Man accused of framing other man for deportation by writing letters threatening Trump's life
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Wisconsin man is facing charges accusing him of forging a letter threatening President Donald Trump's life in an effort to get another man deported.
Prosecutors said in a criminal complaint filed Monday that Demetric D. Scott was behind a letter sent to state and federal officials with the return address and name of Ramón Morales Reyes.
Scott was charged Monday with felony witness intimidation, identity theft and two counts of bail jumping. His attorney, Robert Hampton III, didn't immediately return an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Immigration agents arrested Morales Reyes, 54, on May 21 after he dropped his child off at school in Milwaukee. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the arrest, saying he had written a letter threatening to kill Trump and would 'self-deport' to Mexico. The announcement, which also was posted by the White House on its social media accounts, contained an image of the letter as well as a photo of Morales Reyes.
But the claim started to unravel as investigators talked to Morales Reyes, who doesn't speak English fluently, and obtained a handwriting sample from him that was different than the handwriting in the letters, according to court documents.
Morales Reyes is listed as a victim in the case involving Scott, who is awaiting trial in Milwaukee County Jail on armed robbery and aggravated battery charges. The trial is scheduled for July.
Law enforcement officers listened to several calls Scott made from the jail in which he talked about letters that needed to be mailed and a plan to get someone picked up by ICE so Scott's trial could get dismissed, according to the criminal complaint. He also admitted to police that he wrote the letters, documents said.
Morales Reyes works as a dishwasher in Milwaukee, where he lives with his wife and three children. He had recently applied for a U visa, which is for people in the country illegally who become victims of serious crimes, said attorney Kime Abduli, who filed that application.
Abduli told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday that she was glad Morales Reyes was being cleared of any involvement in the letter writing.
His deportation defense lawyer, Cain Oulahan, wrote in an email Monday night that the main focus now is to secure Morales Reyes' release from custody and the next step will be to pursue any relief he may qualify for in immigration court.
'While he has a U visa pending, those are unfortunately backlogged for years, so we will be looking at other options to keep him here with his family, which includes his three US citizen children,' Oulahan wrote.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
19 minutes ago
El Salvador human rights lawyer demands public trial as police haul her before judge
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — A lawyer from a prominent human rights organization who has been an outspoken critic of some of President Nayib Bukele's policies demanded a public trial as police brought her before a judge in El Salvador Wednesday. Prosecutors sought to charge her with illegal enrichment and jail her for six months pending trial. Observers say the case against Ruth Eleonora López is retaliation for her work while authorities allege she aided one of her former employers being prosecuted for embezzlement. Authorities arrested López at her home on May 18. The anticorruption lawyer, who works for the nongovernmental organization Cristosal, has denied the accusations. Wednesday's hearing was closed to the public as the case is under seal. As she was escorted by police through the court building Wednesday, a shackled López with a Bible between her hands, shouted: 'They're not going to silence me, I want a public trial,' according to a brief video posted by Cristosal on X. 'The people have to know.' Earlier, defense attorney Pedro Cruz, surrounded by reporters in the courthouse, said he disagreed with the decision to seal the case. He said prosecutors had done so 'because they fear they made an unfounded accusation.' She had not made her initial appearance before a judge until Monday, more than two weeks after her arrest. At that hearing, prosecutors announced the illegal enrichment, different from the original embezzlement, and requested that she be held while they continue to investigate. Cristosal has been an critic of some of Bukele's policies, including the state of emergency giving him special powers that has now been in place for more than three years. The measure restricts the right to gather, to be informed of rights and to have access to a lawyer. It extends to 15 days the time that someone can be held without charges. Some 86,000 people have been arrested under the state of emergency. López is the head of Cristosal's Anti-Corruption Unit, which has produced reports and filed legal actions related to government corruption. Mary Lawlor, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, said via X that she was closely following López's hearing. 'The state must guarantee her right to due process. She must be freed.' López's alleged wrongdoing dates to her time as an adviser to Eugenio Chicas, the former president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal during the administration of President Salvador Sánchez Cerén (2014-2019). 'Ruth has dedicated her life to the defense of human rights and the fight against corruption,' Cristosal said in a statement last week. 'Hers is not an isolated case: it is part of a pattern of criminalization against critical voices.'
