Waco Trib By TOMMY WITHERSPOON 12/7/2018
An immigrant charged with felony theft who has languished in jail for three years waiting for her day in court is now fighting deportation after the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office secured her release from jail four days before her scheduled trial.
Instead of Estela Fajardo going to trial Dec. 11, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials intent on deporting her removed the 31-year Waco resident and mother of four from the McLennan County Jail on Friday morning and sent her to an immigration detention facility south of San Antonio. Immigration officials took her into custody after prosecutor Evan O’Donnell asked 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother to sign a personal recognizance bond securing her release.
In many cases in which criminal defendants cannot afford to post bond, their attorneys seek reduced bonds or PR bonds at hearings before judges. In Fajardo’s case, she was released on the PR bond without the knowledge of her criminal attorney, Gerald Villarrial, or her immigration attorney, Anali Looper of American Gateways, a nonprofit immigration legal service provider.
Fajardo, who maintains her innocence, initially was indicted on engaging in organized criminal activity charges. After she had been jailed more than two years, prosecutors reduced the charge to Class A misdemeanor theft. After Fajardo refused to plead guilty to the misdemeanor, the DA’s office reindicted her on charges of theft of more than $2,500, a state-jail felony punishable by up to two years in a state jail.
Villarrial called the DA’s office arranging for the PR bond without his knowledge and allowing her to be taken by ICE officials without dropping the charges against her “unconscionable†and the “most cowardly thing I have ever seen in my life.â€
“I think this is a travesty,†he said. “I have never seen anything remotely like it before. The lady has been sitting there for almost three years and then she gets a PR bond that we didn’t even ask for and then she gets deported. She has a 4-year-old that she hasn’t been free to see since the kid was 1.
“Assuming that we went to court and assuming that a jury found her guilty, the court would have to give her credit for all the time she has spent in jail, and that is way more than the maximum sentence. Either give the lady her day in court or dismiss the case. I don’t know, but this all smells unethical to me. Maybe we can get some better leadership when Barry Johnson becomes DA. Maybe that’s what we need.â€
More:
https://www.wacotrib.com/news/courts_and_trials/woman-jailed-years-released-to-immigration-officials-as-trial-date/article_4e086598-0159-5846-9bc9-78f82f6481d5.html
