ATHENS COUNTY, Ohio — Athens County Court of Common Pleas judge Patrick Lang issued decisions “in the interests of justice” today, Friday, Nov. 14, to dismiss criminal cases against two brothers who were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The cases were dismissed with prejudice, meaning Victor Laverde Laguna and Gregory Javier Laverde Laguna cannot be tried again by the state of Ohio for the same claim in the same court.
The brothers were arrested by Athens County law enforcement officers in a Sept. 24 sting operation that targeted an alleged extortion scheme. The brothers, via their defense attorneys, have maintained that they did not know they were participating in a criminal enterprise, and had simply responded to a Facebook ad to work as couriers.
In the Nov. 14 decisions for both brothers, Lang noted that both Gregory Laverde Laguna and Victor Laverde Laguna had objected to the dismissals due to “collateral consequences, namely the potential impact on his federal immigration status.”
Lang’s decision to dismiss Victor Laverde Laguna’s case noted “in regard to these charges, Victor Laguna remains an innocent man.” He used the same language in his decision in Gregory Laverde Laguna’s case: “in regard to these charges, Gregory Laguna remains an innocent man.”
Victor Laverde Laguna and Gregory Laverde Laguna are dual citizens of Colombia and Venezuela, and are in the United States legally, seeking asylum.
They both have immigration court hearings in Cleveland Tuesday, Nov. 18, according to online records available via the U.S. Department of Justice.
Local officials handed the brothers over to ICE from Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail Oct. 29, despite the fact that the brothers were being held on bond by court order.
Victor Laverde Laguna and Gregory Laverde Laguna are being detained at the Butler County Correctional Complex, according to ICE records.
They were brought back to Athens for a status conference Nov. 12, when the court heard the Athens County Prosecutor’s Office original motions to dismiss the charges with prejudice, which Lang has now granted.
At the Nov. 12 status conference, Lang said that in order to dismiss the charges with prejudice, there would need to be evidence indicating that the brothers’ statutory or constitutional rights would be compromised by further prosecution.
Defense attorneys argued that the brothers’ rights would indeed be compromised by dismissals without prejudice, and that any dismissals that did not clearly exonerate the brothers would leave their asylum cases in jeopardy.
Defense attorneys asked the Athens County Prosecutor’s Office, represented at the status conference by Assistant Prosecutor Ashley Johnson, to specify that it was dismissing the cases because evidence had demonstrated that the brothers were innocent.
The language in the prosecutor’s original dismissal motions indicated that the office wanted the cases dismissed because they had been “referred to the FBI for further investigation.”
The prosecutor’s office did not honor defense attorneys’ requests to exonerate the brothers, nor did the office argue to the judge that the brothers’ rights would be compromised by further prosecution.
Instead, Johnson submitted amended motions to dismiss the cases without prejudice, leaving the door open to further prosecution.
Lang on Friday denied the amended motions and granted the motions as originally written.
“The Court having considered both motions finds that the first motion was correct,” Lang wrote in his decisions. “In the interests of justice, the Court denies the amendment made in open court, and grants the October 29 motion. All charges against the defendant are dismissed, with prejudice.”
Doug Francis, a public defender for Gregory Laverde Laguna, argued at the Nov. 12 status conference that the court could use its discretion to grant the dismissal with prejudice regardless of the prosecutor’s amended motion. Francis argued the court could use such discretion “in the interests of justice,” as established by case law regarding the Ohio Rules of Criminal Procedure.
“If the state doesn’t want to go forward, that’s fine, but they … should say why, and then the court can make the decision on whether that is appropriate for with prejudice or without prejudice,” Francis said at the Nov. 12 status conference.
Likewise, Scott Petroff, attorney for Victor Laverde Laguna, said at the Nov. 12 conference that case law establishes that the “court does have the authority to dismiss this case with prejudice over the objection of the prosecution if there’s a deprivation of defendants constitutional or statutory rights.”
Neither Francis nor Petroff were immediately available for comment.
Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn has not returned any of the Independent’s requests to comment on this developing story, made on multiple occasions by call and text from Nov. 3 to present.
Let us know what's happening in your neck of the woods!
Get in touch and share a story!
