said she had talked to the young immigrant about alternatives to dealing drugs, but that he "could not focus on anything this officer suggested. He simply begged and pleaded with this officer to help him stay in this city so that he could make money for himself and his family. The problem is that he never explained just how he was sending money to his mother, as he claimed that he did not know her actual address and she has no phone."

Minimum wage not enough
The report added that he "did not like the idea of working for minimum wage; he seemed to believe that was too little money for his time."

Villagran recommended that the young man be flown back to Honduras without being deported, which had been the city's long-standing practice.

When he appeared before Abinanti, the young man admitted he had been dealing drugs when police arrested him. He remained in custody and in mid-May, Abinanti ordered him sent to the group home in San Bernardino County.

A month later, he escaped. On Aug. 18, he and another man were arrested after police saw the two selling drugs in United Nations Plaza.

The Honduran again told police he was a minor. When he came before juvenile justice authorities, however, he admitted he was 25 and that his name was really Cerrato.

His lawyer, Jacque Wilson, said he did not know what had motivated Cerrato to give his true name and age.

William Siffermann, San Francisco's chief of juvenile probation, said in a recent interview that such cases show the challenges his office faces in handling undocumented immigrants.

"We are dealing with the complex issues created by putative names, dates of birth, addresses, descriptions and whereabouts," he said. "We are obligated to inquire about the presence of existing parents."

He said that sometimes, judges seem predisposed to override concerns that probation officers such as Villagran express.

"In some cases, the court is prepared to accept it based on representations of the defense attorney," Siffermann said. He would not comment on what happened in the Cerrato case.

Faces deportation
Cerrato pleaded guilty Thursday to a single count of drug dealing stemming from his Aug. 18 arrest. The drug charge stemming from his previous juvenile case was dropped, as was a misdemeanor count of giving false information to police earlier this month about his being a minor.

The public defender who handled Cerrato's juvenile case, Sarah Wilner, did not return calls seeking comment. Public Defender Jeff Adachi was not available for comment.

Wilson said Cerrato had pleaded guilty to the adult drug charge over his objections. Cerrato will be sentenced Sept. 19, and probably taken into custody by immigration officials at that time.

"He wanted to get the case over with," Wilson said. "I think he also feared that he could be charged with something else."

www.sfgate.com

He was soon put up in a $7,000-a-month group home in Southern California at city taxpayer expense.

$7,000 A MONTH!?!?!?! WTF is up with that?? This cannot be real. Oh wait, that's right, this is San Fransicko they're talking about. No wonder it's so screwed up there.

Where are they being housed anyway, in Beverley Hills, La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe or what? For that much cash they could send him on a round-the-world cruise in a deluxe balcony luxury suite with a jacuzzi. What could possibly cost $7K a month? That's $233 a day. $233 a day!! I'd call myself an illegal and start selling crack and tell them to just write me check for $7K a month and get a $800 a month apartment and pocket the remaining $6200.

If they had 10 juveniles living there, that would be $70,000 a month. Hell, with that much money they could buy each and every person their own village back in their own countries.

I'm sorry, but is everyone with the judicial system so damn gullible? This is outrageous that they don't do background checks on these criminals. Our judicial system is run by a bunch of idiots. Any trained crustacean could do a better job than these people.

1. Criminals are, by nature, deceitful. So, don't believe a word they say.
2. Someone who commits a crime and is being elusive about their past is definitely hiding something (any parent can tell you that).
3. The judicial system is supposed to, in part, protect society against criminals before it protects criminals from society.

OK...SEVERAL POINTS.

FIRST: MANY OF THESE "JUVENILES" ARE ACTUALLY ADULTS. SO THEY ARE PUTTING ADULT CRIMINALS IN WITH MINORS. THEY ARE EXPOSING MINORS TO ADULT CRIMINALS.

NEXT: IT DOES NOT COST 7 GRAND TO HOUSE A PERSON. ITS JUST SHELTER AND FOOD. THATS WHAT THEY GET. THEY ARE SUPPOSE TO GET COUNSELING, BUT THE "COUNSELING" AMOUNTS TO GROUP SUPPORT WHERE THE KIDS "TALK TO EACH OTHER". LOL.

I ONCE KNEW SOMEONE WHO WENT TO ONE OF THESE GROUP HOMES. AND SHE SAID THE COUNSELING WAS GROUP CHAT. IN HER CASE THE STATE WAS CHARGED 53 GRAND. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? AND THIS WAS LIKE TEN YEARS AGO. THE TAXPAYERS ARE PAYING FOR THIS.

HELLO? THEY GET SHELTER AND FOOD. ITS JUST A HOUSE IN MANY CASES....SOMETIMES IT IS TEMP PLACEMENT IN A FOSTER HOME. SO NOW ITS 7 GRAND? THATS 84 GRAND A YEAR. YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK....OR SHOULD I SAY YOUR TAX DOLLARS BEING STOLEN AND WASTED.

THEN ON TOP OF THAT THESE SO CALLED JUVENILES ARE ILLEGALS THAT ARE NOT EVEN JUVENILES. EVEN IF THEY WERE JUVENILES ...USA TAXPAYERS SHOULD NOT BE PAYING TO HOUSE THEM....THEY ARE ILLEGAL. AND AT THAT RIP OFF PRICE? IT ISNT JUST THAT HOME, ITS ALL OF THEM. THEY ARE ALL A RIP OFF.

MEANTIME, ITS YOU AND I THAT ARE PAYING FOR THIS OUT OF OUR HARD EARNED WAGES.

WHILE WE ARE ON THE SUBJECT...FOSTER CARE DOES THIS TOO. THEY GIVE THE FOSTER CARE PARENTS LIKE 400 BUCKS FOR EACH KID....BUT THEN THE CHARGE TO THE STATE IS IN THE THOUSANDS. WHERE DOES THE REST OF THIS MONEY GO? AND IN MANY CASES THEY ALSO BILL THE PARENTS OF THE CHILD, BUT THEN STILL GET THE BALANCE OF THE INFLATED BILL FROM THE STATE.

THIS IS GOING INTO SOMEONES POCKET. MEANTIME, THIS MONEY COULD GO TO THE POOR WHO REALLY NEED IT. IT COULD GO TO THE HOMELESS, IT COULD GO TO THE ELDERLY. IT COULD GO TO LAW ENFORCEMENT. IT COULD GO TO THE SCHOOLS. AND ON AND ON.