OCR Text |
Show (Die Page A7 Cinifs-phthfpmhn- July 4, 2002 it Federal indictment Continued from Page A 1 San J uan and Grand county highway patrol trooper assisted in the investigation. Ac- cording to Sergeant Rich Haycock, the Grand County district highway patrol w as asked by Sgt. Rick Eldredge, of the San J uan County district to pick up Juan Granica-Gordill- Jorge Garnica-Grodillo- and , Isabel Becerra Garcia, Buns and daughter-in-laof the deceased woman because they were prin-- w ciple witnesses in a federal smuggling case involving fatalities. The INS had instructed Eldredge to hold the people as material witnesses in the case and, as they had all been transferred to Kloab, he forwarded the INS request to the Grand County district highway patrol office. When the witnesses were located by local highway patrol troopers, two of them were at Allen Memorial Hospital and the third was at Spanish Valley Mortuary where he was attempting to make funeral arrangements for his mother. According to Larry Turpen, owneroperator of the mortuary, the young man was unable to complete making the funeral arrangements before he was taken into custody by Utah Highway 1atrol Trooper Nick Bowles and transported to the Grand County courthouse to await pick up by the INS. The remaining two family members were taken directly to the courthouse and, according to several eyewitnesses, never allowed to go to the mortuary to see their mother. Oscar Alvarez, an interpreter from St. Joseph Catholic Church in Monticello who was with the family at the mortuary, said he explained to the highway patrol troopers that the son should be allowed to finiah the funeral arrangements and that it would take only another 15 or 20 minutes. But they said, now. We have to take him now," said Alvarez. Alvarez made a second at- tempt to communicate the familys needs to the Utah Highway Patrol, but by that time they were already in the custody of INS. The INS declined to allow the family to return to the mortuary to view the body. Thia isnt right. They should have been allowed to finish making the funeral arrangements and to say goodbye to their mother, said Alvarez. Barbara Palerme, director of religion education at St. Joseph Catholic Church was also present and explained, When the family left the hospital with the highway patrol officers, it was my understanding that they were being taken to the mortuary to be with their deceased mother. They never got to go there. They had no opportunity to aay final goodbyes to their mother. They were in physical pain from the accident and emotional pain from the kiss of their mother. Its very aad the way this whole situation w as handled." Bowles, the highway patrol trooper w ho w ent to the mortuary to pick up the aon, tells a slightly different story. "We were advised to pick up these people as material witnesses for a case involving the INS. We were met at the door of the mortuary by a female assistant and asked to wait in another room while Mr. Turpen completed making arrangement with a family member. It took about 10 minutes and then Mr. Turpen told us they were finished and we could take custody of the man. At that point, we took him to our offices at the Grand County Courthouse to await arrival of the INS. INS spokespersons confirmed the family was not able to complete funeral arrangements until they arrived at the INS detention center near Durango, Colo. At that time they were allowed to make the necessary phone calls to complete funeral arrangements and arrange for transport of their mothers body back to Mexico. The Mexican consulate in Salt Lake City was able to confirm that the womans body had been returned to her homeland. It is still unknown whether anyone other than the one son present at the mortuary was able to view the body and say final goodbyes to their mother, but it did not happen in Moab. There was also concern that the injured woman, Isabel , was prematurely discharged from Allen Memorial Hospital in order to be whisked away by troopers. Allen Memorial Hospital quality assessment and risk management officer Tracy Harris confirmed that at the same time the fatality arrived, a old woman, daughter-in-lato the deceased, was admitted. Because she suffered a head injury she was kept over night for evaluation. She was also treated and released for a fractured clavicle. Everything was standard operating procedure, said Harris. In reviewing the patient's records, its clear that she was not discharged prematurely and that any other paBecerra-Garcia- 24-ye- ar w tient with the same injury Idaho airline wants Moab-SaLake City route Continued from Page A1 advertise regularly. Wed also do lota of promotions. And we wont cancel flights. We discovered early on that you cant do that. You have to create reliability within the community. The small airline l i cur- rently provides scheduled and chartered flights from Salmon, including routes to and from Boise, Challis, Idaho Falls, Hailey (Sun Valley), McCall, and Salt Lake City. If it receives the federally administered EAS contract, the flight crew and plane would be based in Moab, with a reserve crew stationed in Salt Lake City, DeLong said. And the company hopes to employ as many resident people as possible to smooth the process, DeLong said Monday afternoon. the route passenger numbers To make self-sufficie- would have to increase significantly from the 1,200 annual - emplanements that Great Lakes averages, to about 6,000 passengers each year. "It will take time to build those numbers," DeLong said. But we believe it can be done. Weve got a lot of work to do in the community to make that happen." Unlike Great Lakes Airlines, w hich uses larger pressurized plant s, Salmon Air would fly the Cessna Caravan, COPY a nine-passenge- UHP troopers investigate an accident that claimed the lives of two people and injured other passengers. One of the victims apparently had fallen asleep at the wheel. T--l file photo by Dave MacPherson. sons are be ing he ld in an INS dePatrol district, his troopers are of the iceberg, said Sgt. would also have been released. tention center in Colorado as He went on to explain aware of the requirement. Haycock. There is not, however, an indimaterial witnesses in the case octhese not the accident did "Since that prosecuting coyotes cation in the chart that the pa1 was nut until custody is transform! to the utsive who the in cur our safety district, put money tient was given anything for U.S. Marshals Se rvice in Utah of consuMexican are the the aware that bone people they transportupon pain of her fractured Chavarria's interest in the late had not been notified," said