A Brownsville Texas couple were arrested and convicted for bringing undocumented workers into the United States for the purposes of prostitution. At least one of these victims was only 14 years of age.

Juan Luis Coronado, aka Juan Luis Hernandez, 37, and Lee Ann Zieger, 40, worked together to recruit Mexican citizens for their prostitution business. According to reports, Coronado convinced Ziegler to recruit several people to cross the border and work for them.for their prostitution business.

Once in the U.S. the new recruits were housed in a Brownsville motel which Zieger managed. When clients visited, a key was provided to a room where the Mexican nationals exchanged sexual favors for money. The key was labeled "property management".

When the recruited prostitutes were not working hard in Brownsville, they got to spend time in posh South Padre Island. Their time was not spent as tourists, however. Coronado put them to work at "Bike Fest" on South Padre and another location in down town Brownsville.

The pair will have some time to think about what they have done, perhaps as sort of sex slaves themselves. Coronado received 87 months in prison and Zieger 24 months. When Coronado is released he will also have to register as a sex offender.

Ice and US Cutoms and Border Inspection investigated the case over a 14 month period. The arrest and conviction of Coronado and Zigeir takes two more monstors off of the street who prey on desperately poor people.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Leonardo, Southern District of Texas, prosecuted this case

Fast thinking ICE nabs international sex tourist

FAST THINKING ICE OFFICERS NAB INTERNATONAL SEX TOURIST

In May 2008 Norway police spotted a white male having sex with minors, young minors, while the authorities were watching for child pornography on the internet. The image of the male, later identified as Wayne Nelson Corliss, 60, of New Jersey, was sent to interpol. Interpol cropped one of the images that were on the net and sent a copy out. They made a world wide appeal in seach of the unknown man who likes to steal the innocence away from helpless children.

Within 48 hours of INTERPOL's global appeal, ICE found a possible match for the sexual predator. ICE special agents from field offices in Newark and Washington, D.C., coordinating with INTERPOL, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation & Obscenity Section (CEOS), identified, located and arrested Corliss. He has been in custody since his arrest.

Corliss admitted traveling to Thailand with the inent to have sex with little children, some of them as young as six. When in Thailand, Corliss met with a man known as John Wrenshall, who owns a home in Thailand. Wrenshall was alledgedly the middle man, so to speak, as he alledgedly arranged for adult males to meet and have sex with little children. Wrenshall alledgedly set up sex meetings with two other U.S. citizens, Burgess Lee Burgess and Mitchell Kent Jackson, each time alledgedly for a fee.

Burgess, 45, and Jackson, 32, were both arrested and pleaded guilty to charges relating to sexual exploitation of a minor, November 6th, 2009, in the Southern District of Alabama and were each sentenced to 78 months in prison. Apparently, New Jersey is not the place for sex tourists because Corliss was given a sentence of 235 month by a Newark, New Jersey court.

Corliss was also sentenced Nov. 16 by U.S. District Judge Joseph A. Greenaway to lifetime supervised release to follow his prison term, and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.

Corliss will be required to register as a sex offender when he gets out of prison. If he lives long enough to serve his full term he be be 80 when he gets out. Until then, he will get lots of supervision behind bars.

US Marshals Sexual and Viloent Crime Near End

Sex offender and violent crime task force of the United Marshal's service may be comming to an end, if funding is not quickly found.

According to Deputy DUSM Dewaine Allen, Western District of Arkansas, Fayetteville Division , the task force has tracked 1000 fugitives since the unit was created in November of 2007. Most of the fugitives are running from the law for violent crimes and sex offenses.

The special task force started in November of 20007 with a grant of $500,000. The money was written and adminstered by the Benton County Sheriff's off.

According to Deputy Allen, “The grant monies have been used to purchase Task Force Officer vehicles, emergency lighting, radios and other equipment for officers.”

The grant was also used to lease a private office space in Springdale until operations could be relocated to the U. S. Marshals Service office in Fayetteville.

“Relocating saved us considerable funding, but resources are at an end, and we need additional funding to operate,” said Deputy Allen.

Computers, phones, and overtime were also paid from the grant. “Unless additional resources are obtained, the task force will lose its most valuable resource…our administrative assistant, who is paid by the Benton County Sheriff’s Office via the grant,” said Deputy Allen.

Every year, the U.S. Marshals and its associated task forces throughout the country arrest more fugitives than all federal law enforcement agencies combined. Last year, this number was more than 73,000 state and local fugitives and more than 36,000 federal fugitives. Additional information about the U.S. Marshals can be found at http://www.usmarshals.gov.

