Re: ACLU strikes another blow against rule of law and for Mexican Reconquista

[climber]

On Dec 15, 10:18 am, Hisler <His...@cocks.net> wrote:
> GREELEY — The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that a 2008 raid of a
> local tax preparer's office aimed at building identity-theft cases
> against hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants violated their Fourth
> Amendment right to privacy.
>
> The 4-3 ruling was the latest and most devastating legal blow against
> Operation Numbers Game, an investigation launched by Weld County Sheriff
> John Cooke and District Attorney Ken Buck that aimed to use tax returns
> to identify and prosecute illegal immigrants.
>
> The raid on Amalia's Tax and Translation, a business that caters to
> Spanish-speaking clients, led to the seizure and review of some 4,900
> tax returns. Deputies said they found about 1,300 suspects in
> identity-theft and criminal-impersonation cases.
>
> More than 100 suspected illegal immigrants were arrested because of the
> raid, and charges were formally filed against 70 of them. About 60 cases
> were then dismissed after Weld District Judge James Hartmann, ruling in
> one of the criminal cases, tossed evidence investigators had seized
> during their search of Amalia's.
>
> No more than three of the criminal cases made it to Colorado's high
> court, including the case in which the justices ruled Monday, said Mark
> Silverstein, American Civil Liberties Union legal director.
>
> On Monday, Buck conceded Operation Numbers Game "is over," adding he
> will not appeal the decision. A Colorado prosecutor can appeal a case
> only as far as the state high court, according to Colorado law, but a
> defendant can appeal to a higher court.
>
> But Buck felt the raid was justified.
>
> "I feel the court made its decision and then later developed rationale
> for this decision," Buck said.
>
> Prosecutors around the country have been watching the case closely,
> reportedly the first in the United States in which law enforcement
> sought to use tax returns — generally considered confidential under
> federal law — to take suspected illegal immigrants to criminal court.
>
> The court majority ruled that the defendant in this case, Ramon
> Gutierrez, as a taxpayer "has a reasonable expectation of privacy in his
> or her tax returns and return information, even when that information is
> in the custody of a tax preparer."
>
> The ruling also said that Gutierrez, who was among more than 70 people
> charged with criminal impersonation and identity theft, was a victim of
> an "exploratory search" and that police had no probable cause to search
> Gutierrez's tax records.
>
> Gutierrez has been free on bond and likely will have charges dismissed
> soon, Buck said.
>
> Three justices dissented to the opinion.
>
> Justice Nancy C. Rice wrote a dissent in which she said because police
> officers "acted in good faith when they seized the tax records, I find
> it unnecessary to consider whether the affidavit supporting the warrant
> failed to establish probable cause." She was joined by Justice Allison Eid.
>
> Justice Nathan B. Coats also wrote a dissent, in which he worried about
> bigger issues in the case, significantly the presumption that the tax
> preparers were shielded from criminal liability as they aided "taxpayers
> to knowingly report income earned under Social Security numbers
> belonging to someone else."
>
> "I believe it is a mistake that fundamentally distorts the majority's
> Fourth Amendment analysis," Coats wrote.
>
> Kevin Strobel, the head of the Greeley public defender's office, said
> police and prosecutors still have to follow the law when dealing with
> illegal immigrants.
>
> "There's still a constitutional framework for how authorities deal with
> that population and whether they've committed crimes or not," Strobel
> said. "They gotta follow the rules."
>
> The court noted that four district judges have now ruled against
> Operation Numbers Game, including in a civil case against Buck and Cooke
> brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.
>
> Buck said he didn't know how the court's Monday decision would affect
> his civil case. Tax returns in that case remain with the Weld County
> courts, pending a final Supreme Court decision.
>
> Buck said he won't be scared off from continuing to prosecute allegedly
> illegal immigrants.
>
> "We were successful in a lot of different ways," he said. "We showed
> there was an issue of a failed federal policy on illegal immigration,
> and people now understand the source of identity theft.
>
> "And we gained valuable intelligence in fighting identity theft," he said.
>
> The Associated Press contributed to this report. Monte Whaley:
> 720-929-0907 or mwha...@denverpost.com
>
> Read more:http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13997923#ixzz0Zm2vUwQq

Keep it coming. One day the color of your skin will be your uniform of
war. Whites now patrolling some southwestern communities.

cole

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