Our entire executive branch is made up of Russian assets and you are worried about a judge who let an immigrant escape?
CURRENT EVENTS - April 27-30
- Thread starter nycfan
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That is one of the official tenets of fascism.
HandsonFire
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Who does she think she is, the president? All that lawlessness is reserved for him alone.
ZenMode
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More civil disobedience, I guess. The fact that we have judges doing this stuff is jaw-dropping.
Former New Mexico judge and wife arrested on charges of tampering with evidence linked to suspected Tren de Aragua member
A former magistrate judge in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, and his wife are accused of tampering with evidence linked to the arrest of an undocumented migrant suspected of being a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, according to two criminal complaints filed Friday.
Former Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Jose Luis Cano, also known as Joel Cano, is facing a federal charge of tampering with evidence, and his wife, Nancy Cano, was charged with conspiracy to tamper with evidence, court records show. CNN has reached out to their attorney for comment.
The migrant, Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, is a Venezuelan who was charged earlier this year for unlawful possession of a firearm or ammunition, court documents show.
Former New Mexico judge and wife arrested on charges of tampering with evidence linked to suspected Tren de Aragua member
A former magistrate judge in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, and his wife are accused of tampering with evidence linked to the arrest of an undocumented migrant suspected of being a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, according to two criminal complaints filed Friday.
Former Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Jose Luis Cano, also known as Joel Cano, is facing a federal charge of tampering with evidence, and his wife, Nancy Cano, was charged with conspiracy to tamper with evidence, court records show. CNN has reached out to their attorney for comment.
The migrant, Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, is a Venezuelan who was charged earlier this year for unlawful possession of a firearm or ammunition, court documents show.
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From your CNN link link:
“… Investigators said they identified tattoos, clothing and hand gestures “commonly associated” with Tren de Aragua in photos and videos posted online by Ortega-Lopez, saying this “provide(s) strong evidence of Cristhian Ortega’s potential connection” to the gang, according to the criminal complaint.
… The former judge staunchly denied any wrongdoing and maintained he had no prior knowledge of Ortega-Lopez’s alleged ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, or of the two other men who associated with him, and defended his decision to allow the men to stay on his property, CNN affiliate KOAT reported, citing a 23-page letter previously submitted to the New Mexico Supreme Court.
“Let me be as crystal clear as possible,” Jose Luis Cano wrote, KOAT reported. “The very first time I ever heard that (the men) could possibly have any association with Tren de Aragua was when I was informed of that by (the) agents on the day of the raid.”
… They discovered two video messages between Nancy Cano and Ortega-Lopez, which showed a fourth phone and the two discussing how to potentially delete Ortega-Lopez’s Facebook accounts, the complaint against Nancy Cano states.
… During the search, Jose Luis Cano agreed to speak with investigators and told them he destroyed Ortega-Lopez’s phone “by smashing it with a hammer and discard(ing) the remaining pieces in the city trash dumpster approximately five weeks ago,” adding he thought the phone “contained photos or videos that would reflect negatively” on Ortega-Lopez, the complaint against him stated.
When questioned further, Jose Luis Cano said he destroyed the phone because he believed it contained photos of Ortega-Lopez holding firearms, the complaint stated. …”
——
It sounds like the judge is (at best) a dope if he thought destroying the fourth phone with a hammer was a good idea (as a legal matter or as a tech matter). From other stories I’ve read in local coverage (to satisfy my own curiosity since another poster has posted several times about this story), it sounds like the daughter of the judge was maybe romantically involved with this immigrant, which may have warped the judgement of the judge and his wife (but is no excuse for criminal behavior).
Regardless, he obviously should not have been harboring illegal immigrants and the action by the NM Supreme Court is a strong indicator of this admin judge’s seriously inappropriate (at best) behavior given his position.
All that said, tattoos and gestures as the only provided “evidence of a strong connection” to TDA is weak sauce in terms of sweeping this case into a TDA gang case. It may turn out there is a lot more evidence tying this guy to TDA, and presumably that will play out in court.
The charge against the judge’s wife for suggesting this guy delete his Facebook account feels particularly thin, but again maybe more evidence is being developed and the charges and evidence will be updated?
TangledUpInBlue06
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Without opining on the accusations, I'd caution you against painting with such a broad brush. Judges are humans, and in a large enough group of humans, some portion will always be unethical or make poor decisions. Even people that are well-off, educated, in positions of power, or are charged with upholding the law. It's disappointing but not unique. It was also contemplated - that's why there are procedures to remove even judges with lifetime appointments.
