Thread: Scottsdale school rape suspect in U.S. illegally (Update)

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=72929



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August 31, 2006
Scottsdale school rape suspect in U.S. illegally
By Mike Sakal
Tribune
Roberto Lemus-Retana




A custodian at Saguaro High School accused of raping a 14-yearold girl on the Scottsdale campus is an illegal immigrant from Mexico and shouldn't have been eligible to work in the United States, an immigration official said Wednesday. Russell Ahr, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the paperwork that Roberto Lemus-Retana provided to ABM Janitorial Services, the company that contracts with the Scottsdale Unified School District, is counterfeit.

Or, there is a possibility Lemus-Retana was using someone else's name and Social Security number, Ahr said.

The school district wasn't aware Lemus-Retana was an illegal immigrant until speaking with the Tribune on Wednesday evening, said Dave Peterson, the district's chief financial officer.

However, the district had already discussed severing ties with ABM, Peterson said. The district is waiting for investigations to be complete before making any decisions about its relationship with the company.

Since the incident, the district has run its own background check on Lemus-Retana's Social Security number, and asked Scottsdale police to do the same, Peterson said. But neither the district's nor the police's background check indicated he was in the country illegally, Peterson said.

The district had contacted ICE to look into Lemus-Retana's immigration status, before the Tribune called, Peterson said.

Lemus-Retana had cleared a background check on the state level and had provided all the required paperwork to work at ABM, where he was hired July 31, according to Mark Safsten, vice president of safety and risk management for ABM. Safsten also said Lemus-Retana provided his past employment history.

Safsten said Wednesday he couldn't comment on the latest development involving Lemus-Retana.

"Anyone can go into a swap market and get certified documents," Ahr said. "Someone gave him a Social Security number, loaned him one, he made one up or he went to the flea market and bought one."

Lemus-Retana was charged Wednesday with seven felony counts of sexual assaultrelated offenses with a minor and is being held without bail in the Maricopa County Fourth Avenue Jail in Phoenix.

The charges stem from his arrest about 5:30 p.m. Friday at Saguaro High School. Police said the arrest came after the freshman girl told them Lemus-Retana made unwanted advances to her in a locked bathroom and forced her to have sex in a computer classroom.

Lemus-Retana admitted to having sex with the girl, but said it was consensual and she told him she was 17, according to a court document.

The incident, which has shaken students at the school, has caused district administrators to rethink security measures. For instance, custodians are now required to work in pairs.

Lemus-Retana had been arrested in Mohave County on suspicion of driving under the influence May 14, and supplied a driver's license at the time. He was removed by U.S. Border Patrol agents four days later from that county's jail to be returned to Mexico, Ahr said. The ICE spokesman could not confirm that Lemus-Retana left the United States.

Lemus-Retana didn't have a Social Security number and was not a U.S. citizen when he was arrested May 14, and he shouldn't have had a valid one when he was hired by ABM, Ahr said.

Peterson said the school district became aware of the DUI arrest this week, but a misdemeanor DUI would not have prevented Lemus-Retana from working in the district.

The district has met with ABM multiple times since Friday and will meet with them again today, Peterson said.

Before the incident, ABM merely had to certify they had completed background checks on employees, Peterson said. That practice is already changing.

"We are requiring an independent, outside agency verify their results and send them directly to us," Peterson said.

While the district can't dictate which company ABM uses to verify the background checks, the district will have to approve which company is picked, Peterson said.

ABM also is required to run new background checks on each of its approximately 130 employees working in the Scottsdale district and have those background checks independently verified by Sept. 8, Peterson said.

It isn't known at this time how long Lemus-Retana has been in the United States, but Scottsdale police officer David Pubins said in an e-mail to the Tribune this week that Lemus-Retana had committed some offenses as a juvenile.

Phoenix Municipal Court records revealed that Lemus-Retana had failed to appear in court for driving without a valid driver's license or valid registration when he was 15 years old in March 1996.

The school district has already implemented new security measures at all of its high schools, including adjusting hours of security guards and administrators so they are on campus from 6:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., Peterson said.

The district also is looking at additional lighting and video surveillance at the campuses, he added.

However, the district probably won't require construction workers on campus to go through background checks, Peterson said.

Background checks aren't feasible since so many construction workers and subcontractors are involved in campus projects, Peterson said.

But the district has construction sites fenced off and enforces a strict policy barring construction workers from having contact with students, he added. Copyright © 2006 Freedom Communications / Arizona. Displayed by permission. All rights reserved.
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Background checks won't reveal if a person is here illegally!

Another one of Bush's good hearted folks that all come here to do the jobs that Americans won't do.

