Man in ICE custody who was framed for writing letters threatening to kill Trump is granted bond
An undocumented man who faces deportation after he was framed because the creator of letters threatening to kill President Donald Trump was deemed not a hazard to the general public throughout a bond listening to Tuesday.
Ramón Morales Reyes, 54, was arrested on Might 22 in reference to handwritten letters despatched by mail to federal and Wisconsin officers threatening to shoot Trump, the Division of Homeland Safety mentioned final month.
Nonetheless, an investigation discovered Morales Reyes didn’t write them.
In keeping with court docket paperwork, the letters had been really despatched by Demetric D. Scott, 52, in an try to border Morales Reyes as a result of he was a possible witness in opposition to Scott in a theft case. Scott was questioned by authorities and confessed to writing the letters.
Scott was charged final week with felony witness intimidation, identification theft, and two counts of bail leaping in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, court docket.
Morales Reyes’ June 4 bond listening to was delayed after the confession got here to gentle.
At a bond listening to in Chicago immigration court docket on Tuesday, Choose Carla Espinoza set Morales Reyes’ bond at $7,500 after the court docket and Division of Homeland Safety had time to assessment the proof concerning the solid threatening letters.
The choose famous that although Morales Reyes had a number of arrests from 1996, he was solely convicted for disorderly conduct.
The DHS described Morales Reyes as an “unlawful alien” when he was taken into ICE custody. Final week a senior DHS official informed NBC Information Morales Reyes will stay in custody as a result of, “this particular person was decided to be within the nation illegally and that he had a felony file.”
He had entered the U.S. illegally at the least 9 occasions from 1998 to 2005, and had a felony file with arrests on prices of felony hit and run, felony harm to property and disorderly conduct with a home abuse modifier, the DHS mentioned.
Morales Reyes has been dwelling within the U.S. for practically 40 years and has three kids who’re U.S. residents, his legal professional, Cain Oulahan, beforehand informed NBC Information.
NBC Information has reached out Oulahan for touch upon the bond listening to.
Morales Reyes will obtain a brand new listening to discover as soon as he posts bond, and if he does not, his subsequent listening to is ready for July 10.