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From the Los Angeles Times

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Despite medical parole law, hospitalized prisoners are costing California taxpayers millions

With California mired in a budget crisis, guarding incapacitated prisoners at outside hospitals continues to cost taxpayers millions as the state figures out how to implement a new medical parole law.

by Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times

March 2, 2011

Reporting from Vacaville, Calif.

A degenerative nerve disease has left 57-year-old California inmate Edward Ortiz semi-paralyzed in a private Bay Area hospital for the last year. The breathing tube in his throat tethers him to a ventilator at one end of the bed; steel bracelets shackle his ankles to safety rails at the other.

Still, California taxpayers are shelling out roughly $800,000 a year to prevent his escape. The guards watching Ortiz one day last week said department policy requires one corrections officer at the foot of his bed around the clock and another guard at the door. A sergeant also has to be there, to supervise.

"Some of this is ridiculous, but you can't argue with policy," said Corrections Officer Allan Roper as he stared down at the unconscious Ortiz, a convicted child molester who requires medical attention beyond the prison system's capabilities.

Authorities have identified 25 "permanently medically incapacitated" inmates being treated at outside hospitals who are candidates for parole because they no longer pose a threat to the public. Californians will pay more than $50 million to treat them this year, between $19 million and $21 million of that for guards' salaries, benefits and overtime, according to data from the federal receiver who oversees California prison healthcare.

The final amount will depend on how many of the guards are paid overtime.

In September, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a "medical parole" law designed to spare taxpayers the cost of guarding inmates like Ortiz and dozens of others who officials say are incapacitated. Some are in comas, others paraplegic.

If the prisoners were released from custody, the medical costs would shift to their families if they could afford to pay, or to other government programs if they could not. The expense of guarding the patients would be eliminated.

But the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has yet to schedule a parole hearing for even one such inmate.

"It's maddening," said State Sen. Mark Leno (D- San Francisco), who sponsored the bill that Schwarzenegger signed. "We have school districts on the verge of closing" because of the state's budget crisis. "We don't have millions of dollars to squander on this kind of nonsense."

Terri McDonald, chief deputy secretary of adult operations for California prisons, said her department had been working with the receiver, appointed in 2005 after a federal court found that healthcare in the state's prisons was tantamount to "cruel and unusual" punishment, to draft regulations to implement the new law.

Despite those efforts, McDonald would not predict when the first sick inmate might get a parole hearing. "These are complex public-safety regulations," she said.

Nancy Kincaid, spokeswoman for receiver J. Clark Kelso, said Kelso is "anxious to have these regulations in place so we can maximize savings."

Leno said he introduced the medical parole law to address concerns about the existing statute that allows "compassionate release" of prisoners who are permanently incapacitated or terminally ill with less than six months' life expectancy.

Compassionate release has the same legal effect as completion of a prison sentence, meaning the former inmate can't be sent back to prison unless he is convicted of another crime.

Opponents of that system pointed to the notorious case of the Lockerbie bomber, the Libyan terrorist who blew up a Pan Am flight in 1988, killing 270, but was released from a Scottish prison in 2009 when doctors thought prostate cancer would kill him in less than three months. He was still alive a few days ago, according to published reports.

An inmate freed on medical parole in California, however, would be sent back to prison if his physical condition improved enough that he could pose a reasonable threat to public safety.

Partly because of the concern that an inmate could cheat justice by outliving a prison doctor's prognosis, the odds have not favored inmates petitioning for compassionate release.

Seventy percent of the 1,157 prisoners determined by doctors to qualify between 1991 and 2010 were rejected for compassionate release, often because top prison administrators or sentencing judges believed they could still pose a threat.

Although some able-bodied inmates have tried to escape while on outside medical appointments, corrections department officials could not cite any who had succeeded. Reducing the guard on such patients, even the most incapacitated, invites risk, said prison spokesman Oscar Hidalgo.

"And we are not in the business of taking risks with public safety," Hidalgo said.

Thousands of inmates are treated at outside hospitals during the course of a year. Although a broken arm can usually be set and splinted at an internal facility, surgery is often done at outside hospitals, said Joseph Bick, chief medical officer of the state's largest prison hospital, in Vacaville.

Last week, at least 12 guards were on hand to oversee five patients at the Bay Area hospital where Ortiz resides. Administrators there allowed reporters to visit on the condition that the institution's name not be published because of security concerns.

