“I’m not surprised. Tom Bergin is the sheriff and I know his stance,” Gonzalez said. “And I’m not saying all sheriffs are bad. But I mean clearly they are cooperating with them and they were what, OK with people who are just trying to escort someone out being hurt by these officials? People from their community? That’s disturbing to me for sure.”
Judge Paula Brownhill, the presiding judge of the Circuit Court, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Earlier this year, after a man was detained by ICE outside the courthouse in December, the judge echoed complaints from many judges and civil liberties’ advocates nationally. “Not only criminal defendants, but civil litigants, crime victims, and witnesses may be reluctant to come to court for fear of encountering ICE,” she said.
District Attorney Ron Brown said ICE’s local action was legal. He said that people inside the courthouse could detect the pepper spray hours after it was released.
“It’s not something we like to see at all, but it does happen,” Brown said.
Roman, the ICE spokeswoman, said civil immigration enforcement actions taken inside courthouses can reduce safety risks to the public. “Arrests that take place inside courthouses are undertaken in coordination with courthouse security leadership with the same level of professionalism and respect that ICE officers and agents are committed to practicing every day,” she said.
“ICE does not make civil immigration arrests inside courthouses indiscriminately. As with all other federal agency planned enforcement actions, ICE arrests at courthouses are the result of targeted enforcement actions against specific, targeted aliens.”
Roman said, in years past, “most of these individuals would have been turned over to ICE by local authorities upon their release from jail based on ICE detainers. Now that some cities do not honor ICE detainers, these individuals, who often have significant criminal histories, are released onto the street, presenting a potential public safety threat.”
Online activity
Zamora-Rodriguez was arrested in February after the sheriff’s office said he showed up at a local park for what he believed was going to be a sexual rendezvous with an 11-year-old boy. Online, deputies had been posing as the boy and the boy’s 40-year-old babysitter.
He has pleaded not guilty to encouraging child sexual abuse and other felony charges. At the hearing Thursday, a case management hearing was set for October.