I'd encourage you to ease off the "we have judges doing this stuff" phrasing. Wittingly or unwittingly, you're playing right into what the administration wants, which is to delegitimize the courts.
I don't know how accurate this is, but Google suggests there are 30,000 state court judges and about 1500 federal judges. So far in this thread we've had 2 accusations of misbehavior. We do not have a lawless judge problem.
lawtig02
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You might want to check in with noted liberal Andrew McCarthy before drawing too many conclusions here. Unless, that is, you, like Silence, think you know more about the law than the legal experts.
As a Trump DOJ Should Know, Judge Dugan Has a Defense | National Review
Her team will argue that, when intervening in the case of an illegal immigrant, she was acting within the scope of her official duties.
www.nationalreview.com
Trust me when I tell you that the federal agents who planned to arrest Flores-Ruiz in the state courthouse would never have done the same thing in a federal courthouse. They didn’t tell Judge Dugan or the chief judge of the court that they were coming. They didn’t alert court security personnel or the local police. In the federal system, agents of the executive branch would have understood that they did not have carte blanche to conduct enforcement operations in a federal courthouse — the judiciary’s turf. They would not conduct a planned, non-exigent arrest in a courthouse without first ensuring that they had the cooperation of the chief judge, any judge whose cases might be affected, and the court security personnel. The Justice Department would grasp that if the federal judiciary believed that law enforcement agents of the executive branch were exploiting the courts’ administration of justice, it would not go well for the DOJ in the many law enforcement initiatives — search warrants, wiretaps, grand juries, trials, etc. — for which they need the federal judiciary’s assistance.
Because of federalism principles, federal law enforcement agencies should arguably be more solicitous of state courts and state law enforcement. At a minimum, they should show the state respect equal to what they show federal counterparts.
They didn’t in this instance. The criminal complaint indicates that, before she escorted Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer out of her courtroom through a jury room corridor inaccessible to the public, and thus inaccessible to the federal agents, Judge Dugan and another (unidentified) judge demanded that the agents come with them to consult the chief judge of the courthouse. The federal agents did not resist this because they obviously knew that what they were doing was edgy. The state judges had legitimate reason to be angry: If it becomes publicly known that defendants who show up as directed for state court proceedings may risk federal arrest, many of them will not show up for state proceedings, which will put a significant strain on state resources.
And notice: I said just above that the federal agents did not have access to the nonpublic area that Dugan used to help Flores-Ruiz try to evade arrest. That’s because, while the federal agents had an administrative arrest warrant, they did not seek a search warrant from a federal judge permitting them to make an arrest anyplace on the grounds of the state courthouse. As the complaint details, the state judges were upset that the federal agents did not have a warrant issued by a federal court. Clearly, if the agents had asked, a federal judge — more sensitive to interstate comity with state courts than the Trump administration’s agents were — might well have said no.
* * *
This is going to be Dugan’s defense: She was acting within the scope of her official duties, it is not illegal per se to allow a defendant and his counsel to leave the courtroom by a limited-access route, and her actions were consistent with her judgment regarding the proper administration of the state judicial system, which the federal agents — ignoring principles of federalism — were disturbing with their covert arrest operation. She will say she was not hiding Flores-Ruiz; as a city official, by allowing an illegal alien to leave a state facility, she was declining to be commandeered into assisting federal authorities in enforcing federal immigration law, just as the Milwaukee corrections department does, consistent with the city’s sanctuary policies.
ZenMode
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I try to post articles from "acceptable" sources (When in Rome, right?), but a Yahoo article said that this guy had pics of decapitated people on his phone:
In March, a judge ordered Ortega-Lopez be released on bail and into the “third party custody” of Nancy Cano. The federal government later successfully argued that he be kept locked up after prosecutors said his cellphone had images of a decapitated body and Ortega-Lopez associating with known TdA gang members, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Former New Mexico judge accused of tampering with evidence in Tren de Aragua case
Federal officials accused Joel Cano of destroying the cellphone of a Venezuelan man who was in the country illegally and allegedly staying on property the recently resigned judge owns.
www.nbcnews.com
ZenMode
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No, I would say it's not illegal, in general, to allow a defendant and lawyer to leave via a limited access route. When you, the judge, apparently send ICE agents in the one direction and then intentionally send the lawyer/defendant out of a limited access route, in the opposite direction, that would seem to be a problem.You might want to check in with noted liberal Andrew McCarthy before drawing too many conclusions here. Unless, that is, you, like Silence, think you know more about the law than the legal experts.