The guard detail consisted of two officers assigned to each inmate, a supervisor and "a security escort in case they have to go to the shower," said Lt. Rudy Luna, administrative assistant to the warden at nearby San Quentin. The extra guards also escort patients for X-rays and other medical procedures.

McDonald said the guards' interpretation of department policy was "inaccurate" — that the number of corrections officers required to watch inmates when sent outside of prison walls is flexible, depending "on the number of offenders, the clustering and location of those offenders to each other and the security risk of those offenders."

The written policy is in a section of the department's operating manual that is not available to the public because of "very legitimate security reasons," McDonald said.

Inmates are sent to outside hospitals when their medical condition requires specialized treatment. One prisoner last week was receiving physical therapy after a knee replacement. Others, like Ortiz, were in advanced stages of debilitating, hard-to-treat diseases.

Corrections officers vie for coveted positions on medical guard teams, with the choice assignments usually going to those with the most seniority. Several guards at the Bay Area hospital said they had between 20 and 30 years of experience in the department.

Roper, who was assigned to watch Ortiz, said he'd spent the first 24 of his 27 years as a corrections officer at San Quentin, which houses California's death row, and prefers the relative calm of the hospital.

"In San Quentin when things go bad, they go real bad," Roper said, gesturing to the prone Ortiz, who can't speak even when he's awake because of the breathing tube. "Here, there's not the verbal abuse that you get at San Quentin."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prisons-20110302,0,918738,print.story

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New photo of Sirhan Sirhan, RFK assassin, is released as he seeks freedom

Sirhan Sirhan, who has spent 42 years behind bars for the assassination U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, will have his 13th parole hearing Wednesday.

Sirhan's attorney William F. Pepper told the Associated Press that his client had no memory of the events and suggested a second gunman was involved in the crime.

Pepper, who is based in New York, gained publicity for his efforts to prove the innocence of James Earl Ray in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and Sirhan Sirhan in the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

Pepper claims that James Earl Ray, who was convicted of killing civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. two months before Kennedy was slain, was framed by the federal government and that King was killed in a conspiracy involving the FBI, the CIA, the military, the Memphis police and organized-crime figures from New Orleans and Memphis.

Ray, who confessed to killing King and then recanted and won the support of King's widow and children, died in 1998.

Sirhan, now 66, shot Kennedy on June 5, 1968, moments after he claimed victory in the California presidential primary at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Sirhan was convicted and sentenced to death in April 1969. (He is seen above in a new photo released by the state.) The sentence was commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole when the death penalty was outlawed in California in 1972 before being re-instituted.

In Sirhan's case, he said on the day of the killing, "I did it for my country." At his trial, Sirhan said on the witness stand that he killed Kennedy "premeditatedly with 20 years of malice aforethought."

The parole board has repeatedly rejected Sirhan's appeals for release for failing to accept responsibility or show remorse for Kennedy's death.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/03/robert-f-kennedy-assassin-sirhan-sirhan-faces-13th-parole-hearing.html

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From the New York Times

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Police Departments Turn to Volunteers

FRESNO, Calif. — Roman Sarkisian easily passes for your average Fresno police officer: crew cut, tight-set jaw and “just-the-facts” demeanor.

“I like to do law enforcement stuff,” said Mr. Sarkisian, 23, an immigrant from the republic of Georgia who is studying criminology at the city college here. “I like helping out putting bad guys in jail.”

But Mr. Sarkisian is not a police officer, and he does not carry a gun or a Taser. He is a police volunteer, part of an experiment by departments across the country that enlists trained amateurs to perform a broad — and occasionally dangerous — array of investigative duties like collecting evidence, interviewing witnesses, searching for missing persons and stolen vehicles and looking into long-dormant cases.

Hamstrung by shrinking budgets, the police say the volunteers are indispensable in dealing with low-level offenses and allow sworn officers to focus on more pressing crimes and more violent criminals.

“We had the option to either stop handling those calls or do it in a different manner,” said Fresno's police chief, Jerry Dyer, whose department has lost more than 300 employees in recent years. “I've always operated under the premise of no risk, no success. And in this instance, I felt we really didn't have very much to lose.”

