Colorado
State AG sues deputy, saying he illegally shared information with immigration agents
DENVER (AP) — Colorado’s Democratic attorney general on Tuesday sued a sheriff’s deputy for allegedly helping federal immigration agents find and arrest a college student who had an expired visa.
Attorney General Phil Weiser also disclosed that his office is investigating whether other law enforcement officers on a regional drug task force the deputy worked on have been sharing information to help federal agents make immigration arrests in violation of state law limiting cooperation in immigration enforcement. The federal government has sued Colorado over such laws.
On June 5, Mesa County Deputy Alexander Zwinck allegedly shared the driver’s license, vehicle registration and insurance information of the 19-year-old nursing student in a Signal chat used by task force members, according to the lawsuit. The task force includes officers who work for federal Homeland Security Investigations, which can enforce immigration laws, the lawsuit said.
After federal immigration officers told him in the chat that the student did not have a criminal history but had an expired visa, Zwinck allegedly provided them with their location and told her to wait with him in his patrol car for about five minutes, asking about her accent and where she was born. He let her go with a warning and gave federal agents a description of her vehicle and told her which direction she was headed so they could arrest her, the lawsuit said.
When Zwinck was told of the arrest, the lawsuit said he congratulated the federal agents, saying “rgr, nice work.” The following day, one federal immigration agent praised Zwinck’s work in the chat, saying he should be named “interdictor of the year” for the removal division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Zwinck is also accused of violating the law again on June 10 by providing immigration officers with the photo of the license of another driver who had overstayed his visa, information about the person’s vehicle and directions to help them arrest the driver. After being told that immigration officers “would want him”, Zwinck replied that “We better get some bitchin (sic) Christmas baskets from you guys”, the lawsuit said.
The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the lawsuit. Spokesperson Molly Casey said the office is about a week away from finishing its internal investigation into the student’s traffic stop and plans to issue a statement after it is finished.
A working telephone number could not be found for Zwinck, who was placed on paid leave during the sheriff’s office’s investigation. Casey declined to provide the name of an attorney who might be able to speak on his behalf.
The sheriff’s office previously announced that all its employees have been removed from the Signal group chat.
Weiser said he was acting under a new state law that bars employees of local governments from sharing identifying information about people with federal immigration officials, a recent expansion of state laws limiting cooperation in immigration cases. Previously, the ban on sharing personal identifying information only applied to state agencies, but state lawmakers voted to expand that to local government agencies earlier this year.
“One of our goals in enforcing this law is to make clear that this law is not optional. This is a requirement and it’s one that we take seriously,” he said.
The law allows violators to be fined but Weiser’s lawsuit only seeks a judge’s order declaring that Zwinck’s actions violated the law and barring him from such actions in the future.
Florida
Woman who killed baby in 1986 sentenced to probation in cold case DNA probe
A woman who killed her infant son in 1986 in Connecticut and went on to live a seemingly quiet, normal life with her family in Florida for three decades was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation.
Janita Phillips, 65, of Lake Mary, Florida, was charged with murder in 2021, after police said new DNA testing linked her to the crime. She pleaded guilty to a lesser manslaughter charge in April.
The probation sentence was unusual in a child homicide case, but warranted because a peer-reviewed psychological assessment concluded Phillips experienced “extreme emotional distress” at the time of the killing, both the prosecutor and defense lawyer said. Judge Gary White in Stamford, Connecticut, called it a case deserving mercy.
When Phillips killed the infant, she and her husband had just moved into an apartment in Greenwich, Connecticut, with their eldest child after being homeless and her husband had told her he didn’t want another baby, her lawyer, Stephen DeLeo, said. The couple, who remain together and have been married for 42 years, were stressed about money and their ability to feed their family, DeLeo said.
Phillips told police she hid the pregnancy from her husband and other relatives, an arrest warrant said. Police said her husband did not know about the baby’s death and had no involvement.
Phillips and her husband have three children who are now adults. One of their sons is disabled and resides at an assistant living facility, while her husband has medical problems and she takes care of him, DeLeo said in an interview.
“Incarcerating her would serve no purpose at this time,” DeLeo said, adding that this case was Phillips’ only brush with the law in her life. He also said she lost her insurance industry job because of the case.
Phillips cried during the sentencing hearing and said she had a “deep sense of regret.” She also said she took full responsibility, DeLeo said. Under her sentence, if she violates probation she could face up to 20 years in prison.
The newborn child, named Baby John by police, was found dead in a garbage truck on May 16, 1986, after workers had emptied a dumpster at the apartment building in Greenwich where Phillips lived, authorities said. The chief medical examiner’s office determined the baby was strangled shortly after being born and ruled his death a homicide.
Phillips and her family moved to Florida shortly after the baby’s death, police said.
Greenwich police said they used newly available DNA testing in 2020 that linked evidence found at the crime scene to the boy’s mother. Police took items out of the trash and recycling at Phillips’ Florida home in 2020. DNA testing showed Phillips and her husband were the parents of the infant, authorities said.
