Tactics are questioned in Star Packaging case

(Published Wednesday, October 11, 2006 11:41:56 AM CDT)



By Mike Heine
Gazette Staff

ELKHORN-A defense attorney believes racial profiling is the reason local police asked federal officials to verify the identities of only non-Caucasian workers at a Whitewater business accused of employing illegal immigrants.

"You're given a list of 45 names, and you just automatically know that none of the people that are Caucasian on that list aren't involved in identity theft?" defense attorney Frank Lettenberger asked Tuesday after the preliminary hearing for his client, Allen L. Petrie.

Petrie, the 47-year-old owner of Star Packaging, 960 E. Milwaukee St., Whitewater, is charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit identity theft. He is accused of telling immigrant employees to use false names and Social Security numbers to maintain employment at the company.


Walworth County Assistant District Attorney Diane Donohoo listens as Allen Petrie's defense attorney, Frank Lettenberger, raises an objection during Petrie's preliminary hearing Tuesday. Lettenberger's objection concerned document evidence of investigator Larry Meyer, right, which was being displayed.
Bill Olmsted/Gazette Staff

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The investigation of Star Packaging was led by retired Whitewater police investigator Larry Meyer.

Lettenberger has accused Meyer of racial profiling.

Meyer testified Tuesday that he had numerous contacts with Petrie leading up to the Aug. 8 raid at Star Packaging, which included agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Social Security Administration and local and county police.

Meyer said he repeatedly told Petrie not to hire or employ individuals using false identification and even offered to find out who was using stolen Social Security numbers.

Meyer testified that Petrie gave him a list of 45 employees the company hired directly. Other employees at the business came from an Elkhorn-based staffing agency.

Meyer sent 24 of the 45 names to the Social Security Administration for verification. Meyer said he didn't send the 21 other names because he didn't believe they had questionable identities.


Allen Petrie


Frank Lettenberger

"I picked out the ones that I did not know," Meyer said under cross-examination.

Of the 24 names he sent for verification, none were Caucasian.

"How do you just randomly pick those names out?" Lettenberger said after the hearing. "I would think that if you're trying to look through it that you investigate all of the names in there."

Assistant District Attorney Diane Donohoo defended Meyer's action, saying Meyer is being unfairly criticized.

"Look at his whole career. Look at his whole history. Look at how fair and hard-working he is," Donohoo said. "I have said time after time, the worst thing to ever be is a criminal with Larry Meyer working on your case, regardless of your skin color, your age, or anything. I have not seen Larry Meyer be biased."

Meyer retired Sept. 4 after 33 years at the Whitewater Police Department.

During the raid, police arrested 25 suspected illegal Mexican immigrants, nine of whom have since been deported.

Ezequiel Cortez Mendez, once an employee at Star Packaging, testified he worked there first under another name.

However, his paychecks under the false name were being docked for child support. He told Petrie he needed to change his name, and Petrie let him work under a new name.

But Petrie never told him to make up a new name Social Security number, Cortez Mendez said.

Another former Mexican employee, Andres Tizapa Aparicio, also said no one at Star Packaging told him to use another person's identity.

After three hours of testimony Tuesday, Judge John Race ordered the hearing to continue Thursday, Nov. 30.

Donohoo said there was enough evidence Tuesday that she thought about resting after the third witness and asking Race to have the case continue to trial.

"I'm ready to go into a courtroom. The state feels it has an extremely strong case against him or this wouldn't go forward," Donohoo said.

Lettenberger disagreed.

"I didn't hear any testimony today that would have implicated my client," he said. "There were some interesting statements about what has happened thus far. We'll have to go and see what else comes out."

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