The First Amendment Coalition has

prevailed

in a lawsuit against the city of Bakersfield, with a judge ruling that the city council violated open-government laws when it held three closed-door sessions to discuss city finances and then refused to release public records related to those meetings.

The ruling, a complete victory for FAC and Californians Aware, which sued to enforce California\’s open-meetings and open-records laws, requires the city to turn over records, record any future closed-door sessions for a year as a preventative measure and pay attorney fees associated with the lawsuit.

FAC and CalAware

filed suit

in 2017 under the Ralph M. Brown Act and the California Public Records Act after learning the council held three closed-door sessions from July through September of that year to discuss city finances and a proposed sales tax increase, eventually placed on the ballot as Measure N and passed by voters.

The lawsuit brought to light damning emails from staff to council members showing that city leaders discussed in secret fundamental issues of city governance, including revenue, staffing and taxation. The city defended the closed-door sessions by saying discussions involved anticipated litigation, and therefore were exempt from the Brown Act\’s public meeting requirements.

Kern County Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuett rejected that argument. \”To permit the City Council to use this exception as a subterfuge to allow the discussion of the City’s critical budget issues, the potential solutions to those issues, impacts on City revenues, and potential staff layoffs and curtailing of services would allow the exception created by section

54956.9

to swallow the rule,\” the judge said in his 16-page ruling issued on Wednesday, Jan. 8.

\”The City Council shut the public out of crucial discussions on exactly the kinds of topics California law requires be discussed in full public view,\” said FAC Executive Director David Snyder. \”Bakersfield refused for two years to back down from its position that it was entitled to this extraordinary secrecy. They were wrong, and we are grateful Judge Schuett has set them straight.\”

In ordering the city to record its closed-door sessions for a year, Judge Schuett said the city \”has demonstrated a pattern of past conduct that indicates the existence of potential future violations.\”

He added: \”Moreover, the City has been adamant that it has not violated the Brown Act by considering these issues in closed session. In light of that, the Court may presume that the City will continue similar practices absent the court\’s intervention.\”

Attorney Kelly Aviles of Los Angeles is representing both FAC and CalAware in the case.

Read the full ruling

Men Sentenced for Scheme Targeting New Immigrants

It was easy for the criminals to spot their targets as buses offloaded passengers into the din of New York City’s Port Authority bus terminal. The men looked for people who had recently entered the United States to seek asylum—distinguishable by the monitoring bands on their ankles or the immigration paperwork they held in their hands.

Francisco Betancourt, Pascual Rodriguez, or Lucilo Cabrera would then move in on these vulnerable individuals. Rodriguez sometimes claimed to be an immigration official; the others claimed to be helpful strangers. In all events, the men would extort money from these newcomers by making up fees or forcing them to accept unnecessary services. Their most common scheme involved forcing victims into an unneeded and unwanted taxi ride from drivers who were also involved in the plot.

Many of the victims were sent on harrowing, hours-long car rides and were held until their family members could scrape together enough money to pay an exorbitant fare—often more than $1,000.

“They knew they were able to take advantage of these victims,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Vanessa Richards, who prosecuted the case for the District of Connecticut. She explained that because the victims were hoping to have their petitions for asylum or entry into the country accepted, there was tremendous fear that any interaction with law enforcement put them at risk. So the perpetrators “knew their victims would not call the police,” she said.

The crimes were only uncovered because one individual reached out to police after being victimized by Betancourt and Cabrera and hearing about another new immigrant experiencing the same scheme years later. “This brave woman came forward to tell us: ‘I think something really bad is happening here, and it’s been going on for a long time,’” Richards said.

That person’s tip and the subsequent investigation led to the arrests and convictions of Betancourt, Rodriquez, and Cabrera, as well as one of the drivers, Carlos Hernandez. Each was sentenced to serve between eight and 14 years in prison for kidnapping and extortion in a scheme they had been running for years.

“They knew they were able to take advantage of these victims.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Vanessa Richards, District of Connecticut

“They would put people in the taxis and drive for hours—they would drive through Pennsylvania before going to Connecticut—and relatives were told they had to pay for that taxi fare,” said FBI Special Agent Jennifer Wagner, who investigated this case from the New Haven Field Office. She said people were forced to borrow money from neighbors and friends or go with the criminals to an ATM to get enough money to pay for the safe return of the victim.

“The fact that they were knocking on the doors of neighbors late at night shows how afraid these family members were for the victims,” stressed Richards.

The court paperwork told the chilling story of one woman from Honduras who, with her two small children, entered the U.S. at the Texas border and applied for asylum. Immigration authorities gave her permission to travel to Connecticut to stay with her sister until her asylum hearing.

When she arrived in New York City to board a connecting bus to Connecticut, Bentancourt approached her and insisted there was no bus to Connecticut, but that he would help her. He then took her bus ticket, grabbed the arm of her small son, and asked for the phone number of a family member.

Betancourt called the victim’s sister and said the victim and her children had ended up in upstate New York, not New York City, and no bus to Connecticut was available. He would put them in a taxi for about $3 per mile, he told the sister. The victim’s sister explained that she didn’t have money for a taxi ride. She pleaded with Betancourt to tell her where her sister and the children were so she could drive to get them. Betancourt hung up on her.

The victim and her children were then brought by subway to Hernandez’s waiting car. Hernandez took the woman’s immigration paperwork and identification and drove the family slowly to Connecticut. He ultimately demanded $900 from the victims’ family members to drop her at an agreed upon meeting place.

After the family was only able to pay him $700, Hernandez locked himself inside the car with the victim’s older child and insisted the family pay another $100 to free the child and reclaim the victim’s immigration paperwork. The family was forced to go with Hernandez to an ATM to withdraw the additional $100.

Despite their fears about speaking to FBI agents about what they had been through, a number of victims provided details and identified the perpetrators. Wagner said that cell phone data was also instrumental in proving the case. After applying for warrants to view the suspects’ cell phone records, investigators could see an incriminating pattern of regular calls and text messages among the co-conspirators and then a cluster of phone calls to their victims’ family members on a single day.

Additional evidence, such as surveillance photos from ATMs and banks, helped solidify the case.

Richards said the long sentences the perpetrators received reflect the seriousness of their crimes and the length of time they had been victimizing people.

“It is important for everyone to know that law enforcement is looking after you regardless of your immigration status,” said Wagner. “Something will be done to the people who break the law.”

Resources

Fourth Defendant Convicted in Immigrant Kidnapping and Extortion Scheme Sentenced to 135 Months in Prison

Man Who Victimized Immigrants in Kidnapping and Extortion Scheme Sentenced to 135 Months

Man Who Victimized Immigrants in Kidnapping and Extortion Scheme Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison

New York Man Who Victimized Immigrants in Kidnapping and Extortion Scheme Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison