Las Vegas jurist sets low bail for defendants he says were stopped for 'driving while Hispanic'
A Las Vegas justice of the peace raised eyebrows when he set low bail for two accused drug mules, saying they seem to have been stopped for racial reasons, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Wednesday. One has since fled.
Eric Goodman, a justice of the peace for the Las Vegas Township, set bail for Jezer Sal Garcia-Anzar at $40,000 and Kevin Allan Perez-Fabela at $30,000, far below the $750,000 each that prosecutors had asked for. Asked to reconsider yesterday, Goodman told Chief Deputy District Attorney Tina Talim that “it is not illegal to drive when the defendant is Hispanic.”
Garcia-Anzar and Perez-Fabela are accused of carrying $1 million worth of heroin during the Sept. 29 traffic stop at which they were arrested. Both men posted bail over the past weekend, allowing them to leave prison before a grand jury handed down a seven-count indictment for unspecified drug trafficking charges.
After the indictment, Chief Judge David Barker of Clark County Eighth Judicial District Court handed down new bail: $300,000 for Perez-Fabela and $500,000 for Garcia-Anzar, the driver. Garcia-Anzar wasn’t present, however; he is missing, with a warrant out for his arrest. Perez-Fabela was taken into custody.
The men were stopped north of Las Vegas on Interstate 15 at 9:30 p.m., after law enforcement noticed they were driving roughly 10 mph below the speed limit. The arrest report said this was impeding traffic. It also noted that their car had a bicycle rack attached to the back with no bicycle, although the Review-Journal said:“it’s unclear why the lack of a bicycle was considered suspicious.”
Both men showed California identification cards, and the officer issued a citation. But he stopped Garcia-Anzar as they began walking to the vehicle. Garcia-Anzar granted the officer permission to search the car and signed a written consent form. The search, which used a drug-sniffing dog, turned up nearly 19 pounds of heroin hidden in the floor of the car. Talim, the prosecutor, later told Barker that the men’s car had been spotted traveling back and forth across the Mexican border days before the arrest.
Sheets, the attorney for Perez-Fabela, says his client had a legitimate purpose for being in the vehicle and no way of knowing there was heroin hidden in it.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April that extending a traffic stop to conduct a “dog sniff” violates the Fourth Amendment unless police have a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. The Review-Journal noted the decision, Rodriguez v. United States, but said Goodman could not be reached about his reasoning.
Goodman is the son of current Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman and past mayor Oscar Goodman. Justice of the peace is also an elected position.