Round 'em up, tag 'em & bag 'em, and get them the hell out of the country now!

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... o0901.html

Lawyer blasts district for not protecting teen

Ofelia Madrid
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 1, 2006 12:00 AM

SCOTTSDALE - The lawyer representing a 14-year-old freshman who said she was sexually assaulted at Saguaro High School chastised the Scottsdale Unified School District on Thursday for not protecting the girl.

"(Parents) were told - again - by the district that new, improved safety measures would be implemented. It is disappointing that my client had to be raped before these measures were instituted," lawyer Craig Knapp's statement read. The reported attack happened a week ago, and Knapp said he intends to file a notice of claim.

District spokesman Keith Sterling said he couldn't comment on pending litigation but called the comments unfortunate and divisive.

On Tuesday the district held a community meeting, and on Wednesday, it implemented security changes at the school and districtwide.

"Safety is our Number 1 priority for every single student," Sterling said.

Knapp's statement said he would seek a court order to mandate the following changes: assign janitors to work in pairs, have them clean when students are absent, follow locked-door policies, and have the district conduct a criminal background. The district has already implemented the first three changes.

"Our school system must implement procedures to prevent illegal immigrants . . . from working at our schools and committing violent crimes against our children," Knapp's statement said.

District officials confirmed Thursday that Roberto Lemus-Retana, the janitor accused of assaulting the girl, was in the U.S. illegally.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=73177

Scottsdale district faces lawsuit in teen rape case
By Mike Sakal, Tribune
September 2, 2006
The attorney representing the 14-year-old girl who told police she was raped by a janitor at Saguaro High School said he is readying a lawsuit against the Scottsdale Unified School District.


Attorney Craig Knapp said Friday he plans to submit a notice of claim to the district, a precursor to a lawsuit, in about three weeks and subpoena “more people than usual” to let the district know “what is coming.”

Roberto Lemus-Retana, 26, a worker for ABM Janitorial Services, which contracts with Scottsdale schools, was arrested Aug. 25 on suspicion of sexual assault.

The girl told police that Lemus-Retana made unwanted advances in a school bathroom before he forced her to have sex in a computer classroom, according to a court document.

Lemus-Retana, who is an illegal immigrant from Mexico, told police the sex was consensual and that the girl told him she was 17.

“The bottom line is that he’s illegal and has a criminal record,” Knapp said. “A basic elementary background check would’ve showed that. The schools have to do their job and not outsource the background checks for people who are working in the schools.”

Lemus-Retana had cleared a background check on the state level and provided all the paperwork required to work at ABM and the school district, a company spokesman has said. Since the incident, the district has changed policies related to contract workers and now requires a thirdparty verification that a background check was made. The district also requires that a copy of the background check be made available for its review.

After Knapp files a notice of claim, the school district will have 60 days to respond to it, and the girl and her family have a year from the date of the incident to file a lawsuit.

Lemus-Retana is being held in the Maricopa County Fourth Avenue Jail without bond. He has been charged with seven felony counts of sexual assault-related offenses involving a minor. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

Lemus-Retana was arrested in Mohave County on May 14 by a DPS officer on suspicion of DUI, when it was discovered he was living in the United States illegally, according to an official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Border Patrol agents removed him from a Mohave County jail on May 18, and he was supposed to be returned to Mexico, said Russell Ahr, spokesman for ICE.

Keith Sterling, spokesman for the Scottsdale Unified School District, said “absolutely we will be defending ourselves,” should a lawsuit be filed. He said he could not comment further due to pending litigation.

The girl, who is receiving private counseling, hasn’t returned to school since the incident and it is unlikely she will return to Saguaro High School, Knapp said.

Contact Mike Sakal by telephone at (480) 970-2324

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=73184

District’s prompt response to Saguaro attack right approach
Tribune Editorial
September 2, 2006
We’d like to say there’s no way another attack like the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl in a Saguaro High School bathroom could recur there or anywhere else under new policies being adopted by the Scottsdale Unified School District.

Unfortunately it’s not possible for anyone to make such a guarantee, even though district officials have done well at confronting the immediate issue, with several positive if not foolproof decisions made less than a week after the incident.

Superintendent John Baracy said the idea for one change — not bringing cleaning crews onto campuses until 5 p.m. — came from a parent during a public meeting earlier this week, and provides an added margin of safety during that after-school period when many kids are still there, either for extracurricular activities or a place to be until their parents get off work.

