Sheriff In Ajike Owens Case Sued Over ICE Detention

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Supply: Marion County Sheriff’s Workplace / marion county sheriff’s workplace

Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods has already been on my “side-eye” checklist since he appeared to no less than partially blame Ajike Owens for her personal violent demise by the hands of alleged racist and routine little one harasser Susan Lorincz by going out of his strategy to emphasize that Owens and Lorincz had been concerned in an ongoing “feud” and saying he needs they each made higher decisions on the day solely one among them took somebody’s life. Because it seems, a number of neighbors have reported that Lorincz has really been in an ongoing feud with all the youngsters within the neighborhood in addition to their dad and mom and that the 58-year-old has an extended historical past of harassment, threats and racist verbal assaults on kids.

Woods had additionally been underneath criticism due to what many understand as a lackluster response by regulation enforcement, which took 4 days to arrest a girl who shot one other lady via a closed and locked door as a result of they wanted to find out whether or not Florida’s “stand your floor” regulation utilized to the case. (Spoiler alert: It didn’t.) Woods has largely gone with the “don’t hate the regulation enforcer, hate the regulation” clarification in defending himself in opposition to that specific grievance.

Anyway, Woods may need a historical past of dangerous judgment calls that goes past making problematic statements relating to the sufferer of a violent and mindless killing. It seems that in January of final yr, a lawsuit was filed by nonprofit activist organizations that accused the sheriff of unlawfully detaining a Jamaican man till ICE may come to the scene, even supposing the detainee is a everlasting resident of the US.

From WTSP 10:

By a Tampa-based regulation agency, the Southern Poverty Regulation Heart and the American Civil Liberties Union are suing on behalf of Neville Christopher Brooks who they are saying was wrongfully detained.

The lawsuit is in opposition to Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods and deputies, who the teams argue held Brooks, of Ocala, with none warrant from federal immigration enforcement.

“The case challenges his illegal detention and MCSO’s discriminatory coverage of detaining and referring all foreign-born people, or these perceived as foreign-born, to Immigration and Customs Enforcement Company (ICE), even when they’re Americans or in any other case lawfully on this nation,” the Southern Poverty Regulation Heart wrote in an e mail.

The SPLC says deputies detained Brooks for a since-dismissed misdemeanor in August 2020 – however stored holding him for ICE after he posted bond, despite the fact that the feds reportedly advised the sheriff’s workplace he wasn’t topic to detention.

“The Marion County Sheriff and his deputies by no means mentioned Mr. Brooks’ citizenship or immigration standing with him, nor did they obtain any detainer or warrant from ICE,” wrote the SPLC. “They merely profiled him and presumed he was on this nation unlawfully, solely primarily based on his international beginning, despite the fact that jail data confirmed that he had a legitimate social safety quantity and Florida business driver’s license, neither of which he may have gotten until he was lawfully within the U.S.”

Brooks’ attorneys stated their consumer was held for an additional evening in a “crowded jail” throughout the pandemic, which brought on Brooks to check constructive for COVID-19 after being taken to an emergency room 5 days after his false detainment.

The lawsuit was filed within the U.S. District Court docket for the Center District of Florida and is in search of damages and injunctive and declaratory reduction, in keeping with WTSP. ACLU employees legal professional My Khanh Ngo wrote in a press release that the “Supreme Court docket has made clear that native officers can’t make immigration arrests on their very own, or deal with individuals in a different way primarily based solely on the place they had been born.”

“However that’s what the Sheriff’s Workplace did right here to Mr. Brooks,” Khanh Ngo’s assertion continued. “They threatened to separate him from his household and his life within the U.S., simply because he was born in Jamaica. And we all know that Mr. Brooks’ case is simply the tip of the iceberg.”

And possibly Woods’ inappropriate judgment name on Owens’ option to confront the girl who allegedly attacked her kids can also be a part of that iceberg.

Simply sayin’.