State AG sues deputy, saying he illegally shared information with immigration agents
DENVER (AP) — Colorado’s Democratic attorney general on Tuesday sued a sheriff’s deputy for allegedly helping federal immigration agents find and arrest a college student who had an expired visa.
Attorney General Phil Weiser also disclosed that his office is investigating whether other law enforcement officers on a regional drug task force the deputy worked on have been sharing information to help federal agents make immigration arrests in violation of state law limiting cooperation in immigration enforcement. The federal government has sued Colorado over such laws.
On June 5, Mesa County Deputy Alexander Zwinck allegedly shared the driver’s license, vehicle registration and insurance information of the 19-year-old nursing student in a Signal chat used by task force members, according to the lawsuit. The task force includes officers who work for federal Homeland Security Investigations, which can enforce immigration laws, the lawsuit said.
After federal immigration officers told him in the chat that the student did not have a criminal history but had an expired visa, Zwinck allegedly provided them with their location and told her to wait with him in his patrol car for about five minutes, asking about her accent and where she was born. He let her go with a warning and gave federal agents a description of her vehicle and told her which direction she was headed so they could arrest her, the lawsuit said.
When Zwinck was told of the arrest, the lawsuit said he congratulated the federal agents, saying “rgr, nice work.” The following day, one federal immigration agent praised Zwinck’s work in the chat, saying he should be named “interdictor of the year” for the removal division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Zwinck is also accused of violating the law again on June 10 by providing immigration officers with the photo of the license of another driver who had overstayed his visa, information about the person’s vehicle and directions to help them arrest the driver. After being told that immigration officers “would want him”, Zwinck replied that “We better get some bitchin (sic) Christmas baskets from you guys”, the lawsuit said.
The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the lawsuit. Spokesperson Molly Casey said the office is about a week away from finishing its internal investigation into the student’s traffic stop and plans to issue a statement after it is finished.
A working telephone number could not be found for Zwinck, who was placed on paid leave during the sheriff’s office’s investigation. Casey declined to provide the name of an attorney who might be able to speak on his behalf.
The sheriff’s office previously announced that all its employees have been removed from the Signal group chat.
Weiser said he was acting under a new state law that bars employees of local governments from sharing identifying information about people with federal immigration officials, a recent expansion of state laws limiting cooperation in immigration cases. Previously, the ban on sharing personal identifying information only applied to state agencies, but state lawmakers voted to expand that to local government agencies earlier this year.
“One of our goals in enforcing this law is to make clear that this law is not optional. This is a requirement and it’s one that we take seriously,” he said.
The law allows violators to be fined but Weiser’s lawsuit only seeks a judge’s order declaring that Zwinck’s actions violated the law and barring him from such actions in the future.
Florida
Woman who killed baby in 1986 sentenced to probation in cold case DNA probe
A woman who killed her infant son in 1986 in Connecticut and went on to live a seemingly quiet, normal life with her family in Florida for three decades was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation.
Janita Phillips, 65, of Lake Mary, Florida, was charged with murder in 2021, after police said new DNA testing linked her to the crime. She pleaded guilty to a lesser manslaughter charge in April.
The probation sentence was unusual in a child homicide case, but warranted because a peer-reviewed psychological assessment concluded Phillips experienced “extreme emotional distress” at the time of the killing, both the prosecutor and defense lawyer said. Judge Gary White in Stamford, Connecticut, called it a case deserving mercy.
When Phillips killed the infant, she and her husband had just moved into an apartment in Greenwich, Connecticut, with their eldest child after being homeless and her husband had told her he didn’t want another baby, her lawyer, Stephen DeLeo, said. The couple, who remain together and have been married for 42 years, were stressed about money and their ability to feed their family, DeLeo said.
Phillips told police she hid the pregnancy from her husband and other relatives, an arrest warrant said. Police said her husband did not know about the baby’s death and had no involvement.
Phillips and her husband have three children who are now adults. One of their sons is disabled and resides at an assistant living facility, while her husband has medical problems and she takes care of him, DeLeo said in an interview.
“Incarcerating her would serve no purpose at this time,” DeLeo said, adding that this case was Phillips’ only brush with the law in her life. He also said she lost her insurance industry job because of the case.
Phillips cried during the sentencing hearing and said she had a “deep sense of regret.” She also said she took full responsibility, DeLeo said. Under her sentence, if she violates probation she could face up to 20 years in prison.
The newborn child, named Baby John by police, was found dead in a garbage truck on May 16, 1986, after workers had emptied a dumpster at the apartment building in Greenwich where Phillips lived, authorities said. The chief medical examiner’s office determined the baby was strangled shortly after being born and ruled his death a homicide.
Phillips and her family moved to Florida shortly after the baby’s death, police said.
Greenwich police said they used newly available DNA testing in 2020 that linked evidence found at the crime scene to the boy’s mother. Police took items out of the trash and recycling at Phillips’ Florida home in 2020. DNA testing showed Phillips and her husband were the parents of the infant, authorities said.
