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Comments on Current Events In Criminal Law
January 14, 2008
EMPLOYER ARRESTED FOR HARBORING ILLEGAL ALIEN ACCUSED OF CAPITAL MURDER OF HPD OFFICER
(HOUSTON, Texas) – The employer of an illegal alien charged with capital murder in connection with the shooting death of Houston Police Department (HPD) Officer Rodney Johnson has been arrested and charged with harboring an illegal alien, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle and Special Agent in Charge Robert Rutt, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Investigations, announced today.
Robert Lane Camp, 47, the owner of Camp Landscaping, Deer Park, Texas, was charged by criminal complaint with encouraging Juan Leonardo Quintero-Perez, the accused killer of HPD Officer Rodney Johnson, to unlawfully enter the U.S. and with harboring Quintero. The complaint was filed Monday, Jan. 7, 2008. Camp was arrested this morning upon surrendering to federal authorities at the U.S. Marshals Service. He is expected to make his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Wm. Smith at 2:00 p.m. today.
According to court documents, Quintero was charged with the state felony offense of Indecency with a Child in 1998. Quintero identified Camp as his employer when he was arrested. Camp posted a $10,000 bond on Quintero’s behalf to effect his release from state custody. Following his conviction for the state offense and the imposition of a probationary sentence, Quintero was deported from the United States by federal authorities, but illegally returned to the country in 1999. Camp is accused by a federal criminal complaint of aiding Quintero to illegally return to the country in 1999 and providing Quintero with a job and a residence to lease upon Quintero’s illegal return.
The criminal complaint against Camp alleges that in September 2006 Quintero was pulled over by HPD Officer Johnson while Quintero was driving one of Camp’s work vehicles. Quintero was subsequently arrested for failing to provide a driver’s license, handcuffed and placed into the HPD patrol car. State prosecutors have alleged that Quintero shot Johnson from the back seat of the patrol car with a gun he had hidden on his person, causing Officer Johnson’s death.Quintero, charged with the capital murder of Officer Johnson in September 2006, is presently in state custody pending trial. He faces the death penalty if convicted.
“This prosecution demonstrates the consequences a U.S. citizen faces when he or she decides to harbor or assist an undocumented alien to enter the United States and to employ that alien unlawfully,” said U.S. Attorney DeGabrielle. “The shooting of HPD Officer Johnson was a tragic incident that could have been avoided.”
“Officer Rodney Johnson’s terrible murder illustrates that hiring and harboring of illegal aliens is not a victimless crime,” said Robert Rutt, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Houston. “Many illegal aliens, especially aliens with criminal convictions, are desperate to avoid being detected and apprehended. These people also tend to take desperate actions, and the results are often tragic.”
Each of the two federal felony offenses alleged in the complaint carry a statutory maximum punishment of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine upon conviction
This case was investigated by special agents of the United States Bureau of ICE and officers of the HPD. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jay Hileman.
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