Other chiefs facing budget problems are also using volunteers. In Mesa, Ariz, a Phoenix suburb, 10 of them have been trained to process crime scenes, dust for fingerprints and even swab for DNA. In Pasadena, Calif, a team of retirees is combating identity theft — and, apparently, their own ennui.

“Once I retired and cleaned up my house, I was bored,” said Liz Diott, 67, a former vice president at the Bank of America who now works 20 hours a week at the Pasadena Police Department. “It keeps me on my toes.”

Civilians have long taken on administrative or menial duties for the police -- there are volunteer programs at some 2,100 departments nationwide, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police -- and some departments, including in New York City, use auxiliary officers for traffic control, beat patrols and other duties.

But the use of volunteers in investigations raises legal and liability questions, said Robert Weisberg, the co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center. He suggested such programs could provide openings for defense lawyers to suppress evidence and attack witnesses' testimony.

“If I were a defense lawyer, I would certainly say in front of the jury, ‘Mr.' — and I would underline Mister — ‘Mr. Shoontz, you're a volunteer. You're not really a police officer, are you?” Mr. Weisberg said.

San Francisco's district attorney, George Gascon, a former police chief in Mesa, said he was not worried that police volunteers would cause problems for prosecutors. “So long as there is appropriate training and supervision in place, that should not be an area of concern,” he said.

Mr. Gascon and other supporters say such programs — in addition to providing free labor — are a recruitment tool for police cadets and are popular with residents.

“Citizens are more receptive to our volunteers than to our officers,” said Officer Celestine Ratliff, the volunteer liaison for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in North Carolina.

Still, Allen Hopper, the police practices director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, said volunteers needed to be aware of — and responsible for — suspects' constitutional protections. While sworn officers can be punished for breaking those rules, he said, “It is unclear how these important safeguards would apply to civilians doing police officers' jobs.”

Supporters say the volunteers are screened and extensively trained. In Mesa, the volunteer crime scene specialists have to demonstrate that they are competent in various types of evidence collection and, oddly, be able to lift 25 pounds. “We're asking a lot for people we're not paying,” said Linda Bailey, the department's volunteer coordinator. “But these folks are handling evidence, and they have access to confidential information.”

Most departments say they do not want their volunteers to confront criminals in the act. In El Paso County, Colo., which is home to Colorado Springs, the so-called citizen patrols check out burglar alarms, but if there is any indication that a crime is under way, they are instructed to call in an actual sworn officer, Sheriff Terry Maketa said.

In Fresno, where the pilot program began last year, officials say the program was vetted by the county's district attorney to address legal concerns. The volunteers' shirts are a different color than the sworn officers', and they are restricted to handling nonviolent crimes like petty theft, stolen vehicles and vandalism that is not gang-related.

“The reality is we've not had any challenges yet,” Chief Dyer said.

The Fresno program has drawn a diverse roster of crime fighters, including a recent class that included an assistant golf pro, a Pizza Hut manager and Steve Aberle, a Spanish teacher with a mop of gray hair. Mr. Aberle said he went through the 11-week training course to get a taste of “the edge” of police life that he had read about in crime novels. “The whole thing is very cool,” he said.

The class also included several young men like Mr. Sarkisian who said they had volunteered as a way into a law enforcement career.

On a recent morning, Officer Kent Pichardo was training Mr. Sarkisian, part of the 40 hours that each volunteer must spend in the field with an active-duty officer. They were answering calls in Southeast Fresno, a blue-collar neighborhood where the Bulldog street gang has pockets of members. And while he looked the part — with a blue jacket over his white shirt, there was little to distinguish him for Officer Pichardo — Mr. Sarkisian seemed nervous, chewing gum, sheepishly knocking on doors and scribbling in a worn notebook. (One page was labeled “Cop Notes.”)

By the end of his shift, Mr. Sarkisian had diligently worked his way through an interview with the parent of a missing teenager. At one point, Mr. Sarkisian asked whether the girl had any identifiable marks, and the parent mentioned a tattoo of a dog's paw.

“So she was gang-affiliated,” Mr. Sarkisian said, recognizing it as a Bulldog symbol. Officer Pichardo nodded in approval.

Officer Pichardo, a 16-year-veteran, said that volunteers like Mr. Sarkisian — who is allowed to carry a macelike spray — “could come across people who are antipolice” Still, he said, he would train Mr. Sarkisian “just as I'd train any other officer,” though he needs “to be aware of where the line stops.”