As a Trump DOJ Should Know, Judge Dugan Has a Defense | National Review
Her team will argue that, when intervening in the case of an illegal immigrant, she was acting within the scope of her official duties.
Trust me when I tell you that the federal agents who planned to arrest Flores-Ruiz in the state courthouse would never have done the same thing in a federal courthouse. They didn’t tell Judge Dugan or the chief judge of the court that they were coming. They didn’t alert court security personnel or the local police. In the federal system, agents of the executive branch would have understood that they did not have carte blanche to conduct enforcement operations in a federal courthouse — the judiciary’s turf. They would not conduct a planned, non-exigent arrest in a courthouse without first ensuring that they had the cooperation of the chief judge, any judge whose cases might be affected, and the court security personnel. The Justice Department would grasp that if the federal judiciary believed that law enforcement agents of the executive branch were exploiting the courts’ administration of justice, it would not go well for the DOJ in the many law enforcement initiatives — search warrants, wiretaps, grand juries, trials, etc. — for which they need the federal judiciary’s assistance.
Because of federalism principles, federal law enforcement agencies should arguably be more solicitous of state courts and state law enforcement. At a minimum, they should show the state respect equal to what they show federal counterparts.
They didn’t in this instance. The criminal complaint indicates that, before she escorted Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer out of her courtroom through a jury room corridor inaccessible to the public, and thus inaccessible to the federal agents, Judge Dugan and another (unidentified) judge demanded that the agents come with them to consult the chief judge of the courthouse. The federal agents did not resist this because they obviously knew that what they were doing was edgy. The state judges had legitimate reason to be angry: If it becomes publicly known that defendants who show up as directed for state court proceedings may risk federal arrest, many of them will not show up for state proceedings, which will put a significant strain on state resources.
And notice: I said just above that the federal agents did not have access to the nonpublic area that Dugan used to help Flores-Ruiz try to evade arrest. That’s because, while the federal agents had an administrative arrest warrant, they did not seek a search warrant from a federal judge permitting them to make an arrest anyplace on the grounds of the state courthouse. As the complaint details, the state judges were upset that the federal agents did not have a warrant issued by a federal court. Clearly, if the agents had asked, a federal judge — more sensitive to interstate comity with state courts than the Trump administration’s agents were — might well have said no.
* * *
This is going to be Dugan’s defense: She was acting within the scope of her official duties, it is not illegal per se to allow a defendant and his counsel to leave the courtroom by a limited-access route, and her actions were consistent with her judgment regarding the proper administration of the state judicial system, which the federal agents — ignoring principles of federalism — were disturbing with their covert arrest operation. She will say she was not hiding Flores-Ruiz; as a city official, by allowing an illegal alien to leave a state facility, she was declining to be commandeered into assisting federal authorities in enforcing federal immigration law, just as the Milwaukee corrections department does, consistent with the city’s sanctuary policies.
lawtig02
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That has nothing to do with the point uber-liberal Andy McCarthy is making.
ZenMode
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Well, my response was related directly to the last paragraph in your post. If her complaints is that the federal agents were breaking protocol or needed a different type of warrant, etc...there are appropriate ways to handle that. Sneaking a suspect out the back door, while intentionally sending law enforcement in the opposite direction, would seem to not be appropriate or legal.
lawtig02
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Serious question -- did you read the actual complaint before coming to your conclusions about what happened? Because what the government says is not matching with what appears to be the basis for your outrage.
33. After leaving the Chief Judge’s vestibule and returning to the public hallway, DEA Agent A reported that Flores-Ruiz and his attorney were in the public hallway. DEA Agent B also observed Flores-Ruiz and his attorney in the hallway near Courtroom 615 and noted that Flores-Ruiz was looking around the hallway. From different vantage points, both agents observed Flores-Ruiz and his counsel walk briskly towards the elevator bank on the south end of the sixth floor. I am familiar with the layout of the sixth floor of the courthouse and know that the south elevators are not the closest elevators to Courtroom 615, and therefore it appears that Flores-Ruiz and his counsel elected not to use the closest elevator bank to Courtroom 615. DEA Agent A followed Flores-Ruiz and his attorney towards the south elevator bank. At approximately 8:50 a.m., DEA Agent A alerted other members of the arrest team that DEA Agent A was on the elevator with Flores-Ruiz. While on the elevator, Flores-Ruiz and his attorney spoke to each other in Spanish, which DEA Agent A did not understand. They exited the elevator on one of the bottom floors of the courthouse and used the Ninth Street public entrance/exit to leave the building.