The Northwest Arkansas Sex Offender and Violent Crime Task Force is comprised of the U. S. Marshals Service, Benton, Washington, Madison, and Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, as well as Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, Siloam Springs, and the Bentonville Police Departments. The Arkansas Department of Community Corrections is also a valued member. The Benton County Sheriff’s Office currently manages the grant that funds the task force.

High ranking leaders of the FARC, or Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, agreed to guilty pleas to conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, and conspiring to distribute cocaine with the knowledge and intent that it would be imported into the United States.

The FARC, a Marxist Leninist revolutionary organization, has been the nemises of an otherwise stable government in Colombia, South America for over 40 years. While the organization was formed to be political in nature, thugs gained control of the party and used it for criminal activities. Kidnapping for ransom and cocaine trafficking are two major profit centers for the FARC.

Two FARC leaders, Rodriguez Mendieta, 46, and Aguilar Ramirez, 49, are scheduled to be sentenced by Judge HOGAN on March 5, 2010. Ramirez was captured on July 2, 2008, in joint military attack on a FARC camp. During the operation, three American hostages and several Colombian hostages were freed who had been held captive for over 5 years. Mendieta was arrested by Colombian authorities in late 2004.

Mendieta acknowledged that he was the Commander of the FARC's 24th Front and a member of the FARC's Estado Major. Ramirez acknowledged he was the Commander of the 1st Front of the FARC. Both men admitted to "leading and directing" other FARC members in the manufacture and distribution of cocaine. Ramirez also admitted he possessed firearms in connection with his narcotics trafficking activities.

FARC-EP (then known simply as FARC) was established in the 1960s as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party because of repeated and systematic human right abuses by the US-backed elitist Colombian government and thus originated as a guerrilla movement.

FARC-EP remains the largest insurgent group in the Americas. According to the Colombian government FARC-EP has an estimated 11,000 members in 2009, down from 16,000 in 2001, having lost about one third of their fighting force since President Álvaro Uribe took office in 2002.

Rather than considering the FARC a political party, certain countrys including the U.S., Canada and Colombia classify the FARC as a violent non-state actor (VNSA). Classification as a Violat Non State Actor removes the veil of legitimacy as a political party and classifies it as a terrorists organization.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez rejected their classification as "terrorists". He considers them to be "real armies", and called on the Colombian and other governments to recognize the guerrillas as a “belligerent force”, rather than a terrorist force. Chavez was optimistic such classification would encourage FAAR leadership to renounce kidnappings and terrorist acts.

However classified, the FARC used violent tactics to control a large portion of Colombia. Kidnapping, murder and drug trafficking became accepted practices for this "political party". Money made from controlling the world's largest supply of cocaine funded purchase of weapons and party activities.

Although the guilty please by Mendieta and Ramirez could carry a life sentence, the US Government made assurances life sentences would not be sought. The minimum sentence under the law is 10 years. The two will likely recieve a lengthy term but will be defined in years instead of life.

While today's plea signals a strong blow to FARC leadership, the organization still remains as a threat to the stable government of Colombia and possible governments of adjacent countries. Only with continued pressure and reform can the organization be forced from control of vast portions of Colombia. Until then, Colombia remains a divided country.

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and JOHN P. GILBRIDE, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Field Division,("DEA"), played a major role in the Mendieta and Ramirez capture and plea.

Gay marriage in DC not guaranteed - division likely

There are two sides to every coin. Tuesday's vote to approve gay marriages in Washington D.C. marks a long awaited change in attitudes towards the equal rights and protection of gay, lesbian and transgender people. US thinking opposing civil rights and marriage between same sex couples has been viewed as archaic by modern thinkers throughout the world. Certainly, discrimination is not a position to be expected from the leader of the free world.

Good news is not always great news. First, even though the Washington D.C. city council has passed the gay marriage proposal, celebration is far too early. There is a huge hurdle to be jumped before the measure can become law. More on that below.

Here is the second part of the not so great news. The controversial decision could cause a division in the Democratic legislature that President Obama is depending upon for reform. Some Democrats in the know were privately unhappy with wildly unrealistic expectations the Obama administration could quickly dispatch years of bungling by George Bush and his cronies. Lasting solutions to serious problems requires well reasoned and time consuming thought.

Republican and Democrats are mindful the honeymoon is over for Obama. As Americans face the worst economic conditions in generations, the U.S. populous is quick to blame the Democratic congress that can't bring about a quick fix. This is an opportune time for Republican strategists to divide the house they oppose.