“Do I want him to make an arrest? Not really,” Officer Pichardo said. “But I want him to be an outstanding witness.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02volunteers.html?_r=1&ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Hundreds Arrested in Gang Crackdown

An anti-gang dragnet has led to the arrest of 678 gang members and their associates, most of them immigrants, in 168 cities, federal officials announced Tuesday.

The three-month-long operation focused on groups with ties to international drug trafficking, said officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

Some 447 of the defendants were charged with crimes while the rest were arrested for administrative immigration violations, officials said.

The offensive was part of a five-year campaign by immigration officials to combat violent street gangs by prosecuting and deporting their members.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02brfs-HUNDREDSARRE_BRF.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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From Google News

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Nine kids expelled over fight club brawls caught on tape

(Video on site)

TACOMA, Wash. -- There were dozens of fights inside the school, and no one knew.

And when word got out, nine sixth-graders at Stewart Middle School were expelled on Monday.

The students had formed a fight club, according to school officials who say they won't tolerate this type of behavior. But some parents feel the school officials failed as well; they say it's the responsibility of the teachers inside to enforce security.

The footage shows two young boys engaged in a heated battle with fists flying through the air in reckless abandon.

"No one said they didn't want to do it. No one was forced into it," said Peter King, Jr., one of the expelled students. "The closest I've seen someone get hurt is a bloody lip."

King says about 25 of his friends participated in these organized brawls, and he recorded about 15 of them on his cell phone.

The fights, he said, began just over a month ago. They'd take place after school inside the boys' bathroom.

And through it all, no teachers were ever aware -- something King's father calls unacceptable.

"After 20 or 30 fights, someone should've accidentally walked into the bathroom," said Peter King, Sr.

A spokesperson for Tacoma Public Schools says changes are on the way. Teachers will patrol the grounds more vigilantly, and the bathroom in question will be locked at the end of the school day.

But King, Sr. says that's not enough. He says the real problem here isn't so much the fighting, but rather the lack of awareness by the faculty. They, too, need to be held accountable, he said.

"Fire principals and teachers," said the boy's father. "If they are going to be that stiff on the kids, then I think it's only fair that they're that stiff on the other party that was just as equally responsible for what happened, which is the school."

The students were expelled on an emergency basis. Officials said the length of the students' suspensions will be determined on a case-by-case basis. Each student's disciplinary history will be a factor, they said.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/117219713.html

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From ICE

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678 gang members and associates arrested during Project Southern Tempest

ICE makes arrest of 20,000th gang member

WASHINGTON - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) announced today the arrests of 678 gang members and associates from 133 different gangs during Project Southern Tempest, an intensive ICE HSI-led law enforcement operation executed in 168 U.S. cities targeting gangs affiliated with drug trafficking organizations (DTO).

Through Project Southern Tempest, ICE HSI agents worked side by side with 173 of our federal, state and local law enforcement partners to apprehend individuals from 13 gangs affiliated with DTOs in Mexico. More than 46 percent of those arrested during this operation were members or associates of gangs with ties to DTOs.

During this operation, which started in December 2010 and culminated in February 2011, the ICE HSI-led Salt Lake City Operation Community Shield Task Force arrested the 20,000 gang member since inception of the anti-gang program in 2005.

Transnational criminal street gangs have significant numbers of foreign-national members and are frequently involved in human smuggling and trafficking; narcotics smuggling and distribution; identity theft and benefit fraud; money laundering and bulk cash smuggling; weapons smuggling and arms trafficking; cyber crimes; export violations; and other crimes with a nexus to the border.

"Project Southern Tempest is the largest ever ICE-led gang enforcement operation targeting gangs with ties to drug trafficking organizations," said ICE Director John Morton. "Through gang enforcement operations like Project Southern Tempest and Project Big Freeze last year, ICE will continue to disrupt and dismantle these transnational gangs and rid our streets not only of drug dealers, but the violence associated with the drug trade."

"ICE is an important partner in bringing federal prosecutions against dangerous gang members," said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Sally Quillian Yates. "Since Operation Community Shield began in 2005, ICE investigations in our District alone have resulted in numerous indictments against gang members, including charges for seven separate murders, at least five carjackings, several armed robberies and over 40 criminal immigration offenses. The partnership between ICE and our office serves to make neighborhoods stronger and safer by removing and prosecuting criminal gang members."

