Suspect rescued from pipe known to police, immigration

By DONNA FIELDER / Denton Record-Chronicle
dfielder@dentonrc.com

DENTON – Pablo Martinez Hernandez had a lot of experience at evading the law before hiding in a drainpipe under Locust Street for nine hours, leaving police and firefighters above wondering if they were dealing with a criminal or a corpse.


GARY PAYNE/DMN
Denton city workers along with police and firefighters worked to free Pablo Martinez Hernandez, who wound up underground in a pipe after allegedly fleeing police July 17. Mr. Hernandez, who is thought to be 24, though he's given several birth dates, has been charged by Denton police with evading arrest or lying about his name or age six times in the past two years.

After city workers dug up the street to get him out of the pipe July 17, the 5-foot-4, 115-pound man said he wasn't stuck but was just waiting for everyone to leave so he could continue his escape.

Still behind bars in the Denton County Jail and facing a charge of evading arrest, Mr. Hernandez declined to comment for this story.

Mr. Hernandez has been in city jail 12 times since June 2005 and was transferred to the Denton County Jail seven times.

He's been turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement three times. He's shown no proof that he is a legal U.S. resident, and Denton County law enforcement officials think he's an illegal immigrant.

Yet each time he was detained, he was soon returned to Denton streets.

ICE records show that Mr. Hernandez was "voluntarily returned" to Mexico on March 31, June 7 and Nov. 29 of last year, spokesman Carl Rusnok said.

The agency has no record of a request for a detainer on May 29, he said.



Released

That's when Mr. Hernandez was released from the county jail after pleading no contest to possession of marijuana and being sentenced to 22 days. He had already served the time.

ICE last placed a detainer on him after his arrest July 17, Mr. Rusnok said.

"Note that voluntary returns are reserved for aliens from Mexico who have no serious criminal convictions," he said in an e-mailed response to questions.

"A VR does not have the same legal consequences as a formal deportation. An alien who re-enters the U.S. after being formally deported commits a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison."

On July 17, a man found an intruder in a vacant house he owns and called police about 9:25 a.m.

When an officer approached the house, the intruder jumped out a back window and ran.

The officer pursued him for several blocks, across yards, up and down streets and over fences, until he ran down a drainage channel and crawled into a drainpipe 24 inches in diameter under South Locust Street.

The pipe opened onto nearby Eagle Drive. Officers quickly converged on both ends of the pipe, but Mr. Hernandez, whose identity the officers didn't know at that point, didn't come out. Officers yelled into the pipe in English and Spanish, telling him it was dangerous to stay in the pipe and asking him to come out.

Assistant Fire Chief Mark Klingele said the smallest firefighter on duty got stuck trying to crawl into the pipe and had to back out.

He carried an air tester that showed a dangerous lack of oxygen in the pipe, Chief Klingele said. Rescuers began pumping in oxygen.



It became a rescue

"At this point, we considered this a rescue," Chief Klingele said. "We couldn't just go away and leave him. We had to get him out one way or another."

Police spokesman Jim Bryan said: "If he died in that pipe, it could have been considered an in-custody death. We could not leave a man under the street in those conditions."

Several officers came and went from the scene during the day, directing traffic or helping plan the extrication. Several firefighters in engines and ambulances remained all day. City drainage and wastewater workers helped with the project, which ended when a backhoe dug up a portion of the street and paramedics removed Mr. Hernandez from the pipe.

He was examined at a hospital and then booked into jail.

The manpower cost of the operation was estimated at $6,260, according to city officials. Supervisors in various departments emphasize that this is not an additional cost to the city but represents salaries of workers who were on duty anyway.


Lengthy record

Mr. Hernandez first came to police attention June 16, 2005, when he was charged with solicitation of a pedestrian. In the following months, he was jailed on charges of public intoxication, theft, evading arrest and failure to pay fines associated with convictions.

He gave different dates of birth and different versions of his name, which confused documentation of his criminal history. But officers began to recognize him and at that point, they began putting an ICE detainer on him so he wouldn't be released on bail before being interviewed by an ICE officer, said Detective Sgt. Jim Brett.

"If we know they have been a frequent visitor here, we'll put a hold on them," Sgt. Brett said.

All Mr. Hernandez's arrests were for misdemeanor crimes.

Officer Bryan said that for misdemeanors such as public intoxication, officers don't attempt to verify legal residence. But after two or three such jailings, checks are made.

"If we have reason to believe they may be illegal, an ICE hold allows ICE officers the opportunity to come and talk to them," Officer Bryan said.

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