What the press reports have hidden in the mumble jumble between the lines is, the Gay Marriage law does not go into effect until the US Congress says it goes into effect. That is an imense hurdle if Republicans want it to be. In the past, when forward thinking city councils in various states passed similar laws the US Congress mostly stayed out of the fray. Those who despised the scattered laws allowing marriage between men were left with three options: Attack through the state court legislature, throw themselves upon the mercy of a conservative court, or pout. Sadly, Conservatives love to pout.

Unfortunately, Washington D.C. is not a state. The governing body with final authority over laws in our nation's capitol is the U.S. Congress. Even though the measure passed with only one dissenting vote, the US legislature must tip its hat or gay people stay single.

Enter the dividing issue. Republicans have been looking for cracks in Democratic unity for some time. Not all Democrats have the blessing of their constituency on the topic of freedom for homosexuals. This is a Republican strategists dream. Today's united Democratic party may watch their ranks scatter as if struck by a lightening bolt. Perhaps some run to the fight, others run from it and the rest just plain duck.

The battle to let consenting people choose the form of family unity that works best for themselves has always been bloody. For some reason it is hard to gather a majority that remains a majority when it comes to sexual orientation.

Good things come from bad. With support for the Obama administration slacking, Millions of oppressed people, including undocumented workers as well as gays and lesbians, have been watching their chances for fair legislation slip away. You can't win the battle until the nation's law makers put it to a vote, and the line at the back of the bus is long.

The unintended consequence of a brave D.C. city counsel is to bring the waiting for the gay, lesbian and transgender community to a halt. No one likes a fight, but so long as the Republican party allows itself to be hijacked by a conservative minority, a fight is what must pass. That being the case, it is better to pick the battle when one's odds of losing are the least. I say, bring it on!

Tim Paynter is a Denver attorney and advocate of civil rights for all who suffer oppression in the US, including undocumented workers, the gay, lesbian and transgender community, and the poor.

Colorado drivers license ponint system 1 pt is too many

"It is the first point that costs you your license, not the last"

How many times have I had a client in traffic court who was losing his license because he accumulated too many points against his license? In Colorado we use a point system and when you get to many, then you don't get to drive! My client usually says something like this:

"If only I didn't get that last ticket."

My response?


"You are not losing your license because of your last ticket. You are losing it because of the first one.."?



"Huh?" is usually the response.?



It isn't that you are getting tickets I explain. They will shoot me for saying it, but in Denver Colorado, really in many places in Colorado, traffic tickets are big business. If you put on 30,000 miles a year, sooner or later you are likely to end up with red lights behind your people mover.?



If that is the case, why is the first ticket the problem, not the last? One does not run out of points until the last ticket!?



That is when we turn to my client's history. I have never been wrong on this one. Within the driving history of every driver facing suspension for minor traffic violations is that one or two times my client went to court without an attorney. In the alternative, the ticket gave him the option to just pay it and take the points. It is that one or two points that is costing him the license. But for that, he would not be out of points!?



Can an attorney get you a better deal with the D.A. than you can on your own? The answer to that question depends. If you think your attorney is going to walk into court and get a favor from the judge or D.A. you are mistaken. But an attorney can have special pull. How??



When your attorney listens to your case, examines the law, he may be able to find a defense you over looked. For example, I had a client who got a ticket for speeding through a school zone. The client could afford the points and it would have been convenient to take a fast plea. However, my client insisted he could not see the sign. This was a matter of principal.?



I went out to the scene. Sure enough, there was a nasty tree branch which covered the school zone sign. My client knew he could not see the sign but he did not think about the tree defense. ?


Who would believe a sign was built behind a tree? It wasn't, but when the tree was in full bloom the sign was difficult to see. A simple set of photos taken from the angle of the driver solved the problem. The case was dismissed.?



You may want to think twice about keeping the few hundred bucks in your pocket instead of hiring an attorney if you get a traffic ticket. It will keep your insurance rates down. ?


However, there is another important reason to do so. Driver's who lose their license often drive anyway. They can't get insurance. It is in everyone's best interest to have insured drivers on the road. Defending my clients has benefits to everyone!?


Tim Paynter is an attorney practicing in Denver Colorado. He is a staunch supporter of civil rights, immigration reform, and advocating for the poor and oppressed. You can contact Tim Paynter at 720 951 1700.

It is only 2 poionts, why should I hire an attorney? The first ticket is the one that breaks the camels back

How many times have I had a client in traffic court who was losing his license because he accumulated too many points against his license?  In Colorado we use a point system and when you get to many, then you don't get to drive!  My client usually says something like this:

"If only I didn't get that last ticket."

My response?

"You are not losing your license because of your last ticket.  You are losing it because of the first one.."

"Huh?" is usually the response. 