The case of assault suspect Roberto Lemus-Retana illustrates why this is so important. This illegal immigrant evidently gave ABM Janitorial Services, the contractor that provides the district’s custodians, a fake or stolen Social Security number and other documents for his background check, exploiting one flaw that can’t be easily fixed until the federal government provides Social Security cards with biometric information or some other fraud-resistant way to verify workers are legal.

The district is now demanding ABM recheck the background of all workers it sends to the district and submit all future checks to a third party.

School janitors now will work in pairs. Depending on how they are matched up, there’s still a chance of like-minded workers ganging up on a student or teacher or one looking the other way, but overall this “buddy system” should make campuses safer for everyone, including the janitors.

Extending the campus security presence from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. to cover more of the after-school period also appears to be a sound idea.

We’re wading into another school year and another season of dissecting state- and federally-attached labels on how well schools are teaching children; more peace of mind about their physical safety frees up sorely needed brainpower to focus on academic progress.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=73841




District ends janitor contract after alleged rape
By Amanda Keim and Mike Sakal
Tribune
September 12, 2006
The Scottsdale Unified School District is severing its contract with the cleaning company that employed a janitor accused of raping a Saguaro High School student on campus.

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The background checks ABM Janitorial Services ran on its employees weren’t as thorough as the district required and failed to check Social Security numbers and out-of-state criminal histories, according to a district news release dated Monday. The contract will end Oct. 11.

In the meantime, ABM cleaning crews will be supervised by district-hired cleaning crews, said district spokesman Keith Sterling. “It’s not just going to be the ABM crews by themselves,” Sterling said. ABM didn’t return repeated calls from the Tribune seeking comment Monday. This situation started with an incident Aug. 25 when a 14-year-old Saguaro High School freshman reported that ABM custodian Roberto Lemus-Retana, 26, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, approached her in a bathroom in the school’s 300 building at about 3:30 p.m.

The girl told police Lemus-Retana fondled her, then led her to a classroom and raped her, documents state.

Lemus-Retana told police the sex was consensual and that the girl told him she was 17 and had been smoking marijuana, documents state.

The district examined Lemus-Retana’s personnel file after the incident. It found that ABM had conducted an Arizona background check on Lemus-Retana, but hadn’t checked his criminal record in other states or collected all of his background information, according to the district.

The district’s contract with ABM states that employees working in Scottsdale schools could not have been convicted of, or admitted to, a felony in Arizona or “another jurisdiction.”

On Aug. 31, the district asked ABM to perform new background checks on its 92 employees who work in Scottsdale schools and to have those checks verified by an outside company.

The district had previously said ABM had 130 employees in Scottsdale schools, but that was a district mistake, Sterling said.

ABM had the background checks performed by an outside company by the Sept. 8 deadline, Sterling said.

However, only Arizona Department of Public Safety checks were provided in this new set, Sterling said. There were still no Social Security verifications or checks from other states.

Craig Knapp, the attorney representing the 14-year-old girl and her family, said Monday he doubts any background checks were done on any ABM employees.

He also said he can’t believe any background check was done on Lemus-Retana on a statewide level by ABM or the school district.

Knapp contends that if ABM had conducted such a criminal background check, it would’ve revealed he was an illegal immigrant, was using an invalid Social Security number and had a criminal record. Lemus-Retana is a Phoenix resident who federal authorities have identified as an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Court records show Lemus-Retana has been in the state since he was a teenager. Lemus-Retana’s attorney, Jose Montano, says he has been in Arizona since he was 12.

“You can’t use someone else’s Social Security number,” Knapp said. “One plus one equals two. Things would’ve showed up in a criminal background check and showed he was deported because of it.”

However, Knapp said he was glad to hear the school is taking corrective measures.

“The school district has an independent duty to find out this guy’s background — and that’s a nondelegable duty. The school has more of a duty to protect the safety of the children,” Knapp said.

Lemus-Retana’s initial court appearance is scheduled Friday in Maricopa County Superior Court.

Montano said he didn’t want to comment about ABM losing its contract with Scottsdale, and that his main focus is for his client to have a fair trial so a jury can help determine what happened Aug. 25.

“Right now, I am going on what I have seen in the media and by what my client has said,” Montano said. “Right now, it’s a ‘he said, she said.’ I have no documents from Scottsdale police and won’t see them until my client’s court appearance on Friday.”

Montano also said he didn’t know if Lemus-Retana was in the U.S. legally.

“That’s irrelevant to the criminal case,” Montano said. “A lot of companies in Phoenix take advantage of Mexican nationals to save a few bucks. If he did the sexual assault, he will have to do his time.”
Contact Amanda Keim by email, or phone (480) 970-2337.
Contact Mike Sakal by email.