Thread: Systemic failures allowed Omaha man accused in motor vehicle homicide to vanish

Posted: Sunday, February 21, 2016 9:45 am | Updated: 9:52 am, Sun Feb 21, 2016.

By Todd Cooper 
and Bob Glissmann
World-Herald News Service

OMAHA -- Sarah Root is dead.
Eswin Mejia is missing.

And authorities are scrambling to answer how the 19-year-old accused drunken driver went missing just days after his arrest in Root’s death.

A World-Herald review of Mejia’s case shows a systemic failure — from county pretrial release staff to the county judge to federal immigration enforcement officials — to ensure that the man charged with felony motor-vehicle homicide in Root’s death would answer in court to the charge.

“He’s gone,” a law enforcement official told The World-Herald.

He’s gone because of a lack of communication and common sense among governmental agencies, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said.

Start with the crime: Omaha police allege that Mejia was drunk and street racing on L Street when he rammed into the back of a vehicle driven by Root.

Root died at the Nebraska Medical Center just hours after she graduated from Bellevue University with straight A’s and a degree in investigations. Prosecutors say Mejia’s blood-alcohol content was .241, three times the legal limit of .08.
A week after the crash, Mejia posted bail and skipped a urine test. Officials can’t find him.

The World-Herald review of court records found the following missteps:

» Mejia, who was listed on his jail booking sheet as from Honduras and not a U.S. citizen, was graded a low risk to flee by Douglas County pretrial release officials, despite the fact that he had a warrant and twice had failed to appear in court. On a scale of 1 to 7 — the higher the number, the more risk of fleeing — the county’s pretrial release staff graded Mejia a 2.

» On Feb. 4, Douglas County Judge Jeff Marcuzzo set Mejia’s bail at 10 percent of $50,000 — meaning that Mejia had to post $5,000 cash to be released. The newspaper’s review of 10 motor vehicle homicide cases filed in Nebraska over the past two years showed that five judges set the same bail amount. Five other judges set higher bail amounts — 10 percent of $75,000, $250,000 (twice) and $500,000 (twice). All of the other defendants were U.S. citizens.

» It’s not clear whether the judge was informed of Mejia’s immigration status. Deputy Omaha Police Chief Dave Baker said late Friday that an accident investigator informed Deputy Douglas County Attorney Matt Kuhse of Mejia’s ICE status before Mejia was released from Nebraska Medical Center.

» In considering bail, a transcript shows, Marcuzzo did not give prosecutors a chance to state their position — something every judge typically does.

» After not receiving a chance to speak about bail, Deputy Douglas County Attorney David Wear did not interrupt Judge Marcuzzo. Nor did anyone object after the judge set bail at 10 percent of $50,000.

» Root’s father called Omaha Police accident investigator Dawn Turnbull concerned about Mejia’s bail amount.

» Turnbull repeatedly called ICE about detaining Mejia “due to bond amount and elevated flight risk,” Baker said.

Eventually, Baker said, “her request is denied.” She and her lieutenant tried to call an ICE supervisor. The call was never returned, Baker said.

A day after Mejia’s bail was set, a family member posted his bail. Jail officials released him at 8:44 p.m. on Feb. 5.
He then failed to show up to his required twice-daily urine tests. A warrant was issued.

His legal status — both in terms of U.S. citizenship and as a charged criminal — has prompted legal observers to question why the federal Immigration Customs Enforcement agency failed to place a hold on Mejia.

Shawn Neudauer, a spokesman for ICE, said that Mejia’s Jan. 31 arrest “did not meet ICE’s enforcement priorities” as stated in a November 2014 federal memo issued by Jeh C. Johnson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
“Due to limited resources, DHA and its components (including ICE) cannot respond to all immigration violations or remove all persons illegally in the United States,” Johnson wrote.

The memo prioritizes detention and removal for those with felony convictions; it does not specifically authorize an immigration hold simply based on a felony arrest.

However, the memo has a catch-all provision.

“These factors (listed) are not intended to be exhaustive,” Johnson wrote. “Decisions should be based on the totality of the circumstances.”

In Mejia’s case, ICE said in a statement: “Mejia, 19, of Honduras, did not meet ICE’s enforcement priorities ... because he had no prior significant misdemeanor or felony conviction record. As such, ICE did not lodge a detainer. Mejia is scheduled to go before an immigration judge on March 23, 2017, and it will be up to the immigration courts ... to determine whether he has a legal basis to remain in the U.S.”

Whether Mejia will make it to his immigration court hearing is a mystery.