ZenMode
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I read the NBC story I posted yesterday and listened to description from news updates and podcasts.
Dugan was hit with a criminal complaint Friday alleging that on April 18, she helped Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his attorney exit her courtroom when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up to arrest a man they said was an undocumented immigrant.
Her alleged actions were cheered by immigration advocates who rallied outside of the courthouse, with speakers leading the protesters in chants of “due process is not negotiable” and “drop the charges.”
“We see nothing wrong with what she did,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera. She said her organization knows the judge as someone who defends people in the court system. “She’s someone who acted on her conscience and was standing up for due process rights for herself and others,” she said.
lawtig02
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Thanks. I'll take that as a no.
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Serious question: why would anyone cover themselves in gang related tattoos if they weren't, in fact, in the gang? Doing so, i would imagine, would put your life in danger if gang members saw your tattoos where you were falsely advertising membership in their gang.
Many people have Tattoos. Only a tiny few people have gang-specific Tattoos. This person had Tattoos but not gang Tattoos, no matter what Trump and his people say.
lawtig02
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ZenMode
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Correct. I mentioned the items I read and the affidavit was not among them.
I have read the affidavit now and it seems to align with what NBC reported, which was original source for what I was saying. Did you read the affidavit?
Judge DUGAN escorts Flores-Ruiz through a “jury door” to avoid his arrest.29. Multiple witnesses have described their observations after Judge DUGAN returnedto her courtroom after directing members of the arrest team to the Chief Judge’s office. Forexample, the courtroom deputy recalled that upon the courtroom deputy’s return to the courtroom,defense counsel for Flores-Ruiz was talking to the clerk, and Flores-Ruiz was seated in the jurybox, rather than in the gallery. The courtroom deputy believed that counsel and the clerk werehaving an off-the-record conversation to pick the next court date. Defense counsel and Flores-Ruizthen walked toward each other and toward the public courtroom exit. The courtroom deputy then saw Judge DUGAN get up and heard Judge DUGAN say something like “Wait, come with me.”
Despite having been advised of the administrative warrant for the arrest of Flores-Ruiz, Judge DUGAN then escorted Flores-Ruiz and his counsel out of the courtroom through the “jury door,”which leads to a nonpublic area of the courthouse. These events were also unusual for two reasons.First, the courtroom deputy had previously heard Judge DUGAN direct people not to sit in the jury box because it was exclusively for the jury’s use. Second, according to the courtroom deputy, only deputies, juries, court staff, and in-custody defendants being escorted by deputies used the back jury door. Defense attorneys and defendants who were not in custody never used the jury door.30. Attorney B similarly explained that after returning to the courtroom, Judge DUGAN forcefully motioned for Flores-Ruiz’s attorney and a male she did not know (Attorney Bhad never met Flores-Ruiz) to approach. Flores-Ruiz’s attorney appeared to be confused by the judge’s gesture but complied with her directive. Judge DUGAN commanded Flores-Ruiz’sattorney and the male to leave through a backdoor of the courtroom. Attorney B then saw Judge DUGAN escort Flores-Ruiz’s attorney and the male through a non-public door near the courtroom’s jury box. Shortly thereafter, Judge DUGAN came back to the courtroom andconducted hearings on that morning’s docket. Later that morning, Attorney B realized that FloresRuiz’s case had never been called and asked the court about it. Attorney B learned that FloresRuiz’s case had been adjourned. This happened without Attorney B’s knowledge or participation,even though Attorney B was present in court to handle Flores-Ruiz’s case on behalf of the state,and even though victims were present in the courtroom.
Why do you occasionally wear a pink button-down shirt if you are not a homosexual?
Please note that unserious people who ask pretend-serious questions get unserious answers...
superrific
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Read McCarthy's thing above and lawtig's summary. Nothing in what you've pasted from the affidavit supports criminal charges against the judge.