It isn't that you are getting tickets I explain.  They will shoot me for saying it, but in Denver Colorado, really in many places in Colorado, traffic tickets are big business.  If you put on 30,000 miles a year, sooner or later you are likely to end up with red lights behind your people mover.  If that is the case, wh is the first ticket the problem, not the last?  One does not run out of points until the last ticket!

That is when we turn to my client's history.  I have never been wrong on this one.  Within the driving history of every driver facing suspension for minor traffic violations is that one or two times my client went to court without an attorney.  In the alternative, the ticket gave him the option to just pay it and take the points.  It is that one or two points that is costing him the license.  But for that, he would not be out of points!

Can an attorney get you a better deal with the D.A. than you can on your own?  The answer to that question depends. If you think your attorney is going to walk into court and get a favor from the judge or D.A. you are mistaken.  But an attorney can have special pull. How?

When your attorney listens to your case, examines the law, he may be able to find a defense you over looked.  For example, I had a client who got a ticket for speeding through a school zone.  The client could afford the points and it would have been convenient to take a fast plea.  However, my client insisted he could not see the sign.  This was a matter of principal. 

I went out to the scene.  Sure enough, there was a nasty tree branch which covered the school zone sign.  My client knew he could not see the sign but he did not think about the tree defense.  Who would believe a sign was built behind a tree?  It wasn't, but when the tree was in full bloom the sign was difficult to see.  A simple set of photos taken from the angle of the driver solved the problem.  The case was dismissed.

You may want to think twice about keeping the few hundred bucks in your pocket instead of hiring an attorney if you get a traffic ticket.  It will keep your insurance rates down.  However, there is another important reason to do so.  Driver's who lose their license often drive anyway.  They can't get insurance.  It is in everyone's best insterest to have insured drivers on the road.  Defending my clients has benefits to everyone!

 

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Do you have to do the walk? DUI?

I recently had the pleasure of being pulled over by the Colorado State Patrol. I was distraught over news about Eduardo Salazar Rivera, the 11 year old in Mexico who is fighting for his life. He has a rare childhood disease called HLH Syndrome and I was distraught over the struggle he was fighting together with his mother and father who are dear friends of mine.

When the officer saw my puffy red eyes he was shootin sure I was driving with more than my emotions. He could not detect an ‘odor of alcohol’ about my presence. I never drink and drive so I had that going on my side. I take medication and I could see the trooper working that angle. After I wrote the names of the medications for him I could see him on the radio in my rear view mirror checking to see if they were the kind that would cause puffy red eyes when abused.

He came up empty on that one. The meds I am on don’t cause that kind of reaction. The next line of questioning was what else had I put in my peace pipe that would make me like I was. I did’t have an answer for him yet he kept pushing me for an answer. There was no answer. It was one of those tough nights some of us have when tragic situations befall us.

After thinking about for a fair amount of time he finally popped the question.

2a
“So do you think you can pass the roadside test for me?”

I am not sure what came over me but I knew I was in a heap of trouble by then and would soon be wearing silver bracelets.

“No one passes the roadside test!” I responded.


He did’t like my answer one bit, but he knew the tables had finally been turned.

“That is not true! He responded. I do a lot of roadside tests.

I could clearly see we both knew I was not going to pass the roadside test.

“I know”, I said. “I am an attorney.” The trooper gave up.

“Fine. I hope I don’t have to pack you up in a body bag down the highway.”

I don’t fault the officer for anything he did. He takes a lot of dangerous drivers off of the road and that is why some of us are alive today. What the officer did not know is I had already made up my mind what I was going to say if he asked me to take the test.

“I would rather not.” would have been my answer. Whereupon I would have been arrested and taken to the station for further examination. Why had I made the decision?

In Colorado, you grant the State express consent to examine your person upon loss of your license. The burden then transfers. You must prove you were not under the influence of an intoxicating substance rather than the State proving you were.

You can’t lose for winning sometimes.

Defense attorneys believe every person has the right to the presumption of innocence. You don’t have to self incriminate if you don’t want to. In Colorado you give up some of those rights as a condition of being granted a driver’s license. One right you still have, however, is to refrain from doing the walk, at least in Colorado.

So here it is. If you are asked to take a roadside test that is another way of saying you are getting a free ride in a State Patrol car. Let’s hope it is one of those souped up jobs many of us have been dying to get a ride in. You might as well have a few minutes of fun before they lock you up. In almost every case, you are going for the ride whether or not you do the roadside test. Since they can’t penalize you for not taking the roadside test you might as well pass.

If you make any protests abut the next tests, either a drug or urine tests, then you have violated your obligations under your license and you will be paying an attorney a lot of money. So if you elect not to take the road block do nothing to delay the transport process or that may be construed as a refusal to take the blood or urine test!

