Posted on 11/28/2006 7:56:20 AM PST by SmithL
File this one under Only in America:
He was kicked out of the United States twice and faces a third deportation. While in the U.S. illegally, he broke more laws, crashing into another motorist while drunk and peddling cocaine.
Yet, Adalberto Lara Portela, a native of Mexico, was afforded the same right enjoyed by poor U.S. criminals - a taxpayer-funded appeal.
And he won.
The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has overturned a decision by U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer in Greeneville to lock away Portela for 94 months for his most recent crimes - buying a kilogram of cocaine that he planned on peddling and living in the U.S. illegally.
In an opinion delivered by Judge Deborah L. Cook, the court ruled that Greer was wrong to boost Portela's sentence by labeling as a violent crime Portela's prior offense of vehicular assault.
Defense attorney Clifton L. Corker, appointed to handle Portela's appeal, had argued that state law only defined vehicular assault as an act of recklessness that didn't require the use of force. Therefore, Portela's drunken crash, which left another motorist injured, did not qualify under federal law as a violent crime, Corker argued.
The 6th Circuit panel agreed. Last week's ruling has netted Portela a dramatically reduced potential penalty range, dropping it from the 94 months imposed by Greer to roughly a year, give or take a few months, when he appears before Greer for a new sentencing hearing.
Greer could go higher, but Portela again could appeal with an argument that the judge's decision was "unreasonable."
Regardless of what punishment Greer imposes, Portela will be booted out of the country for the third time at the conclusion of his prison term. However, court records show that Portela has a habit of finding his way back into the U.S. and committing crimes.
According to federal court records drafted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Harr, Portela was an illegal immigrant when he got drunk in Hamblen County in November 2000, got behind the wheel of a car and crashed into another motorist.
He spent less than two years behind bars for vehicular assault. In June 2002, he was deported. Three months later, he was caught in New Mexico. Ten months later, he was deported for a second time.
In September 2004, he was back in the U.S. and living in Hamblen County when he was ensnared in a sting operation by the FBI and the 3rd Judicial District Drug Task Force. Harr wrote that Portela bought a kilogram, or more than two pounds, of cocaine from an informant. As it turned out, he ripped off the informant in the deal, claiming he was $1,000 short of funds on the asking price of $21,000 and then shorting the informant another $100 in the actual payment.
He was not, however, low on cash, as agents found more than $2,300 in his pocket when they arrested him shortly after the cocaine buy.
A new sentencing hearing for Portela has not been set.
He was only peddling the cocaine that Americans were too lazy to peddle.
End the war on drug users, and eliminate the big money involved in trivial pursuits.
OK, this kind of crap IS Bush's fault!
Perhaps next time the prosecutor will think twice before hyping an accident as a criminal act.
It was a criminal act - he was drunk.
I'd like to know why he isn't being put away for a long time on the drug charge.
I'd like to know why he isn't being put away for a long time on the drug charge.
Me too. If they gave him a long sentence he wouldn't be sneaking back here to commit more crimes and cost us even more money. Put him to work in jail and leave him there a long time before he does even more damage to us.
Apparently the charge was not appropriate for a federal charge.
Coming into Los Angeles
Bringing in a couple of keys
Don't touch my bags if you please
Mister Customs Man
If someone proposed a program to boost the number of Americans who lack a high school diploma, have children out of wedlock, sell drugs, steal, or use welfare, he’d be deemed mad. -Heather McDonald-
Jeez! A kilo of coke? Boggles the mind.
FYI
"An estimated 11 million Mexican citizens are in the United States, about half of them illegally.
Last year, Mexican migrants sent home more than $20 billion in remittances, the country's second leading source of foreign income after oil......"
ping
How about a taxpayer funded funeral?
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