| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"George Washington Admirer" |
| Date: |
01 Sep 2006 12:24:26 AM |
| Object: |
Scottsdale school rape suspect = a Mex illegal alien |
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=72929
Scottsdale school rape suspect in U.S. illegally
By Mike Sakal and Amanda Keim
Tribune
August 31, 2006
A custodian at Saguaro High School accused of raping a 14-year-old girl
on the Scottsdale campus is an illegal immigrant from Mexico and
shouldn’t have been eligible to work in the United States, an
immigration official said Wednesday
Russell Ahr, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
said the paperwork that Roberto Lemus-Retana provided to ABM Janitorial
Services, the company that contracts with the Scottsdale Unified School
District, is counterfeit.
Or, there is a possibility Lemus-Retana was using someone else’s name
and Social Security number, Ahr said.
The school district wasn’t aware Lemus-Retana was an illegal immigrant
until speaking with the Tribune on Wednesday evening, said Dave
Peterson, the district’s chief financial officer.
However, the district had already discussed severing ties with ABM,
Peterson said. The district is waiting for investigations to be
complete before making any decisions about its relationship with the
company.
Since the incident, the district has run its own background check on
Lemus-Retana’s Social Security number, and asked Scottsdale police to
do the same, Peterson said. But neither the district’s nor the police’s
background check indicated he was in the country illegally, Peterson
said.
The district had contacted ICE to look into Lemus-Retana’s immigration
status, before the Tribune called, Peterson said.
Lemus-Retana had cleared a background check on the state level and had
provided all the required paperwork to work at ABM, where he was hired
July 31, according to Mark Safsten, vice president of safety and risk
management for ABM. Safsten also said Lemus-Retana provided his past
employment history.
Safsten said Wednesday he couldn’t comment on the latest development
involving Lemus-Retana.
“Anyone can go into a swap market and get certified documents,” Ahr
said. “Someone gave him a Social Security number, loaned him one, he
made one up or he went to the flea market and bought one.”
Lemus-Retana was charged Wednesday with seven felony counts of sexual
assaultrelated offenses with a minor and is being held without bail in
the Maricopa County Fourth Avenue Jail in Phoenix.
The charges stem from his arrest about 5:30 p.m. Friday at Saguaro High
School. Police said the arrest came after the freshman girl told them
Lemus-Retana made unwanted advances to her in a locked bathroom and
forced her to have sex in a computer classroom.
Lemus-Retana admitted to having sex with the girl, but said it was
consensual and she told him she was 17, according to a court document.
The incident, which has shaken students at the school, has caused
district administrators to rethink security measures. For instance,
custodians are now required to work in pairs.
Lemus-Retana had been arrested in Mohave County on suspicion of driving
under the influence May 14, and supplied a driver’s license at the
time. He was removed by U.S. Border Patrol agents four days later from
that county’s jail to be returned to Mexico, Ahr said. The ICE
spokesman could not confirm that Lemus-Retana left the United States.
Lemus-Retana didn’t have a Social Security number and was not a U.S.
citizen when he was arrested May 14, and he shouldn’t have had a valid
one when he was hired by ABM, Ahr said.
Peterson said the school district became aware of the DUI arrest this
week, but a misdemeanor DUI would not have prevented Lemus-Retana from
working in the district.
The district has met with ABM multiple times since Friday and will meet
with them again today, Peterson said.
Before the incident, ABM merely had to certify they had completed
background checks on employees, Peterson said. That practice is already
changing.
“We are requiring an independent, outside agency verify their results
and send them directly to us,” Peterson said.
While the district can’t dictate which company ABM uses to verify the
background checks, the district will have to approve which company is
picked, Peterson said.
ABM also is required to run new background checks on each of its
approximately 130 employees working in the Scottsdale district and have
those background checks independently verified by Sept. 8, Peterson
said.
It isn’t known at this time how long Lemus-Retana has been in the
United States, but Scottsdale police officer David Pubins said in an
e-mail to the Tribune this week that Lemus-Retana had committed some
offenses as a juvenile.
Phoenix Municipal Court records revealed that Lemus-Retana had failed
to appear in court for driving without a valid driver’s license or
valid registration when he was 15 years old in March 1996.
The school district has already implemented new security measures at
all of its high schools, including adjusting hours of security guards
and administrators so they are on campus from 6:30 a.m. until 5:30
p.m., Peterson said.
The district also is looking at additional lighting and video
surveillance at the campuses, he added.
However, the district probably won’t require construction workers on
campus to go through background checks, Peterson said.
Background checks aren’t feasible since so many construction workers
and subcontractors are involved in campus projects, Peterson said.
But the district has construction sites fenced off and enforces a
strict policy barring construction workers from having contact with
students, he added.
--
EMAIL THESE LINKS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW:
www.predatoryaliens.com
www.immigrationshumancost.org
www.daylaborers.org
www.newnation.com/index2.html
"The Illegal-Alien Crime Wave" by Heather Mac Donald
www.city-journal.org/html/14_1_the_illegal_alien.html
See the colossal $COSTS$ of illegal aliens to the American taxpayer:
www.immigrationcounters.com/
http://idexer.com
www.AmericanPatrol.com
www.SaveOurState.org
www.escapingjustice.com
http://reportillegals.com/
Two of MANY U.S. cops murdered by illegals:
www.deputydavidmarch.com
www.kriseggle.org
.
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
