{"id":4863,"date":"2023-08-10T16:56:47","date_gmt":"2023-08-10T16:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4863"},"modified":"2023-08-10T17:01:25","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T17:01:25","slug":"alan-hernandez-meraz-non-charged-river-hills-suspect-has-ice-hold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4863","title":{"rendered":"Alan Hernandez-Meraz: Non-Charged River Hills Suspect Has ICE Hold"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/alan-hernandez-meraz-non-charged-river-hills-suspect-has-ice-hold\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"alan<\/p>\n

Alan Hernandez-Meraz, the suspect in the River Hills car theft\/burglary case that Milwaukee County DA John Chisholm\u2019s office refused to charge,<\/a> is currently in the Waukesha County Jail on an immigration hold from ICE, Wisconsin Right Now has exclusively learned.<\/p>\n

After we learned that Hernandez-Meraz had a pending Waukesha County court case for cocaine and marijuana possession, WRN confirmed that Hernandez-Meraz is in the Waukesha County Jail through jail records.<\/a> We then contacted Waukesha County Sheriff Eric Severson; Severson confirmed to WRN that Hernandez-Meraz has an ICE immigration hold. Severson is not able to provide the reason, as the screening of inmates is done on ICE\u2019s end, but he confirmed the hold.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Severson has been a leader among sheriffs when it comes to immigration enforcement. The sheriff applied for and received legal status to screen inmates for immigration status in the Waukesha County Jail, a process called 287(g). It\u2019s a dramatic contrast to Milwaukee County, where the Sheriff\u2019s Department has refused to cooperate with ICE about inmates in its jail. Because of Severson\u2019s actions, were Lopez to post bail, ICE would keep him in custody.<\/p>\n

According to ICE, the U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 287(g) Program \u201cenhances the safety and security of communities by creating partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies to identify and remove non-citizens who are amenable to removal from the United States.<\/p>\n

We previously reported that River Hills police say<\/a> the Milwaukee County District Attorney\u2019s Office wouldn\u2019t charge Hernandez-Meraz, even after they allegedly caught him red-handed sleeping in a stolen vehicle with the keys in his pocket. He also had the vehicle owner\u2019s ID from a home burglary, police say.<\/p>\n

We placed an open records request with the Milwaukee County Jail, where he was initially booked (according to the River Hills police chief), for more details on his background via the arrest-detention report and a mugshot.<\/p>\n

There is an Alan Hernandez-Meraz who is wanted on a<\/a> July 27, 2023, warrant out of Racine on criminal charges from that county for almost the same thing: Burglary, theft, and taking an auto without owner\u2019s consent. He has the same birth year as the River Hills suspect, but a juxtaposed month\/day in CCAP (4\/9\/02 vs 9\/4\/02). The River Hills police chief told us they believe the Hernandez-Meraz wanted in Racine is the same person as the River Hills suspect.<\/p>\n

There is a person on Facebook with that name, also from Milwaukee, who has posted a picture<\/a> of guns. We are also trying to verify whether that is the same person; they look very similar.<\/p>\n

Alan Hernandez-Meraz, with the same DOB as the River Hills suspect (9\/4\/02), has an open case<\/a> out of Waukesha County for cocaine and marijuana possession. He was released on $1,500 cash bail in that case but didn\u2019t show up for court and a warrant was issued, and bail was increased. He required a Spanish interpreter at his initial appearance in March 2023. Another warrant was issued and then bail was reduced to $250 on July 27, 2023 (he won\u2019t be bailed out again, though, because of the ICE hold). There was a \u201creturn on warrant\u201d listed on August 2, 2023.<\/p>\n

River Hills Police Chief Milton Mrozak told WRN he gets the DA\u2019s office in Milwaukee County has caseload issues. However, he said the DA not prosecuting cases is \u201chappening more,\u201d and added, \u201cit gets frustrating for officers and staff. They\u2019re doing a job. They\u2019re doing their best, knowing that probably there will be nothing coming from it other than a no process.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, the day before, a man led a River Hills officer on a police pursuit. It lasted about a mile before the person pulled over. Chisholm\u2019s office wouldn\u2019t charge that case either, the chief said.<\/p>\n

Mrozak said investigating the stolen car situation took 24-48 hours and a lot of resources for a small department like River Hills.<\/p>\n

The River Hills\u2019 police statement comes on the heels of our reporting, starting in 2021, that Milwaukee County DA John Chisholm\u2019s office does not charge<\/a> about a large percentage of felonies (and a larger percentage of misdemeanors). Today, we reported on<\/a> the findings of a new Wisconsin Policy Forum report that reveals Chisholm\u2019s charging rate was even worse in 2022.<\/p>\n

River Hills police cited that report, commissioned in part by the Argosy Foundation, in their statement. \u201cA recent study from Wisconsin Policy Forum showed that only 39.7% of cases referred to the Milwaukee County DA\u2019s Office in 2022 were actually charged,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

In the recent car theft case, River Hills police wrote that, during the afternoon of July 22nd, \u201ca resident\u2019s home was burglarized. During the burglary numerous items were stolen and a vehicle was stolen out of the garage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early the next morning, \u201croughly 14 hours later, we were able to find the vehicle in Milwaukee. The vehicle was parked and in the driver\u2019s seat there was a subject sleeping. In his pocket were the vehicle\u2019s keys and a card belonging to the homeowner,\u201d police wrote. \u201cThroughout the car were numerous items taken from the car. And also in the vehicle were documents that were stolen in a previous burglary in Racine County.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case was presented to the Milwaukee County District Attorney\u2019s Office, according to police, \u201cand they refused to go forward with any charges. No charges of Burglary, Theft of Movable Property, Operating a Vehicle W\/O Owner\u2019s Consent, or even Possession of Stolen Property. A subject was in the stolen vehicle, surrounded by stolen items, with stolen property in his pocket and not even a Possession of Stolen Property charge.\u201d<\/p>\n

We would note that the Milwaukee DA is refusing to release the names of people he doesn\u2019t charge, denying our open records request for them in 2021. AG Josh Kaul\u2019s office refused to rule on our open records complaint against Chisholm.<\/p>\n

We filed an open records request with River Hills police for the police reports. We have also contacted the Milwaukee County DA\u2019s office for comment.<\/p>\n

The chief told us that he believes that even if it couldn\u2019t be proven that the suspect was the burglar, he doesn\u2019t see why a receiving stolen property charge couldn\u2019t be made. Although you\u2019d have to prove the suspect knew it was stolen, he believes the facts, if taken by an aggressive prosecutor to a jury, could result in conviction. He believes there was probable cause for a burglary charge, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, I think that bar can be reached,\u201d he said. \u201cHe had a person\u2019s ID card and key fob and stuff. I think a jury could look at this and say, \u2018This defense is crap.\u2019 It entails the prosecutor having to work to make the case go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chief said Alan Hernandez-Meraz invoked his right to stay silent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/alan-hernandez-meraz-non-charged-river-hills-suspect-has-ice-hold\/ Alan Hernandez-Meraz, the suspect in the River Hills car…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":4865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-right-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4863"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4866,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4863\/revisions\/4866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}