The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Immigration suit against sheriff settled for $100K

file photo Richard K. Jones

Parade to mark Memorial Day in Lebanon
6:01 p.m.
Lebanon updates law banning vicious dogs
5:59 p.m.
Emergency response team offers training
5:57 p.m.
4-H Club helps erect flag pole at Bentley Woods
5:55 p.m.
City honors life of Lebanon marshal
5:47 p.m.
> More headlines

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones stands next to a illegal aliens sign he had placed in the parking lot of the Butler County Sheriff's Department, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2005 in Hamilton, Ohio.

AP Photo Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones stands next to a illegal aliens sign he had placed in the parking lot of the Butler County Sheriff's Department, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2005 in Hamilton, Ohio.

Former Lebanon resident now living in Mexico

By Lauren Pack, Staff Writer Updated 7:28 AM Wednesday, April 21, 2010

CINCINNATI — An undocumented immigrant worker who sued Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones for violating his constitutional rights has been awarded $100,000 in a settlement agreement.

The settlement filed in U.S. District Court stems from the 2007 arrest of Luis Rodriguez, 44, formerly of Lebanon, when he and others were rounded by at a Port Union Road construction site by Butler County deputies and a former immigration specialist hired by Jones.

Officials said they were at the site to talk to a supervisor about undocumented workers, but Rodriguez and more than 20 others were interrogated and asked to provide identification, according to Rodriguez’s attorney, Al Gerhardstein, who posted the settlement Tuesday, April 20 on his firm’s website.

Gerhardstein said his client, who had lived in Butler County for 11 years, was arrested and charged with providing a false identification and deported to Mexico, though he was later acquitted of the charge.

Rodriguez sued Jones claiming that he was “seized” when he was taken to the construction trailer at the work site for interrogation in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

“There has to be probable cause for seizure by law enforcement, whether the person is a citizen or not,” Gerhardstein said Tuesday. “That didn’t happen in this case when they removed my client from where he wanted to be and took him to a place he did not want to be for interrogation.”

In addition, Gerhardstein argued that Jones did not have power to enforce the federal civil immigration law. The case was pending on motions for summary judgment and only weeks away from trial when the county agreed to pay $100,000 in settlement of the claims, Gerhardstein said.

“I certainly was prepared to go to trial,” he said. But he said there had been ongoing negotiations on a settlement for weeks.

Jones could not be reached for comment late Tuesday afternoon.

Jones’ attorneys had argued investigators did not violate the law when they conducted a work site visit on Jan. 2, 2007, according to court documents. They stated it is clearly established that local law enforcement may conduct activities relating to the enforcement of federal law.

“Further, questioning of plaintiff and the other workers was a consensual encounter for which there was no Fourth Amendment seizure. The subsequent arrest of plaintiff on state law forgery charges was lawful as evidenced by plaintiff’s indictment as well as the fact that there was no lawful purpose to have fraudulent identification documents,” according to a motion filed by Jones’ attorneys, Steven LeForge, Andrew Yosowitz and Marianne Pressman. “Plaintiff has produced no evidence that any defendant acted with a discriminatory purpose or motive. The evidence is clear that all workers from (construction site) were called to the trailer and showed identification, not merely the Hispanic workers.”

Jones’ attorney also said Rodriguez did not fight removal from the United States because he was in the country illegally. He agreed to voluntarily depart and left in August 2008, they said.

“By living in the United States illegally, plaintiff assumed the risk that removal proceedings could be filed against him. He had no reasonable expectation that his presence here would somehow become legal or that he was entitled to continue residing in the United States,” Jones’ attorneys stated in court filings.

Rodriguez, who Gerhardstein said is living in poverty in Mexico, wanted enough money to buy a truck and make a living. He was removed from the U.S. and his wife and two children went with him. They had lived in southern Ohio for 11 years working, paying taxes and attending a local Christian church, Gerhardstein said.

“These cases are an effort to hold law enforcement accountable,” Gerhardstein said. “There are consequences to overstepping their authority.”

Gerhardstein said it is often people law enforcement don’t “like” that can be subject to constitutional right violations.

“And they don’t like undocumented workers,” he said.

Rodriguez is a “very gracious man. He is religious and his faith has carried him through this,” Gerhardstein said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2168 or lpack@coxohio.com.

Share this article