Mexican Revolutionaries:
American Revolutionaries
By this standard here is a photo of an American humiliating himself.:
Posted on 05/10/2007 8:40:09 AM PDT by Rb ver. 2.0
RALEIGH (AP) — A Mexican native jailed on a drug charge was offered a plea deal because a Raleigh-based federal drug agent made him wear a sombrero and hold a Mexican flag for a photo.
Jorge Hernandez-Villalvazo, a native of Mexico with a permanent U-S residency, was arrested in April 2005 on a charge of conspiring to traffic cocaine. The photo from that year shows him wearing a sombrero and holding the flag.
When it surfaced during a pretrial hearing last week, prosecutors offered a plea deal that avoided a trial and freed Hernandez-Villalvazo from the Wake County Jail, where he had been since his arrest. Hernandez-Villalvazo was sentenced to 13 months to 16 months in jail — time he already served.
Defense attorney Jeff Cutler called the photo “the driving force behind that plea deal.”
“They humiliated him,” Cutler said.
Wake District Attorney Colon Willoughby called taking the photo a mistake that shouldn’t have happened.
Hernandez-Villalvazo entered an Alford plea, which allows him to acknowledge the evidence could result in a conviction but doesn’t require him to acknowledge guilt.
Cutler said Hernandez-Villalvazo told him about the photo shortly after he was arrested, but the attorney said he was dubious. He recently asked investigators about the claim.
Under North Carolina’s open discovery law, which is intended to allow defense attorneys to see all evidence, the photo should have been shared long before last week’s hearing, said Thomas Maher, director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, a nonprofit law firm in Durham.
Willoughby said the lead prosecutor in the case didn’t know about the photograph until last week, and that it was taken by a Drug Enforcement Administration agent assisting in Hernandez-Villalvazo’s arrest, not by the primary DEA investigator.
The DEA would not identify the agent or make the photo public. An agency spokeswoman in Atlanta said officials are looking into the incident.
The investigation, which involved the Wake County Sheriff’s Office and relied on court-ordered wiretaps of several phone lines, resulted in seven arrests.
No cocaine was ever seized from Hernandez-Villalvazo, who at the time of his arrest lived in the Zebulon area, east of Raleigh, where he bought cars and took them to Mexico to sell, Cutler said. Hernandez-Villalvazo had rejected a previous plea deal for a three- to four-year prison sentence because he was innocent, his attorney said.
Court documents show that two other people arrested in the case have pleaded guilty and are willing to testify, while three suspects remain in the Wake County Jail awaiting trials. Another suspect was released and is awaiting trial, though his attorney believes he returned to Mexico.
Cutler said Hernandez-Villalvazo, who declined to comment, also plans to return to Mexico.
Mexican Revolutionaries:
American Revolutionaries
By this standard here is a photo of an American humiliating himself.:
Left it wide open ping.
He should be thanking his lucky stars he wasn’t made to wear pink panties.
"Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"
I sincerely hope that DEA agent ends up selling cars or flipping burgers. That’s just idiotic.
}:-)4
He's lucky they didn't make him wear the shoes too.
I bet the lead DEA investigator had a few words for the assisting agent who took the photo.
And I sincerely hope the drug dealing conspirer gets sent back to Mexico.
Too bad we can’t make the judge wear a “Dunce Cap” for letting this “Death Merchant” off easy, because he had been humiliated. Drug dealing ought to be a capital offense. Thats what these scumbags are selling.(Death)
Yeah, I assume that a felony Alford plea will get his permanent resident status revoked. I hope so, anyway.
}:-)4
Cry me a river, idiot!
I used to own a pair of those back when they were cool.
...on his head!
back in your pimp days?>
That’s got to be the funniest story all year!...double out loud L.O.L.!...Cutler said Hernandez-Villalvazo, who declined to comment, also plans to return to Mexico....Don’t let the door hit you in the butt....
Yes, it is HUMILIATING - flying the Mexican Flag in the US is humiliating to ALL Americans. BTW, the illegal aliens are the ones without the (Drug and other illegal) “connections” to get resident etc status.
That was back when I was black. I had the rabbit’s fur coat and the “Super Fly” hat, too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.