"By pooling our resources and our intelligence, we've succeeded in taking some very dangerous people off of the streets," said South Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Snyder. "Our goal in partnering with ICE and other law enforcement agencies is to make our cities safer. The gang members and drug dealers targeted in this operation have no regard for the law and their continued illegal activities degrade the quality of life in our communities."

Of the 678 gang members or associates arrested:

• they hailed from 133 different gangs;
  
  
• 447 were charged with criminal offenses;
  
  
• 231 were administrative arrests;
  
  
• 322 had violent criminal histories;
  
  
• 421 were foreign nationals.

In addition to the 678 arrests, 164 individuals were arrested for federal and/or state criminal violations, or administrative immigration violations. Of the 164, 117 were charged with criminal offenses, 46 had violent criminal histories, 47 were administrative arrests and 78 were foreign nationals. In addition to the arrests, during the operation agents seized 86 firearms, eight pounds of methamphetamine, 30 pounds of marijuana, one pound of cocaine, more than $70,000 in U.S currency and two vehicles.

Like any street gang, these transnational gangs also have a propensity toward violence. Their members committed a number of violent crimes including robbery, extortion, assault, rape and murder.

Among those arrested during Project Southern Tempest were:

• Andrey Melnikov, 36, a Russian national with legal permanent residence status and an associate of the Valleros gang was arrested in Oceanside, Calif., for auto theft. His criminal convictions include possession of weapon on school grounds/carrying loaded firearm public place and felon in possession of a firearm.
  
  
• Cesar Enrique Barreiro, 27, a U.S. citizen and member of the Lennox 13 gang was arrested in Lennox, Calif., for RICO charges from an ongoing multi-agency investigation. His criminal convictions include for aggravated assault with serious bodily injury. He faces federal criminal prosecution on racketeering charges.
  
  
• Shawn Allison, 32, a Jamaican national and member of the Jamaican Posse gang was arrested in Bronx, N.Y., for attempted murder. His convictions include possession with intent to distribute and criminal contempt. He faces state criminal prosecution on charges of attempted murder.
  
  
• Rodimiro Burquez-Cortez, 34, a Mexican national and Surenos gang associate was arrested in Provo, Utah, for re-entry after deportation and narcotics and weapon offenses. His criminal convictions include illegal re-entry; carrying a concealed weapon, assault, DWI, illegal possession of controlled substance, possession of dangerous weapon. He faces federal criminal prosecution for re-entry of previously removed alien, illegal alien in possession of a firearm, and felon in possession of a firearm.
  
  
• Gustavo Morales, 52, a Mexican national and an associate of the Boomerangz gang was arrested in Reading, Pa., for federal offenses related to narcotics and weapons violations. His criminal history has a conviction for re-entry. He faces federal prosecution for illegal re-entry and narcotics and weapon offenses.

Those arrested came from 24 countries in South and Central America, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. Of the total number of arrested, 776 were males and 72 were females.

This enforcement operation is part of Operation Community Shield, a global initiative, in which ICE HSI partners with existing federal, state, local and foreign anti-gang efforts to share intelligence on criminal gang organizations and their leadership, share resources and combine legal authorities to identify, locate, arrest, prosecute, imprison and/or deport transnational gang members.

ICE HSI began rolling out Operation Community Shield Task Forces (OCSTFs) throughout the nation as well as in Central America in 2010. There are currently eight OCSTFs in cities including Baltimore; Birmingham, Ala.; Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas; Salt Lake City; San Angelo, Texas; and St. Paul, Minn., as well as one in Honduras. It is these critical partnerships with law enforcement here in the United States and overseas that enables ICE HSI to target a gang's structural leadership and criminal enterprise in the U.S. and in their countries of origin.

Since the inception of Operation Community Shield in 2005, through Jan. 31, 2011, ICE HSI agents working in conjunction with federal, state, local and foreign law enforcement agencies have arrested 20,373 gang members and associates. These apprehensions include 9,590 criminal arrests and 10,783 civil arrests. Of the more than 20,000 arrests, 249 of those arrested were gang leaders, 3,414 were MS-13 members or associates and 7,699 had violent criminal histories. Through this initiative, more than 1,600 firearms have been taken off the streets.