If you are drinking and driving get help before the red lights come on behind you. Alcoholism is an illness and alcohol is just a symptom of far more drastic problems. Try AA out, as many people have had wonderful success with the fellowship of people who have learned to live!

Getting the Word Out Technorati

Talking to the wall does nothing for any of us. W69XZD5EXD3B I am not sure my advice is the best advice, no one can say that. However, the secret to getting the word out is knowing how to use internet resources. For a guy who is over 50, that can be difficult.

The problem is, when I went to law school none of this existed. It has been created in the past several years. So you have an old fart like me trying to learn new things, and it is like a very large square peg trying to fit into a tiny round hole. It just does not work.

Take Technorati. I am still not sure what the heck it does. Everyone says you need to use it. Syndication is what it used to be. Now, nearly everyone can be syndicated, maybe not so hot because of the competition. However, syndication through the net is disseminanation of information the millions of people who would not otherwise have the chance to read your stuff. It cuts both ways.

From my point of view we are lucky to have common use of the net. I can't imagine where we will be in 50 years, what new technology will pop up, what new societies will be created. If I do my part there will be something to pass on!

Is She Cheating? How to find out cheap!

GPS Trackers Watch Your Spouse, Your Kids and You!

Where is your wife tonight? How about your son? If you really want to know, there is an easy and inexpensive solution: A GPS auto or student tracker!

In the old days, following crooks by using tracking devices was high tech stuff. Today, you can easily figure out where Sue or Johnny went by putting a spy tracker in their vehicle or on their person!

There are three kinds of tracking devices. They are known in the industry as data loggers, data pullers and data pushers. Carefully choosing the right device is critical in order to get the information you want.

Data loggers are passive devices. They are like a Tom Tom with a travel memory. You attach the unit in a hidden place, usually it is attached to the trackee or his mode of transportation.

Now, bite your fingers until the vehicle comes back. You won't get any information about where your cheating spouse went until you plug the unit into your computer. This kind of GPS Tracker does not give you constant time readings.

The units are fairly inexpensive and cost nothing to run. The unit gets it's information from a free satelite beam. You get the whole travel history when the unit comes in. You can even follow the history on Google Maps, Google Earth or Mapquest if you get the right one.

This type system would be ineffective in watching an alzheimers patient or keeping tabs on a child at risk. If the child was kidnapped, you could not get location information until the unit was returned. Considering many kidnappers kill their victims to avoid detection, getting the tracking unit back would be of no help.

A Data Pusher GPS system sends units ot a central control. The central server, or control, then passes the information along to you. Users can get real time tracking this way. You can actually follow your suspect on Google as they make their way to their accomplices house or the grocery store. The problem with this kind of unit is it uses more battery power so must be replaced more often. Power consumption is reduced in some units by shutting off when they do not sense the vibration of vehicle movement. The units are reasonably priced.

Finally, Data pullers extract locaiton data from the unit on command. They use less energy because the unit can stay dormant until it gets a ping from home base. These units have two way communications. The unit provides location information to the central control, and central control tells the unit when it is time to go to bed. These units are failry expensive and beyond the range of most private detectives, much less the average spouse spy.

Before you stick a tracking device on Johnny’s corvette, or put one on your buddy's motorcycle, you might want to consider the legal issues in unauthorized vehicle tracking. There is an infrigement on privacy issue here.

So far the law has been supportive of vehicle tracking for law enforcement if the device is put on the vehicle while on the street. The court is hostile to putting a tracker on while it is on private property or parked in the garage. In any case, law enforcement is wise to get a warrant or risk the chance the evidence will be thrown out of court on the theory of the ‘poison pill’.

What about you and me? Whether or not you are breaking the law by placing a tracking device on a vehicle is not known for sure. There are lots of issues to cloud the water. Is the other person a minor whom you are responsible for? How about your wife? What about your buddys wife?

The answers are not clear yet. One thing is for sure, you don’t want to be the cat they use to define the law. In short, it is recomended to use this kind of technology carefully. Be sure to obtain advise from your attorney about the risks.

Wrongful use of gps trackers may have civil and criminal consequences. Having to defend a law suit in civil court is expensive. Defending a criminal charge could be worse since the consequences of losing your case in criminal court could mean jail. In either case, civil or criminal, you would probably be pretty unhappy if all you found out from your intruding gps person tracker was you wife spent lots of time a K-mart?

Tim Paynter is an Colorado attorney, civil rights activist and a defender of the oppressed. He handles traffic matters, zoning issues, real estate matters to name a few.