Posted on 08/07/2003 8:27:02 PM PDT by AZ GRAMMY
Second arrest made in immigrant incident
BY LOUIE VILLALOBOS, Staff Writer Aug 7, 2003
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Yuma County sheriff's deputies have arrested a second man in connection with the alleged unlawful detention of six illegal immigrants on July 31 in Gadsden.
Alexander David Dumas, 26, was arrested Tuesday evening after driving to Yuma from his home in Big Bear Lake, Calif., for an interview, said sheriff's spokesman Lt. Eben Bratcher.
Dumas was charged with six counts of aggravated assault and five counts of unlawful imprisonment following the early morning July 31 incident where deputies said he and Matthew Paul Hoffman, arrested on the same charges on Monday, detained a group of six illegal immigrants that had just entered the United States through the Colorado River.
A third man, Martin Hoffman Jr., was with the two suspects but won't be charged because he was not armed and did not take part in the handcuffing of the illegal immigrants, Bratcher said.
Bratcher said the department will continue to investigate the case and warned citizens against taking the law into their own hands.
He said anyone who sees a group of suspected illegal immigrants should call the Border Patrol, and not take it upon themselves to apprehend the group by using guns and handcuffs. Asking a group to stay put while making a phone call is permitted and would constitute a citizen's arrest, he said.
"When you have someone holding someone against their will with the use or the threat of the use of force, you've crossed the line between a citizen's arrest and unlawful detention," he said. "There was no justification for the use of force."
Deputies said the two men handcuffed five members of the group, which included three children and two women, and held them at gunpoint until U.S. Border Patrol agents arrived.
Agents have said they were dispatched to the scene when a surveillance camera operator noticed the incident unfolding. The agents called the sheriff's department, who then identified and interviewed all three men before letting them go, officials said.
Bratcher said the men are not believed to be part of a larger group, such as the citizen patrol groups that operate on private property along the Tucson border and use various forms of technology to alert Border Patrol agents to the presence of illegal immigrants in the area.
Also being charged with five counts of endangerment is a 16-year-old Mexican national who Bratcher said was paid $600 to bring the illegal immigrants into the United States. Bratcher also said the illegal immigrants were planning to meet with a taxi cab in Gadsden and were to be taken to a unidentified Yuma hotel, according to interviews done of the illegal immigrants by detectives.
William Robbins, Border Patrol spokesman, said the six illegal immigrants were in the agency's custody as of Wednesday morning but couldn't be interviewed.
Hugo Oliva, Mexican consul in Yuma, said the group was in good condition following the incident and that his office is encouraged by the sheriff's department's efforts regarding this case.
"This is a very disturbing thing to happen here," Oliva said. "We can't have people with guns do the job of law enforcement agencies."
http://yumasun.com/artman/publish/a...tory_6619.shtml
Parasites! Where are my pest graphics? ;)
Not knowing what god you believe in I must inform you that we conservatives here believe that that would be stealing and that would be a sin and a law violation in this country. Perhaps I can refer you to other beliefs we hold dear in our country.
If it was assault every police officer that ever made an arrest would be brought up on charges. You are lying when you say the women and children were assaulted. In the report the INS says the illegal aliens were unharmed.
No. You are lying. We are not talking about police officers. Dumas is not a police officer. You and I are not allowed to stop anyone we please and hold them with handcuffs at the point of a gun. It is illegal as the article explaines...
Dumas was charged with six counts of aggravated assault and five counts of unlawful imprisonment following the early morning July 31 incident...
You could avoid people thinking you are an idiot if you would just read the article first.
187 posted on 08/07/2003 10:51 PM PDT by Once-Ler (This Bushbot sez "I vote Dubya")
Why are they being charged with aggravated assault? Any idea? It was the physical act of placing the handcuffs on the illegal aliens. Once you make physical contact, you've committed assault.
Heh heh heh, care to venture how many suspects are taken into custody by police officers without being handcuffed? Are all these officers charged with aggravated assault? They have guns on and are touching the perps as they put handcuffs on them.
Like I said, this was not assault in the common sense definition of the charge. It is a trumped up charge intended to intimidate these men into never apprehending illegal aliens again.
Actually, that would be because they are commissioned officers of the law.
Ridiculous Spencer/Simcox Defense
"Heh heh heh, care to venture how many suspects are taken into custody by police officers without being handcuffed? Are all these officers charged with aggravated assault? They have guns on and are touching the perps as they put handcuffs on them."
Actually, that would be because they are commissioned officers of the law.
208 posted on 08/07/2003 11:03 PM PDT by CWOJackson (The World According to Garp isn't that bad when compared with The World According to Todd.)
So no citizens are able to execute a citizens arrest without being charge with assault? That's an interesting point of view.
God laughs again when a doctor tells the mother of a gravely ill child, 'Don't worry mother. I shall certainly cure your child.' God laughs because He has commanded that the soul of the child shall return to Him that very hour, and no one is able to stop it.
Not to mention the United States of Brazil. But that's an argument on behalf of the term "American." And Mexicans don't even think of themselves as "Americans," let alone identify themselves as such, so why are you inventing a fictional identity for them?
You remind me of the reporters who change the words of immigrants (legal and otherwise), and claim they all said they wanted to come to "the United States." I've never heard an immigrant talk of coming to "the United States." It was always "America." There is only one nation on the face of the earth named "America." You can deny that all you want, just as you can insist, if you like, with an equal lack of justification, that you are Julius Caesar.
Ideologue nonsense. Read the article, since it clearly states the charge of aggravated assault stems from the use of guns to detain the victims.
It is a trumped up charge intended to intimidate these men into never apprehending illegal aliens again.
Ridiculous Spencer/Simcox Defense
209 posted on 08/07/2003 11:04 PM PDT by PRND21
Rediculous La Raza, MechLa, Hermandad Nacional, Democrat Party, Socialist's Party, Trade Union, A.N.S.W.E.R. and Aztlan.com defense.
You've got a lot of support out there.
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