Court aide memo: Keep citizenship off records

A Maricopa County court official took action to circumvent Proposition 100 less than two weeks after Arizona voters passed the constitutional amendment that denies bail for illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes.

A memo dated Nov. 17 — shortly before Proposition 100 took effect — instructed Maricopa County Superior Court workers to stop asking about immigration status in inmates’ pretrial interviews.

“Due to recent changes in the legislation and the liberty interest implications, we will no longer be asking defendants any questions regarding their citizenship,” wrote pretrial services director Penny Stinson in an e-mail obtained by the Tribune.

One of the functions of pretrial services is to conduct interviews and criminal background checks on the thousands of people arrested and booked into Maricopa County jails. The information is provided to court commissioners and judges who set bail and other release conditions at initial appearances.

Stinson tagged the e-mail high importance and “EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY” and sent it to 19 staff members. The message was copied to Commissioner Sheila Madden, whose job is to set bail for defendants in their first appearances before a judge.

In a second e-mail on March 19, Stinson reminded her staff of the directive and instructed them not to record any immigration information on paperwork.

“Please remember that we do not ask defendants any questions regarding their citizenship, and that question should not have any response listed on our PSA paperwork,” Stinson wrote.

This e-mail was circulated four days after a paperwork error led to the release of an illegal immigrant who is now wanted in a fatal stabbing last week in Mesa.

Police say Ruben Perez Rivera killed his cousin Tuesday night when he found the man with his ex-girlfriend. Under the terms of the law mandated by Prop. 100, Perez should have been in jail at the time of the stabbing while awaiting trial on felony charges of kidnapping and assaulting the ex-girlfriend on March 4.

The court has come under fire in the Perez case and others in which illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes obtained bail and were eventually freed.

Presiding Judge Barbara Rodriguez Mundell said through a spokeswoman that she knew nothing about Stinson’s directives. Court spokeswoman J.W.

Brown said Mundell was unaware of any legal research done before Stinson sent her e-mails.

“If the directive is not supported by the law, it will be corrected,” Brown said. “She’s taking this very seriously.”

Rep. Russell Pearce, RMesa, authored Prop. 100 and said he sees Stinson’s instructions as an attempt to subvert the will of voters.

“There is no room for political correctness in the criminal justice system,” Pearce said.

Pearce vowed to do whatever he can to force the courts to follow the law, including withholding money. “We’re not going to roll over on this,” he said.

County Attorney Andrew Thomas has also called for a full accounting of the court’s response to Prop. 100.

“Having helped lead the fight for Prop 100 last year, I am very disturbed by this most recent and compelling evidence that the judiciary is undermining this reform,” Thomas wrote in a prepared statement.

Maricopa County Attorney’s Office spokesman Barnett Lotstein said Perez should have been denied bail.

Instead, a judge set bail at $10,000 after a grand jury indicted Perez on March 15.

The suspect was freed the next day without posting bail due to a court error. Federal officials deported him to Mexico, but he returned to Mesa and is now wanted in connection with a slaying.

Mundell said during a news conference on Thursday the commissioner who ordered Perez’s release had limited information on his citizenship. She did not address the issue of pretrial workers intentionally leaving that information off paperwork.

Mundell has called a meeting on Tuesday with Thomas, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, Clerk of the Court Michael Jeanes, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and defense attorneys to discuss how to get information to court commissioners so they can better apply Prop. 100.