Bill Ritter’s use of an obscure plea-bargaining tool with immigrants accused of crimes is a vivid example of how an over-burdened judicial system tries to deal with thousands of cases and a broken immigration-enforcement system.
As Denver’s district attorney, Ritter approved plea bargains that prevented the possible deportation of immigrants charged with drug violations, assault and other crimes. In 152 cases, his office allowed defendants to plead guilty to trespassing on agricultural land instead of the crimes they actually were accused of. Trespassing on agricultural land is a felony offense, but a non-deportable one.
Ritter served 12 years as Denver DA and is now the Democratic candidate for governor. His Republican opponent, Bob Beauprez, has criticized Ritter’s plea bargain record, but the central fact remains that the federal government has primary responsibility for immigration violators. It hasn’t done the best job of it, a fact that Beauprez – a congressman – knows all too well.
The agricultural trespassing provision was to be used for legal immigrants, mostly for drug cases, the DA’s office says. But a Denver Post review of records showed that some illegal immigrants and others whose immigration status was unclear also entered into the same sort of agreement. Ritter says the charge was used in cases where evidence might be shaky. The idea was that a plea to a lesser charge was better than losing at trial. “We had 5,500 cases a year and seven judges,” he said, echoing a familiar complaint from other DAs. “Our priority was to try the most serious cases.”
Most district attorneys have high plea-bargain rates because that’s the only way they can operate their offices efficiently. If they tried even a quarter of all cases the wheels of justice would grind to a halt.
Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer on Monday said the former DA used the agriculture trespassing charge because “there were only a couple [of possible charges] on the books that were non-deportable offenses.” Had prosecutors pushed for a deportable offense, defense attorneys likely would have wanted to take cases to trial. So Ritter used agriculture trespassing as a tool to secure a felony conviction rather than go to trial and risk an acquittal, Dreyer said.
Ritter says his office contacted immigration officials whenever a defendant was an illegal immigrant or had questionable status.
No one expects local prosecutors to solve the nation’s immigration crisis, but Ritter will want to address voters who wonder if felony agricultural trespassing was the most sensible route to secure a conviction.
