Posted on 08/21/2003 8:41:47 AM PDT by GoRepGo
Vigilantes plead guilty, released
BY LOUIE VILLALOBOS, Staff Writer
Aug 21, 2003
The two men accused of detaining six illegal immigrants at gunpoint were released from jail on Wednesday, after each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit unlawful imprisonment, said Yuma County Attorney Patricia Orozco.
Orozco said Matthew Hoffman, 23, and Alexander Dumas, 26, were ordered released by Yuma County Superior Court Judge Andrew Gould during a Wednesday hearing and are scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 19.
As a result of the pleas, Orozco said the remaining charges each man was facing were dropped. Each had been charged with six counts of aggravated assault, and five counts of unlawful imprisonment in addition to the conspiracy charge.
The charges stem from an early morning incident July 31 in which law enforcement authorities said the men handcuffed five of a group of six illegal immigrants while holding the group at gunpoint near County 18th Street and the Colorado River. Among the group were three children and a 16-year-old smuggler, authorities have said.
U.S. Border Patrol agents responded to the scene and took the illegal immigrants into custody while calling the Yuma County Sheriff's Office to interview Hoffman and Dumas, who were arrested several days after the incident.
Other than calling the case "interesting," Orozco said she couldn't comment on it. Gould said he could only confirm the pleas were made and said the men were released on special circumstances, but couldn't specify what those circumstances were.
Michael Nicley, Yuma Border Patrol chief, commended both the Yuma County Sheriff's Office and the Yuma County Attorney's Office for treating the case as they would any other.
He said though it was important the case be pursued, it was equally important the two men were not made examples. Nicley said the fact that the people who were detained were illegal immigrants had little to do with the way both departments handled the case or the suspects.
"I don't think that they handled it any harsher or any more lenient than they normally do," Nicley said. "I think they took the totality of the circumstances and did what they do with any crime."
Since the initial arrest of the two men, several citizens' groups have come out in their defense and promised to begin patrolling Yuma County's border with Mexico.
Chris Simcox, leader of the Tombstone-based Civil Homeland Defense, recently told The Sun he has gotten phone calls from as many as 100 Yuma County residents who are interested in patrolling the border while armed, something he said could happen in Yuma by October.
Simcox said Hoffman and Dumas have become heroes to many citizens who are tired of federal government's failed immigration policy.
© Copyright, YumaSun.com
Very interesting.
They'll be given 2 years probation, and have to turn in all their firearms. The parole agents will be able to search their homes at will during that time.
Unfortunately, in the PC world we live in, yes it is.
With a last name like that, it's not surprising which side she's on.
Apparently so. Sad, huh?
Get used to it. The marxists and their useful idiots, the soccer moms, want this. They have been very successful at dividing us all up into little groups where when government comes down on one group, the others either don't care because it's not happening to them or outright cheer on the government to rip the target group to shreds. Welcom to 21st century America.
Under Arizona law, you can only perform a citizens rest in reaction to either a probable felony or misdemeanor riot (which does not apply). The strong majority of illegal immigrants, at the time of their crossing the border, are guilty of a federal administrative offense, not a federal felony, hence being an illegal immigrant without some other kind of offense in progress, such as drug smuggling or breaking into a building, does not rise to the threshhold where citizens arrest is sanctioned by the state of Arizona.
That's why responsible border groups such as American Border Patrol typically will only observe illegals and report them to the authorities instead of trying to apprehend them.
Welcome to Amerika.
No, they are not.
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