The National Gang Unit within ICE HSI identifies violent street gangs and develops intelligence on their membership, associates, criminal activities and international movements to deter, disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal gang operations by tracing and seizing cash, weapons and other assets derived from illicit activities.

Federal agencies involved in Project Southern Tempest include the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and the U.S. Marshals Service.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1103/110301washingtondc.htm

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From the FBI

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Three Dallas-Area Men Arrested on Federal Firearms Charges Related to Trafficking Firearms to a Mexican Drug Cartel

Ballistic Tests Trace One of the Firearms Used in February 2011 Shooting of ICE Agents to One of the Defendants

DALLAS—Three individuals have been arrested by agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), assisted by other state and local law enforcement, on federal firearms charges outlined in two complaints, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks for the Northern District of Texas and Special Agent in Charge Robert R. Champion of the ATF's Dallas Field Office.

Ranferi Osorio, 27, and his brother, Otilio Osorio, 22, were arrested yesterday at their home on East Colonial Drive in Lancaster, Texas. Each Osorio brother is charged with possessing firearms with an obliterated serial number. Separately, according to information contained in one complaint, Mexican officials recently seized three firearms that were used in the deadly shooting on Feb. 15, 2011, of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent. One of the firearms recovered was traced by ATF to Otilio Osorio.

An additional defendant, Kelvin Leon Morrison, 25, who is charged in a separate federal criminal complaint, was arrested at his home next door to the Osorio brothers. Morrison is charged with knowingly making false statements in connection with the acquisition of firearms and dealing in firearms without a license.

A detention hearing for Morrison and Otilio Osorio is scheduled for today at 2:00 p.m. CT before U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul D. Stickney in Dallas. Ranferi Osorio's detention hearing is scheduled for March 4, 2011, at 2:00 p.m. CT before Judge Stickney.

According to court documents filed in both cases, a Dallas ATF confidential informant (CI) arranged a meeting in early November 2010 with individuals who had firearms to be transported from Dallas to Laredo. The meeting was arranged related to an investigation of Los Zetas, a notoriously violent and ruthless drug trafficking organization. The weapons in question were ultimately seized by U.S. law enforcement near Laredo, before crossing the U.S./Mexico border.

According to the court documents, at the meeting, two men unloaded several large bags containing firearms into the CI's vehicle, which was kept under surveillance until a traffic stop in Laredo. According to the court documents, the men's vehicle was later stopped by local police and the men were identified as Ranferi and Otilio Osorio. Morrison was the third passenger in the vehicle. The vehicle stopped in Laredo was searched and 40 firearms, all with obliterated serial numbers, were seized. Trace results indicated that three of these firearms could be specifically traced to Morrison, who bought them from federal firearms licensees (FFL) in the Dallas/Fort Worth area on Nov. 4, 2010. The investigation now has also revealed that on Aug. 7, 2010, a Romarm, model WASR, 7.62 caliber rifle was discovered by law enforcement officers in LaPryor, Texas, near the U.S./Mexico border. Trace results indicated that Morrison purchased this firearm on July 30, 2010, from a FFL. According to the affidavit, between July 10, 2010, and Nov. 4, 2010, Morrison purchased 24 firearms from FFLs.

In addition, according to one affidavit filed in the case, one of the three firearms used in the Feb. 15, 2011, deadly assault of ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata that was seized by Mexican officials has been traced by ATF to Otilio Osorio. Otilio Osorio allegedly purchased that firearm on Oct. 10, 2010, in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, prior to law enforcement's awareness of the purchase. Ballistic testing conducted by Mexican authorities on this firearm indicated it was one of the three firearms used during the deadly assault on Special Agent Zapata's vehicle.

A federal complaint is a written statement of the essential facts of the offenses charged, and must be made under oath before a magistrate judge. A defendant is entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. If convicted, the penalty for possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, per count. The penalty for knowingly making false statements in connection with the acquisition of firearms is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, per count. The penalty for dealing in firearms without a license is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, per count.

The ongoing investigation is being conducted by the ATF, DEA, FBI, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement - Homeland Security Investigations, and the Lancaster, Texas, Police Department. These cases are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Tromblay for the Northern District of Texas.

http://dallas.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel11/dl030111.htm

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