Fox News
22 minutes ago
- Fox News
Biden-appointed judge blocks deportation of Boulder attack suspect's family despite visa violations
In an emergency ruling, a Biden administration-appointed federal judge in Colorado halted the deportation of the wife and five children of Mohamed Soliman, the Egyptian national under federal investigation for the Boulder firebombing attack. The temporary restraining order (TRO), issued by U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher, prevents federal immigration authorities from removing Soliman's wife, Hayem El Gamal, and the couple's five children from the country—at least for now. "Defendants are temporarily restrained and enjoined from removing Hayem El Gamal and her five minor children from the State of Colorado or the United States," Gallagher wrote in the order. The ruling will remain in effect until a scheduled hearing on June 13. The order came after El Gamal's friend, Susanna Dvortsin, sought emergency legal protection for the family. She argued that the family faced imminent deportation by the Trump administration without the opportunity to present their case in court. Gallagher agreed, writing that the family's deportation would cause "irreparable harm." The judge ruled that Dvortsin must submit a supporting legal brief by June 6, with government attorneys required to file a response by June 11. A hearing is set for June 13 at the Byron G. Rogers Courthouse in Denver. According to Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, citing sources, El Gamal and her five children have all overstayed their visas. However, an asylum application had already been submitted on their behalf by Soliman. The central question is whether deportation should move forward in spite of the family's pending asylum claim. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has publicly addressed the detention and potential deportation of El Gamal and her five children. In a social media video Tuesday, Secretary Noem confirmed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had taken Soliman's family into custody. "Mohamed's despicable actions will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but we're also investigating to what extent his family knew about this horrific attack," Noem said in the X post. "If they had any knowledge of it or if they provided any support to it." The Boulder attack triggered a political firestorm in Washington and Colorado, as Republican lawmakers have slammed it as a lack of immigration enforcement through sanctuary policies and poor management during the Biden administration. "This is a direct result of failed sanctuary states like Colorado and California," Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., said in the aftermath of the attack. "For the sake of our state, Democrats MUST stop putting illegals ahead of Americans. There are lives on the line." Meanwhile, Gov. Jared Polis' office said they were never aware of any threat from the suspect." "The reality is that Colorado is not a sanctuary state and state, federal and local law enforcement work together closely to apprehend criminals, whether they are from this country or not," a spokesperson for Polis' office told Fox News Digital, adding that the governor "expects to see the suspect prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." "There were no requests from federal law enforcement agencies regarding this individual, and if there had been then the state would have eagerly cooperated. Reports indicate that this person's legal presence ended in March, nearly three months ago, and we are not aware of any attempt by any federal agency to deport him," the spokesperson added. In addition, some Democrats in Colorado also faced scrutiny for attending a fundraiser with Rep. Ilhan Omar in nearby Denver roughly 30 minutes after the attack, as she's had a past history of anti-Semitic remarks and intense criticism of Israel.
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Judge blocks private prison operator from housing ICE detainees at shuttered Kansas center
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A judge on Wednesday barred a major U.S. private prison operator from housing immigrants facing possible deportation in a shuttered Kansas City area detention center unless it can get a permit from frustrated city officials. Leavenworth County Judge John Bryant agreed after a packed hearing to grant the city of Leavenworth's request for a temporary restraining order against CoreCivic, one of the nation's largest private prison operators. CoreCivic had claimed in legal filings that halting the opening of the 1,033-bed facility on the northwest outskirts of the Kansas City area would cost it $4.2 million in revenue each month. City officials said they anticipated the arrival of detainees apprehended by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was imminent under a Trump administration crackdown on illegal immigration. Leavenworth isn't the first city where controversy has surrounded the reopening of a private prison as an ICE detention facility. In Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka sued the state's top federal prosecutor on Tuesday over his recent arrest on a trespassing charge at a federal immigration detention facility in that state, saying the Trump-appointed attorney had pursued the case out of political spite. Scott Peterson, the city manager for Leavenworth, said he didn't know if the case in Kansas marked the first time a municipality had prevailed in court. 'I would point out that maybe the reason we have seen some success here today is this is not about immigration,' Peterson said. 'This is not about private prisons. This is about land use.' In late 2021, CoreCivic stopped housing pretrial detainees for the U.S. Marshals Service in the Leavenworth facility after then-President Joe Biden called on the Justice Department to curb the use of private prisons. In the months leading up to the closure, the American Civil Liberties Union and federal public defenders urged the White House to speed up the closure, citing inmate rights violations there along with stabbings, suicides and even one homicide. But with President Donald Trump pushing for mass deportations under a wide-ranging crackdown on illegal immigration, the facility that CoreCivic now calls the Midwest Regional Reception Center is in demand again. It is located just 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of the Kansas City International Airport. As part of his crackdown, Trump has vowed to sharply increase detention beds nationwide from the budgeted 41,000 beds this year. Tennessee-based CoreCivic initially applied for a special use permit from the city in February but then withdrew that application the next month, arguing in court filings that it didn't need the permit and that the process would take too long. 'It became clear to CoreCivic that there was not a cooperative relationship,' said Taylor Concannon Hausmann, an attorney for the private prison operator, speaking in court. The city sued CoreCivic, the lawsuit claiming that CoreCivic impeded the city police force's ability to investigate sexual assaults and other violent crimes. The lawsuit contended that the permitting process was needed to safeguard itself from future problems. 'Just follow our rules," an attorney for the city, Joe Hatley, said in court. 'Go get a permit.' The first version of the lawsuit, filed in March in federal court, was tossed out in May on technical grounds. But Bryant sided with Hatley in the case refiled the same month in state court, finding that the proper procedures weren't followed. Concannon Hausmann, CoreCivic's attorney, declined to comment as the crowd filtered out of the courtroom Wednesday. Norman Mallicoat held a sign reading, 'CoreCivic Doesn't Run Leavenworth' as he left. 'I see this as basically a large company trying to bully a small city into getting what it wants and not having to follow the rules and ordinances of the city,' Mallicoat said.