Mejia’s court appearances before his disappearance had officials scratching their heads. As he was awaiting the bail hearing, authorities brought him into court on a warrant for a Feb. 10, 2015, driving-under-suspension misdemeanor.
On Monday, Feb. 1, a day after the crash, Douglas County Judge Marcela Keim gave Mejia a 1-day jail sentence and fined him $50 for failing to have a child passenger restrained in his vehicle. City prosecutors dismissed a misdemeanor count of failing to have a proper vehicle registration and failing to appear in court.

Mejia, who police say doesn’t have a valid driver’s license, had not appeared in court in the 11 months since he was charged with those February 2015 driving offenses.

He also never appeared in court for a July 2014 traffic stop in which he drove the wrong way on a one-way street. He was charged with having no valid driver’s license.

It is not clear whether pretrial release officials factored in those failures to appear when they listed him as a low risk.
On Feb. 4, Mejia was brought before Judge Marcuzzo for his bail hearing.

According to a transcript of Mejia’s less-than-two-minute hearing:
Judge Marcuzzo asked Wear, the prosecutor, for the facts of what happened. Wear relayed the allegations.
“I find probable cause exists for detention,” Marcuzzo said. “For purposes of bond, pretrial, have you information?”
A pretrial clerk said: “Yes, your honor, we found a score of 2.”

Marcuzzo turned to Mejia’s attorney, Thomas Niklitschek.

“Looking at my client’s previous record, it doesn’t appear to have any felony traffic. He’s also eligible for the court’s 24/7 sobriety program. I think that’s a positive event in the situation. I’d ask for a reasonable bond, judge. He’s been in Omaha the past three years, has a lot of family here who support him.”
Marcuzzo didn’t ask for Wear’s input on bail.

“I’ll set your bond at $50,000, 10 percent,” Marcuzzo said. “If you post that bond, I’ll authorize you for the pretrial release program and the 24/7 program. Thank you very much.”

He moved onto the next case.

Marcuzzo didn’t return calls Friday. Nor did Keim, the county’s presiding judge.

Douglas County judges say they do not necessarily see a defendant’s rap sheet when they impose bail. In crowded hearings that often have more than 10 to 20 felony defendants, judges say, they typically rely on pretrial release officials and prosecutors to fill them in on any skipped court appearances or other flight-risk factors.

Kleine, the Douglas County attorney, said he was concerned that Marcuzzo didn’t turn to his prosecutor. “The judge just went, ‘Bam, here’s the bond.’  He’s running the show in terms of how the hearing’s conducted.”

Asked if his prosecutor should have interrupted — and highlighted Mejia’s failures to appear — Kleine said: “We weren’t given an opportunity to speak. In some ways, I wish our person would have just stopped the proceeding and said, ‘We think that’s an insufficient bond,’ but that didn’t happen.”

Kleine said common sense and communication are lacking in ICE’s detention policy. He questioned why ICE doesn’t put immigration holds on those arrested on suspicion of felonies.

As consequences increase, Kleine noted, so does a person’s motive to flee.

“No one’s saying that people need to be profiled,” Kleine said. “But when we have someone who has been arrested for a serious crime — and they’re not here legally — they have every reason in the world to flee.

“There has to be a common-sense communication between the feds and the state. ... For him to be able to evade prosecution is tremendously frustrating to us. And I know that’s true for (Root’s) family and for police as well.”
Beyond their dismay, Root’s relatives have been deflated by the official decisions that have led them here. Told Friday night that Douglas County pretrial release staff had determined that Mejia was a low risk to flee, Root’s mother said: “Of course they did.”

“It’s just outrageous,” Michelle Root said.

She regrets that she did not attend the arraignment, even if it would not have made a difference. But there was a funeral to plan, and an investigator said she didn’t need to go.

Staff writers Emerson Clarridge and Kevin Cole contributed to this report.

http://www.kearneyhub.com/news/regio...fa4df12df.html

Illegal Alien Killer Protected by Nebraska ‘Sanctuary City’
Vanishes After Paying Bond


by Katie McHugh18 Feb 2016

Thanks to the Omaha police department’s refusal to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) and ICE’s failure to issue a detainer, illegal alien murderer
Eswin Mejia is on the run and may never serve time for killing a young woman.

The Honduran Mejia, 19, killed 21-year-old Sarah Root while allegedly street racing on January 31, rear-ending her so hard
she succumbed to her fatal injuries that same night. Police found Mejia’s blood-alcohol level was four times the legal limit, and
the alien had “a suspended driver’s license.”

Root had graduated from Bellevue University with a 4.0 GPA just the day before.