ing, depends ujmiii getting the release. Both the hospital and the Mexican consulate confirmed, however, that Becerra-Garcidid require further treatment at regional hospitals, but it is not known what, if any, treatment was provided. Overlaying the drama of Mexican people desperate to escape the poverty of their country, willing to risk their lives and pay $1,000 or more per to do it, is a bureaucratic system that can fail. Such failures can allow these same people to be victimized all over again. Whether it is a result of not understanding the laws, ineptitude in following procedure, or lack of communication, the rights of Mexican nationals are can be violated in the United States. One clear example in this case is that law enforcement andor the INS is obligated to contact the Mexican consulate when there is an injury or fatality to a Mexican citizen while in the United States. No one from the highway patrol, neither San Juan nor Grand County districts, alerted the consulate to the fatal accident. Nor did the INS contact the consulate as is required. Jim Tendick, priest at the St Francis Episcopal Church in Moab was the person who finally picked up the phone - two days after the accident and called the Mexican consulate in Salt Lake City prompting the consulate to contact the INS concerning the accident and the disposition of the single engine turboprop aircraft. But DeLong said passengers would probably not notice the difference. The Cessna, he said, will provide the same comfort and speed. Sgt Haycock continued, believe everything my troopers did was ethical, legal and moral woi king with the information we had As far as not letting the family see the body, I cannot imagine we would have knowingly done anything to prevent that from hapjiening." 1 a per-Bo- The Utah Highway Patrol's interest in this and similar n cases is not in the status of Mexican citizens, but in nabbing the coyotes who victimize them. "We really want to get these coyotes who are smuggling people across the border and into our state. They charge the families exorbitant amounts of in money, pack them unventilated vans or the back seat of a car, start driving and dont stop except to get gasoline. The drivers don't sleep and as a result we have about 12 crashes a year - in our district alone -involving smugglers. This year we have already had two fatality crashes in our district," said Haycock. When you take that number and then realize the same thing is occurring all across Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and other southwestern stales, the number of people dying is staggering," he continued. The INS reports that they make over one million stops per year in the Southwest territory alone. Numbers vary from month to month, but in September 2001, 60,000 people were prevented from coming into the United States illegally in the southwest states. We are only seeing the tip family. Where did the system fail? According to Sgt. Rich Haycock, Grand County, Utah Highway undocumented immigrants to testify For whatever reason, many of these folks are hesitant to testify. The y are afraid of us. They are afraid of the coyote They may fear consequences to their family batk home if they testify Whateve r the reason, these are difficult case's to and we need the help of the Mexican citizens who have Is'en smuggled and victimized," said Haycock. 1 wish we could get them to understand that we are not interested in the ir status. In fact, it is illegal to ask them the'ir status. Tlu'se people are generally citizens u ho ate pro ductive nu'mls'rsof ourcommu nity Its the smugglers we want, they dont care alxiut the people they are transporting " They care alxiut money Arturo Chavarria with the Mexican Consulate in Salt Lake City has been follow ing the case and assisting the family. He reprose-cut- e g e ported that the law of the deceased had lxen reunited with her children in Pennsylvania. The two daughtcr-i- case, of course', stems from concerns about Mexican citizens in the United State's. Mexico and the United States are on friendly terms. We should have a mutual interest in protecting the rights of Mexican citizens while in this country We cant help them if we do not know injured or killed, theyve said Chavarria. Ill an eflort to keep these kind of hureuuciatic slips from occurring, at least oil a local level, Chavarria is in the pro cess of putting together u meet ing between Grand and San Juan county law enforiement agencies and other area public agencies interested or involved with Mexican nationals in the United State's. We want to build a commuto supxrt one annetwoik nity other, said Chavarria. Sgt. Ilaycixk agreed I think such a meeting would le really helpful ls-e- I hxik to my officers, he said forward to attending and having " my trixisTS attend The meeting is planned for sometime in Septends-- or of 2002. r Calling all motorcyclo ridors: at Jimbos at Line up 4:30 p.m. Thursday. Don't miss another great party at Swanny city Park as Moab celebrates independence Day and its lOO&i Birthday! Tug o' War Dunking Machine This plane rides like a Its got a Cadillac, he said. very smooth ride." Great Lakes also offers connecting flights between Moab and Phoenix, via Page, Ariz. But Salmon will only offer service to Salt Lake City, he said. I dont see us providing service to anywhere else. At least not right now, DeLong said. That was fine with County Council Member Kimberly Schappert. "If we could get reliable service scheduled, we can think about that later, she said. Weve got a lot of work to do here first." The U.S. Dept, of Transportation (DOT), which administers the EAS program, has not yet put out the call for bids on the route, but DeLong said he expects to get word "any day" that the agency is ready to accept proposals. On Monday, DeLong asked the council to write a letter supporting Salmon Airs bid. But the council postponed any action on the request until information on all airlines bidding on the contract is available from the DOT. S Police chief Mike Navarre and city Council Member Kyle Bailey both were victims of the dunking machine. Here's this line-u- p: Kim o a years Schappert im Lew is Jeff Davis Steve Russell Gregg stucki Sena Flanders Kirsten Peterson Rex Tanner and many more surprises! Don't miss this event, and your chance to dunk a Moab ViP. it's a fund-raisfor future 4th of July events. er 5-8p- m See if anyone can j ()c-toli- The Moab DeadHorse Motorcycle Club wants you to ride in the 4th of July Parade! Remember last 4th of July? lt r, Haycock. take down the mighty Grand County sherifT s Department And remember this year, no cleats or gloves! |