Word of warning: A easy Google search in defiance of a choose’s order can lead to large fines, one juror discovered that the arduous manner just lately when he tried to alert his fellow jurists that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer concerned in an assault case might really a white supremacist.
According to Reuters, juror Stephen Meile is now dealing with a superb of $11,227 after the choose overseeing the trial of defendant Kevin Ruiz-Quezada, a person who allegedly assaulted ICE officers attempting to detain him, held him in criminal contempt for utilizing a search engine to find out the that means of a patch on the ICE officer’s uniform. Meile, a retired pipefitter, contested different jurors’ perception that the patch was a union emblem. He allegedly Googled it himself the evening earlier than deliberations in violation of an order to not conduct impartial analysis and got here to the separate conclusion that it was a white supremacist image. As Law and Crime famous, jurors conducting their very own analysis is taken into account a violation of the ensures to due course of underneath the Fourteenth Amendment.
The choose ultimately declared a mistrial within the case after different jurors knowledgeable the courtroom Meile had informed them of his suspicions. The show-cause order for contempt solely discusses that Meile performed “outside research,” and the Reuters story didn’t dive additional into his allegations. According to Alison Frankel, Reuters’s authorized affairs columnist, the patch itself was introduced up through the trial however the extent of the dialogue concerning it’s unclear from transcripts. Reuters reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s workplace for New Jersey for clarification and was turned down for remark, whereas protection counsel Justin Loughry didn’t reply in any respect.
The $11,000+ superb issued by U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler, John Browning of legislation agency Spencer Fane informed Reuters, is “one of the most extreme punishments” ever handed all the way down to a juror who disobeyed courtroom directions and seems to be an try to recoup funds “at least approximate the cost to the justice system.” More sometimes, jurors present in contempt pay small fines or serve neighborhood service.
Prosecutors alleged that after ICE officers got here to Ruiz-Quesada’s dwelling in December 2017 on an administrative arrest warrant and to preliminary immigration proceedings, citing convictions in New Jersey in 2002 and 2005for unsworn falsification and simulating an auto insurance coverage ID, he resisted arrest. Ruiz-Quezada, a lawful everlasting resident, says he was as an alternative making an attempt to succeed in for his coat, whereas ICE officer Theodore Surick claimed the ensuing scuffle resulted in him receiving an damage to his hand that required surgical procedure. Ruiz-Quezada was subsequently detained for months.
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Court paperwork obtained by Gizmodo (embedded beneath) present that after an immigration choose dominated the prior convictions weren’t grounds for conviction, ICE officers continued to pursue the felony assault prices partially as a result of they hoped it might land Ruiz-Quezada again in immigration courtroom. One deportation officer, Robert T. Lombardi, wrote in emails in late 2018 that whereas they have been uncertain the brand new prices would end in new immigration hearings, “This particular defendant has gotten enough breaks and slaps on the wrist for the justice system.”
According to Reuters, when one other juror knowledgeable Judge Kugler that Meile had raised the declare of the white supremacist image, Kugler responded: “He said that to the whole jury? What was the reaction of the other jurors?”
The juror responded that it didn’t affect their choice as a result of they have been uncertain if it was true, however “Everybody was very upset that he just didn’t listen and did the research.” Kugler then requested Meile just a few questions, confirming that the juror knew he was in violation of the no-research order, earlier than informing him that he might have dedicated “a serious offense against the court.”
While there’s a scarcity of readability surrounding what the patch on the ICE officer’s uniform might have been, there are demonstrable cases wherein ICE officers have been proven to carry white supremacist beliefs. ICE officers have a long track record of aggressively overstepping authorized boundaries and abusing their authority in circumstances relationship again to its formation in 2003. During Donald Trump administration, ramped up deportations and became somewhat of the ex-president’s personal goon squad. In April 2021, Joe Biden’s administration sought extra funding for oversight workplaces at U.S. immigration companies to analyze complaints, “including those related to white supremacy or ideological and non-ideological beliefs,” of their workforces.
A retrial within the case is now pending.
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