Although Mejia faced up to 20 years in prison for killing Root, Judge Jeffrey Marcuzzo set Mejia’s bond at $50,000. Mejia’s brother
paid the necessary $5,000–ten percent–and the illegal promptly disappeared, rubbing salt in the mourning Root family’s wounds.

Police did not contact Root’s family to warn them they freed their daughter’s killer.

“I agree with everything you have all written,” the victim’s mother told KMTV. “Those are all questions we have. If it wasn’t for
my ex-husband checking every day with the investigators, we wouldn’t have known [Mejia] was released. This is such a big nightmare.
We will not stop until we get justice for my baby girl. She deserves that.”

“We would like call attention however to the fact that we laid her to rest yesterday, and the cost of a bond cost less than a funeral,”
said the young woman’s father at a February vigil.

WOWT NBC Nebraska noted Mejia was a noted flight risk and police only bothered with him after he kept committing crimes on the road:

Court records show that Mejia skipped a court date in 2014 in relation to a traffic violation — he only went to court when he was
charged with a second offense in 2015 and was subsequently taken into custody.

Furious community members began to demand answers from police.

“Why he let him out on such a low bond when the county attorney was asking for a higher bond? Why wasn’t there a detainer on him?
Why didn’t they call ICE to come get him?” asked co-founder of the Burlington Road Neighborhood Association Rebecca Barrientos-Patlan.
Police reluctantly confirmed to KETV NewsWatch 7 Mejia was “undocumented,” rushing to add they didn’t want to “focus” on the fact.
Yet they knew Mejia was an illegal alien before his bond hearing after investigating his background.

Until Wednesday, neither police nor local media coverage thought it concerned Americans that an extremely drunk illegal alien street racing
with a suspended license killed a beautiful young woman, preferring to frame the horrific — and entirely preventable — crash as a routine
traffic accident. Blackouts of this kind of critical information encourage Americans to accept that their streets will be terrorized by invaders
and their daughters can be mangled to death at illegals’ leisure. Mejia is identified as “man,” “teen,” “suspect” in local news coverage.
Nothing to see here. Needless to say, the “Black Lives Matter” and “undocumented immigrant”-obsessed national media outlet ignored Root’s death.

Omaha Deputy Police Chief Dave Baker told Radio Iowa police allowed Mejia to go free even after investigators demanded a detainer:

As a local law enforcement agency, we’re not empowered to enforce federal immigration laws however, we do work with the immigration
authorities on a federal level. In this case, the individual, Mr. Mejia, was in our country illegally. He was from Honduras. We do attempt to
make sure the judge is aware the individual is in the country illegally, not on the basis of whether the individual is guilty or not guilty. It
does not effect what charges they are charged with on a local or a state basis. It has to do with whether or not there is a flight risk.
Our accident investigator did request a detainer; however, one was not issued or granted prior to him bonding out. His brother did bond
him out before the detainer was issued. My understanding was that he was bonded out fairly quickly.

According to the non-partisan Centers for Immigration Studies, Douglas County is a “sanctuary city” and will not honor ICE detainers without a warrant.

Mejia had several warrants for his arrest before killing Root and is believed to have fled the U.S. by now. Root’s needless death is the latest in a tsunami
of immigrant crimes indulged by every level of government. Her death bears a grim resemblance to Kate Steinle’s murder last July at the hands of an
illegal alien shielded by San Francisco’s “sanctuary city” policy.

How many more Americans are be killed at the hands of illegal aliens before the political class will lift a finger to stop the bloodshed remains to be seen.

H/T: Illegal Alien Crime Report

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/02/18/illegal-alien-killer-protected-by-sanctuary-city-vanishes-after-paying-bond/

In Memory of
Sarah Rae-Ann Root

May 1, 1994 - January 31, 2016





http://www.hoyfuneral.com/obituaries/Sarah-Root/#!/PhotosVideos/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/3ca1c66d-5db4-4416-b5a3-a1f28e4a12a1

The poor girl's family will never see justice for the murder of their daughter. This is a travesty that has become the norm vice the exception due to our failure to enforce immigration law!

A necessary sacrifice in order to provide the path towards a better life for the millions of illegal aliens that have yet to commit an atrocity against the American public.

That is what I believe our political overlords think.

Originally Posted by Ratbstard

A necessary sacrifice in order to provide the path towards a better life for the millions of illegal aliens that have yet to commit an atrocity against the American public.

That is what I believe our political overlords think.

It's all just part of the "act of love" that Jeb Bush likes to talk about.