Tampa Bail Bonds

Doesn’t crap like this make you ANGRY??!!?

Article Most Popular Change Type Size Judges who ignore no-bail law may as well give you the finger
Laurie Roberts
Republic columnist
Mar. 21, 2007 12:00 AM

It’s now been 17 days since Jocabed Dominguez-Torres was arrested and accused of getting drunk, running a red light and killing a 20-year-old Peoria man. Seventeen days since the courts were notified that she’s in this country illegally and thus can’t be released from jail under a new law approved by voters.

So what, you might ask, have our judges and commissioners done to comply with the overwhelming will of the people?

They set bail. Then they reconsidered. And lowered her bail. advertisement

In judicial speak, I think they just gave Arizona voters the finger.

It’s been just over two weeks since Scott and Patty Miller lost their only son, Chris, and were ushered into the court system. Their reaction thus far?

“Complete dismay and total loss of confidence,” Scott told me Tuesday. “For us to have gone through the last two weeks trying to deal with the grieving process all the while having to fight the legal system just to do what the voters said was the right thing to do to me is just unconscionable.”

Chris Miller was killed just after 2 a.m. on March 4 when Peoria police say Dominguez-Torres, 22, ran a red light and crashed into the car in which he was riding. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.20 percent, 2 1/2 times the legal limit.

Peoria police notified court officials that she’s here illegally and that she admitted to buying forged resident and Social Security cards on the streets of Phoenix.

Yet Commissioner Kathleen Mead set her bond at $150,000. This, despite Proposition 100.

You remember Prop. 100. It’s a new law that denies bond in cases such as this to people here illegally.

It passed last November in every county of the state. It passed by the widest margin of any proposition on the ballot. It passed because 78 percent of this state’s voters decreed that it shall be the law of the land.

Just not, apparently, in Maricopa County Superior Court.

After Mead set Dominguez-Torres’ bond, a court spokeswoman explained to me that commissioners can’t deny bond on the say-so of the police or even the suspect. They must get word from an official source, she said, which is tough given that bail must be set within 24 hours of an arrest and the people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement who could give the high sign don’t work weekends.

Mead had to set Dominguez-Torres’ bond on a Sunday.

The next day, March 5, the courts got that official word from ICE when they put an immigration hold on Dominguez-Torres.

“I don’t know how much more official we can get,” ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack told me.

Yet five days later, Commissioner Michael Barth lowered the bond to $50,000.

On Monday, a Maricopa County prosecutor asked the court’s presiding criminal judge, James Keppel, to change Domiguez-Torres’ status to non-bondable, pointing out that our state Constitution now requires it. Keppel’s response: “I’m not the Court of Appeals.”

He’s holding a hearing Thursday morning to decide whether he has the authority to overturn Barth’s bond.

No word on whether anyone in the court system is worried about whether they have the authority to overturn voters.

Neither Keppel nor the court’s presiding judge, Barbara Mundell, returned calls to explain how the arbiters of law can just ignore it.

However, courts spokeswoman J.W. Brown e-mailed me to let me know that judges are sworn to follow the law.

“Several times each week, they order individuals charged with serious felonies be held without bond,” she wrote, “when information presented to the court shows the proof is evident or the presumption is great that the person committed the alleged offense and is in the U.S. illegally.”

And yet Dominguez-Torres remains in jail on that $50,000 bond. If her family puts up $5,000, she’ll be taken by ICE to a detention center, and if she doesn’t fight deportation, she could be back in Mexico by April Fools’ Day.

Fitting, don’t you think?
Sorry some of you don’t have the attention span of a TWO YEAR OLD when it comes to reading!!

Peoria is in Arizona. And while there are many crimes committed by legal Americans, those committed by ILLEGAL aliens are PREVENTABLE crimes that should NEVER have happened in THIS country!!
to “mexican american “this was NOT form an “anti-illegal website”!! It’s in today’s on-line nedition of the Arizona Republic newspaper!!! Try READING the news sometimes!! You MIGHT learn something!!
to ‘summermoon dancer” I don’t like it when ANY child is molested or murdered!!
1. I didn’t KNOW about this happening, so don’t go saying that i wouldn’t care!!!!!!
2. The person that did this was mentally handicapped!!(his parents/guardians should be held responsible)
3. That STILL does NOT alter the fact that ILLEGALS have NO business being in this country,committing crimes against OUR citizens!!!

What do you think of illegals refusing to give out information on 2 yo child who could have been kidnapped?

