Montgomery County released an accused child molester on bail despite a federal detainer request issued by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to multiple reports.
On Nov. 5, ICE agents issued a detainer request to the Montgomery County Detention Center for Luis Fredy Hernadez-Morales, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, according to Daily Caller.
However, according to ICE, instead of honoring the request, Hernandez-Morales was released on bond, back into the community by local authorities on Nov. 6. WJLA reported that Hernandez-Morales had gotten the necessary payment to post bail within a few hours and was let go.
According to WJLA, ICE had only received a 15-minute heads-up before Hernandez-Morales was released.
WJLA reported that the authorities contacted ICE at 6 p.m. about the plans for Hernandez-Morales’s release. As agents rushed to get people to the detention center to take Hernandez-Morales into ICE custody, the authorities contacted ICE with an update at 6:15 p.m. telling them that Hernandez-Morales was gone.
“You need to give us a fair chance to get down there, and I assure you, we’re going to do everything we can to respond to a facility whether it’s in Hagerstown, Rockville, or Ocean city,” said Frank Madrigal, the acting director of ICE’s Baltimore Field Office, which is responsible for Maryland.
According to Daily Caller, Hernandez-Morales was detained on Oct. 29 for allegedly sexually abuse of a minor. WJLA reported that he had molested his 11-year-old granddaughter several times when he was staying at a home in Hillandale, Silver Springs. It was reported that Hernandez-Morales was also accused of trying to show the young family member “kissing videos,” which she did not partake in, according to WJLA.
“Hernandez-Morales has told [the victim] not to tell her mother or grandmother what he has done,” according to court documents written by authorities.
ICE agents had sent people to locate and detain Hernandez-Morales after he was released on Nov. 6, and agents managed to get him back into custody on Nov. 8.
Madrigal also pointed out that in addition to both time and effort put in by law enforcement, extra taxpayer dollars were also spent on apprehending and detaining Hernandez-Morales.
“There was a lot of work that seemed to happen on the ground with Montgomery County law enforcement and Fairfax County law enforcement getting this individual arrested, brought across the Potomac River to go to trial. Now we’re kind of seeing that be squandered…it raises some real concerns about how serious Montgomery County is about public safety,” Madrigal said, according to WJLA.
“This isn’t a game. This is serious to us. We want to be able to do things in a more controlled, organized way. What we’re asking for really isn’t complicated,” Madrigal said.
