National Roundup

Massachusetts
Immigrant facing deportation leaves church sanctuary
AMHERST, Mass. (AP) — A Guatemalan man has left the Massachusetts church he lived in for more than three years to avoid deportation after being granted a reprieve from federal immigration officials.

Lucio Perez stepped of the First Congregational Church in Amherst on Saturday. Rev. Margaret Sawyer, of the Pioneer Valley Workers Center, a local group that’s been supporting Perez, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently stayed his deportation.

The organization said Perez was denied a deportation stay under President Donald Trump’s administration and ordered to leave the country. It said he entered the country illegally in 1999 at the age of 17 and eventually settled in Springfield, Mass. with his wife and family in 2008.

Perez was joined outside the church Saturday by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, other local elected officials, and Rev. Vicki Kemper, of the First Congregational Church.

“I wish I could come out there and hug every single one of you because you will always be part of my family,” Perez said, according to WWLP-TV.

Perez was among more than 70 immigrants nationwide  who took sanctuary in churches during President Donald Trump’s administration. Churches have long been treated as off-limits for immigration enforcement.

Earlier this week, supporters of a Guatemalan woman who has been living for years in a church in Bedford, Massachusetts said she was granted a temporary reprieve by ICE to remain in the country, though she wasn’t planning to immediately leave the church.

Indiana
Man sentenced 75 years for bomb threats, extortion
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A California man accused of making online threats to bomb two suburban Indianapolis high schools in addition to a slew of other crimes was sentenced Friday by a federal judge to 75 years in prison.

Buster Hernandez, 30, of Bakersfield, California, pleaded guilty last year to coercion and enticement of a minor, production of child pornography, and threats to kill, kidnap and injure minors.

Hernandez used the alias “Brian Kil” online in making threats targeting a teen girl in Plainfield, Indiana in late 2015, prosecutors alleged. His actions expanded into bomb threats that closed two high schools on Dec. 17, 2015, a Plainfield Walmart on Dec. 20, 2015, and the Shops at Perry Crossing in Plainfield the same day.

Hernandez was arrested in August 2017  after federal agents posed as a woman from Michigan.

“The defendant was unrelenting, the cycle was endless, and in many cases the abuse went on for years,” Acting U.S. Attorney John Childress said after the sentencing.

Hernandez was indicted for his crimes in 2017, with federal prosecutors later filing a superseding indictment that added sexual extortion and intimidation charges alleging he instructed his targets to kill themselves.
according to court records.

The federal charges cover activity from at least 2012 to August 2017 and link Hernandez to hundreds of alleged victims, most minors. Court records claimed Hernandez used the internet to sexually extort hundreds of adult and minor victims in the United States and at least one foreign country.

“He took what was supposed to be the most pivotal years from my life. He stole them, he tried to destroy me, diminish me, and almost succeeded,” a young victim said during the hearing. “At the end of the day there are wounds that will never heal and psychological damage and trauma that will haunt me to my grave.”

Hernandez apologized to his victims before sentencing by U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt.

“Reading the texts, I just can’t believe that I’m the one who did it,” he said, seemingly choking up as he apologized. “But it was me who did it, and I take ownership of it.”

Pratt said the court did not give Hernandez a life sentence because he had been cooperating with the FBI to identify more victims.

California
Ex-San Diego deputy sentenced to jail for illegal gun sales
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A former San Diego County sheriff’s captain who used his law enforcement credentials to run a gun trafficking business was sentenced Friday to two years in prison by a federal judge who said his arrogance was comparable to “a mob boss of sorts.”

Former San Diego County Sheriff’s Captain Marco Garmo pleaded guilty in September that he had acted as an unlicensed firearm dealer, buying almost 150 weapons and reselling nearly 100 over a period of roughly six years.

A number of those transactions involved “straw purchases,” where Garmo acquired firearms for others since law enforcement officers are exempt from California’s limits on certain newer handguns.

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel said Garmo was “almost becoming a mob boss of sorts” in picking winners and losers and dispensing unlawful favors to friends and family.

Garmo’s lawyers could not be immediately reached for comment.

In his plea agreement, Garmo admitted that one of his goals in selling so many guns was profit, but another was to curry favor with prominent county residents whom he expected might support his planned run for San Diego County sheriff.

Garmo also acknowledged tipping off his cousin who was part owner of an illegal marijuana dispensary that it was about to be searched by deputies, prompting the illicit business to clear its shelves, according to the complaint. Weeks later, Garmo helped his cousin again after the business got an abatement notice, requiring it to shut down.

Garmo reached out to a county employee and asked, “Can we push it back?” They replied, “Yes you can.” Garmo helped another illegal dispensary to stay open, working out a deal to receive 10% in fees for his efforts, according to prosecutors.

“This investigation uncovered blatant and repetitive violations of the public trust by a senior law enforcement officer,” Attorney for the United States Linda Frakes said in a statement.

Garmo was a deputy for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department for almost 27 years until Sept. 20, 2019. His arrest in 2019 was among a string of cases involving current and former law enforcement officers in Southern California accused of illegal firearm sales.

They included two Los Angeles area police officers who were convicted of making illegal gun sales, including one to a convicted felon.

Also in 2019, a former Pasadena police lieutenant was sentenced to more than a year in federal prison for illegally selling more than 100 guns.