PHOENIX — A 2-year-old unclaimed child was found early Saturday in a van containing 12 illegal immigrants, Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies said.

A Maricopa County sheriff’s deputy noticed a white Chevy passenger van make an abrupt u-turn at 43rd and Broadway avenues and when they pulled the van over, they found inside 12 illegal immigrants inside.

When they probed a little deeper, they also discovered a 2-year-old girl wedged in between some adults.

“I’m gravely concerned at the possibility that this child could have been kidnapped in Mexico and is being transported for sale here in the United States,” Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. The four adult women and eight men have been arrested and are in the Fourth Avenue Jail.

“When the sheriff’s Human Smuggling Unit detectives interviewed the illegal immigrants, no one would claim the little girl or provide accurate information on how to locate her parents,” said Deputy Lindsey Smith of Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies hope that someone will come forward with information about the incident, and the identity of the child will be solved.

This was the second time this week that police have come across illegal immigrants wedged into a passenger van.

On Monday, Arizona Department of PUblic Safety officers arrested 21 illegal immigrants at 27th and Southern avenues after the van in which they were crammed tried to ram a DPS vehicle before colliding with another car.

The accident caused the van to roll over with all 21 people still inside. All were arrested.http://www.kpho.com/news/17754075/detail.html
How many advocates for illegals will still call Sheriff Joe Arpaio a racist ?

Why do illegal aliens kidnap American people in America?

http://www.azfamily.com/images/links/110208_kidnappings.pdf

Sharp Rise in Immigration-Related Kidnappings Prompts New Task Force

Number of Cases Has Increased At Least 324% since 2004

Facing a dramatic increase in kidnappings and other Latin American-style violence related to the illegal immigration crisis, County Andrew Thomas has created a new task force within the County Attorneys Office to combat this dangerous trend. So far this year, Valley police have submitted 204 cases in which a victim or victims were kidnapped and held for ransom. If the rate continues, there will be 275 such cases by the end of the year setting a record for Maricopa County.

Submittals of Kidnap for Ransom/Hostage (Highest Ranking Charge)

*Current through 9/2008

2004 – 48 kidnapings

2005 – 63 kidnapings

2006 – 62 kidnapings

2007 – 164 kidnapings

2008 – 375 kidnapings

As the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association has noted, this trend in violent crime has its roots in the illegal immigration crisis. For those cases in which kidnapping for ransom is the highest charge, 74% of

November 2, 2008
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the defendants sentenced in 2007 in Maricopa County were found to be in the United States illegally. The sentencing range is typically between 7 and 15 years in prison. Violent kidnappings and worse have increasingly plagued law enforcement in Mexico and the nations border cities. On October 23, at least 10 people were killed in a gunfight in Nogales. Nogales and other Mexican border cities have become battlegrounds for Mexican drug cartels fighting to control smuggling routes into Arizona and other parts of the United States. To prevent this violence from spreading further into Maricopa County, the County Attorneys Office has reached out to Valley police by assigning specific prosecutors to handle these cases. Attorneys in the Special Crimes Bureau, which already handles the offices human-smuggling cases, have been tasked with cracking down on kidnappers. Three attorneys from that bureau have been designated to work with law enforcement much in the same way the offices Repeat Offender Bureau works with specially trained detectives.

Thomas stated, These kidnappings threaten the safety of neighborhoods all over the Valley. We have to stop this trend before the violence escalates. This problem is yet another unfortunate byproduct of the illegal immigration crisis, which jeopardizes the lives of not only U.S. citizens but also immigrants, legal and illegal.

Thomas was joined by Mark Spencer, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association. Spencer has called Phoenix the kidnapping capital of America because of the spike in violence associated with illegal immigration.

Here are some recent cases prosecuted this year by the County Attorneys Office:

On January 26, 2008 an 18-year-old Phoenix girl was kidnapped at gunpoint from her home. The kidnappers bound her hands and feet and held her against her will for four days. As the parents tried to negotiate the teens release, a second victim was kidnapped and after his family gave the kidnappers four vehicles he was released. He then led the police to the house where the Phoenix girl was held. Phoenix Police tracked down and arrested the suspects.

