Previous Story
Judge orders continued detention of ex-convict in new criminal case
|
Posted on Oct 14 2011
By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter
Reporter
The federal court ordered yesterday the detention of an ex-convict who is facing a new criminal case for labor fraud conspiracy.
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona granted the U.S. government’s motion to detain Wei Lin and remanded him into the custody of the U.S. Marshal.
Lin’s counsel, Joseph Norita Camacho, did not oppose assistant U.S. attorney Beverly McCallum’s motion. He said that since Lin, a Chinese national, is unemployed and had been convicted in the first case, he has no immigration status.
With this lack of status, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has an immigration detainer on the defendant, Camacho added.
Camacho’s co-counsel, Michael Norita Evangelista, told Saipan Tribune that being detained on a criminal case allows a person to obtain credit for time served.
Being detained on an immigration detainer, on the other hand, does not allow him credit for time served as this is a civil case, Evangelista said.
“It was better for Lin to remain at the Department of Corrections under a criminal case, that is why we did not oppose the detention,” Evangelista said.
The new indictment charged Lin with one count of foreign labor contracting fraud conspiracy, five counts of foreign labor contracting fraud, one count of alien smuggling conspiracy-encouraging, five counts of alien smuggling-encouraging, one count of alien smuggling conspiracy-harboring, and five counts of alien smuggling-harboring.
Lin pleaded not guilty. The jury trial will be on Dec. 12, 2011.
The new indictment accused Lin of acting with others in recruiting five Chinese nationals from China to the CNMI for employment based on false promises.
The recruited Chinese nationals-four females and one male-were allegedly promised work visas after arriving on Saipan, salaries of over $1,000 per month, and employment as a waitress, cleaner, or taxi driver.
In Lin’s first case-driver’s license fraud-he was sentenced last week to six months in prison but was subsequently freed after being given credit for the time he had already served in jail.
