Hearing for migrant riot cases at the El Paso County Courthouse
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- On Monday, a hearing was held to discuss allegations of improperly filing orders of certification and transfer in 59 migrant riot cases.
Hundreds of migrants were arrested and accused of cutting razor wire and rushing Texas National Guard members in March and April of this year. A judge dismissed the cases, but the El County District Attorney Bill Hicks later said his office would appeal the decision.
Monday's hearing happened at the County Court at Law 7 of Judge Ruben Morales.
Multiple members of the D.A.'s Office have testified about documents filed of the migrant riot cases.
Assistant District Attorneys Preston Munson, Jennifer Vandenbosch, and Deputy Chief Investigator Ignacio Fraustro have testified so far.
ABC-7 spoke with Chief Public Defender, Kelli Childress who is currently representing 141 migrants from the April riot case along the border wall.
"These particular 59 cases were dismissed after a hearing that was held on June 6th. At that hearing, I think the most persuasive evidence to the judge was the fact that the transfer order that was intended to transfer certain cases from the district court to the county court did not contain any identifying information as to which cases were to be transferred," Childress said.
After this hearing, Judge Ruben Morales issued 59 dismissal orders, saying he didn't have jurisdiction over the cases.
In a 550-page motion issued by Childress' office, Exhibit A didn't have an eight-page list of cases that were supposed to be transferred from the district court to the county court.
This motion was filed in the appellate court indicating the 59 case files had been altered.
"After the dismissal, I attempted to get together with the judge and the state and be sure that the court file was corrected before it went up to the appellate court; that did not happen," Childress added.
"After the matter was set for that hearing, the District Attorney's Office filed an emergency motion to prohibit Judge Morales from holding that hearing," Childress also mentioned.
ABC-7 tried to speak with one Assistant District Attorney after the hearing, and he directed us to the D.A.'s office. We also reached out to them, but have not heard back as of this time.
"My understanding is that all of the immigrants related to the 59 cases have been released, most of them have been released into the U.S to await their asylum hearings; I don't know if any have been, removed from the country at this point," Childress added.