Jesus Cervantes Beltran (DOB 2/7/71)

Pled guilty to Kidnapping and sentenced to 18 years in the Department of Corrections

Patricia Ledezma (DOB 9/30/82)

Pled guilty to Kidnapping and sentenced to 10.5 years in the Department of Corrections

Jose Luis Ledezma (DOB 8/24/87)

Pled guilty to kidnapping and sentenced to 8 years in the Department of Corrections

Ivan Rodriguez (DOB 2/16/87)

Pled guilty to Kidnapping and sentenced to 12 years in the Department of Corrections

Nibardo Gutierrez Inzunza (DOB9/4/72)

Pled Guilty to Kidnapping and is awaiting sentencing

On October 15, 2007 the defendants kidnapped a man from his car at gunpoint. They then called the victims wife and said the victims head would be left on her front porch if she didnt pay the ransom. Phoenix Police rescued the victim and arrested the suspects.

Eulalio Plascencia-Moreno (DOB 7/1/75)

Convicted of Kidnapping, Theft by Extortion, Misconduct Involving Weapons and sentenced to 13 years in the Department of corrections

Noe-Mendoza-Tapia (DOB 9/9/85)

November 2, 2008 Page 2

Convicted of Kidnapping, Theft by Extortion, Misconduct Involving Weapons sentencing is pending

Jhonnatan Ochoa-Suarez (DOB 12/5/84)

Convicted of Kidnapping, Theft by Extortion and sentenced to 12 years in the Department of Corrections On January 19, 2008 a Phoenix man was robbed and then kidnapped. The kidnappers demanded $70,000 ransom. Two days later Police rescued the victim and arrested the suspects.

Fidel Zavala Zavala (DOB 8/21/88)

Pled guilty to Kidnapping and sentenced to 5 years in the Department of Corrections

Israel Morales (DOB 6/8/90)

Pled guilty to Kidnapping and sentenced to 10.5 yea

Has this Sheriff gone too far making male inmates wear pink underwear? Is the sheriff’s department to blame…?

for Vogel’s death?

“America’s toughest sheriff” is facing a new threat of punishment in the death of a mentally ill jail inmate forced to don pink underwear. The jail dress code imposed by Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., so traumatized schizophrenic detainee Eric Vogel that it may have caused his death from heart failure, two coroner’s officials concluded, and their testimony should have been presented to a jury that rejected a wrongful death claim in 2010, a divided panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday. Vogel, a 36-year-old recluse who lived with his mother, was arrested by deputies on suspicion of burglary after he wandered out of his North Phoenix home in November 2001. After mental health screeners at the jail deemed him in need of psychiatric care, Vogel became hysterical when ordered to “dress out” and had to be held down and stripped naked by four deputies to force him into the pink garments. He was released a couple of days later.

Less than a month after his release, Vogel was riding in his mother’s car when she had a minor accident, and a sheriff’s deputy told him there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest. Vogel fled the scene, running four or five miles before dropping dead of a heart attack, according to court records. His sister, Yvon Wagner, filed a lawsuit alleging constitutional violations in her brother’s death. When the case went to court, the judge refused to allow her to testify at trial about Vogel’s delusional belief that he had been raped during the dressing struggle. The court also refused to allow two medical examiners to offer their opinions that the humiliating pink underwear was “likely” a factor in the man’s fatal attack of arrhythmia.

“Pink underwear sounds funny until you have a paranoid schizophrenic who thinks he’s being prepared to be raped,” said Joel Robbins, the Phoenix attorney representing Wagner in her quest to punish Arpaio, who has been dubbed by the media — and himself — as the toughest lawman in the country. The 9th Circuit sent Wagner’s case back for a new trial, but Robbins said he expected Arpaio and county authorities to petition for reconsideration by a larger panel of 9th Circuit judges.
“My experience with Maricopa is they squirm until they have to pay,” Robbins said of Wagner’s claim for unspecified damages. The attorney for Arpaio, Eileen D. Gilbride, did not return phone calls.
The 9th Circuit opinion, written by Judge John T. Noonan, an appointee of President Reagan, said Arpaio’s choice of pink for male inmates’ undergarments “appears to be punishment without legal justification.” “Given the cultural context, it is a fair inference that the color is chosen to symbolize a loss of masculine identity and power, to stigmatize the male prisoners as feminine,” wrote Noonan, who was joined by a visiting judge appointed by President Clinton.

Judge N. Randy Smith, named to the court byPresident George W. Bush, dissented, saying that Wagner’s account of her brother’s mental state was inadmissible hearsay.Arpaio has been sued repeatedly over his treatment of jail inmates. He has reduced jail meals to two daily, served surplus food, reinstated chain gangs — including for women and juveniles — and relegated some detainees to a tent city where summer temperatures often exceed 120 degrees.

The Justice Department last year revoked the sheriff’s authority to identify and detain illegal immigrants after finding that Maricopa County deputies were engaged in racial profiling. A week ago, Arpaio announced at a Phoenix news conference that preliminary results of an investigation he ordered on the authenticity of President Obama’s birth certificate had yielded “probable cause to believe forgery and fraud occurred.” Obama released the Hawaiian document to the public last year after “birthers” stirred up a national frenzy with claims that he was born in Africa and therefore ineligible to be president.

Have you read this?

Feds defend Arpaio on crime sweeps
Immigration officials say sheriff is following law
221 commentsby Daniel González – Apr. 5, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Top federal immigration officials on Friday defended Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s recent crime sweeps, rejecting critics’ arguments that the sheriff is violating an agreement that allows deputies to enforce immigration laws.

The officials made their remarks as 38 new officers at five Arizona law-enforcement agencies were sworn in to enforce federal immigration laws. The federally trained officers are members of the Phoenix Police Department, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and the Pima, Pinal and Yavapai county sheriff’s offices. Now, with more than 200 trained officers and jail officials, Arizona has the most of any state in nation.

Asked about the intensifying controversy over sweeps in Phoenix and Guadalupe, Matthew Allen, newly appointed special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona, rebuffed accusations that Arpaio is conducting immigration raids masked as crime sweeps. Jim Pendergraph, who coordinates an ICE program that trains local police in immigration enforcement, agreed.

They said Arpaio is enforcing state laws and, in the process, arresting illegal immigrants, which is permitted under an agreement between ICE and the Sheriff’s Office.

“He has stayed within the bounds of the agreement,” Allen said.

Pendergraph said he even drove to Guadalupe on Thursday to see Arpaio’s operation for himself and “I saw nothing that gave me heartburn.”

The crime sweeps, held recently in largely immigrant and Hispanic neighborhoods in Guadalupe and Phoenix, have sparked large-scale protests accusing Arpaio of conducting immigration raids based on racial-profiling.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Guadalupe Mayor Rebecca Jimenez have blasted the crime sweeps. Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris also asked ICE officials to look into whether Arpaio’s crime sweeps were appropriate under the agreement.

Arpaio has maintained that he is not targeting suspects based on race and that the sweeps were in response to complaints of crime from business people and community leaders.

On Friday, he continued with a second day of sweeps in Guadalupe, despite the objections of the mayor and hundreds of protesters. He said he was considering doing more sweeps in Mesa after eight state legislators signed a letter asking him to focus his crime-suppression activities on the southeast Valley.

“We are going to arrest any illegal immigrants we come across,” Arpaio said.

Arpaio’s deputies are allowed to double as immigration agents under a federal program known as 287 (g). The program also allows jail personnel to identify foreign-born criminals in jails and prisons and process them for deportation.

Most of the seven Arizona agencies participating in the program have 10 or fewer officers and jail officials trained in immigration enforcement. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has 160.

Congressional auditors are conducting a probe of the program to see how well it is working in Arizona and other parts of the country. Their report is expected in the fall.

The additional Arizona officers sworn in Friday raised questions about whether more immigration sweeps will take place in other parts of the state.

Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, said she fears more local police will question drivers about their immigration status during traffic stops. That could lead to civil-rights violations and racial-profiling involving immigrants and U.S. citizens, she said.

But law-enforcement officials insisted Friday that they do not plan to use ICE-trained officers to do crime sweeps similar to Arpaio’s. Instead, the officers will be used for targeted operations aimed at arresting and deporting foreign-born criminals tied to immigrant and drug-smuggling and other criminal rings, they said.

One sergeant and four detectives from the Phoenix violent-crimes bureau completed the four-week ICE training, the first in the department to do so.

The department in recent months has taken heat from both sides of the immigration debate. Border-control advocates want the agency to get more involved in arresting illegal immigrants, and immigrant advocates say immigration enforcement should be left to the federal government.

Joe Klima, commander of the Phoenix violent-crimes bureau, said the five officers will go after violent criminals associated with human-smuggling organizations.

“We will not use this for routine immigration enforcement,” Klima said.

Pinal County Sheriff Chris Vasquez did not rule out the possibility that his five newly trained deputies will be used to arrest illegal immigrants following traffic stops, but that will not be the main focus. The deputies will instead focus on combating smuggling groups that transport illegal immigrants through Pinal County. The county is a major corridor for transporting illegal immigrants and drugs from the border into the United States, Vasquez said.
Don’t you just wish Sheriff Joe was running for President, instead of those three LOSERS?