Judge grants bail for 2 held in Acambaro case
Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2008
FORT SMITH — A federal magistrate reversed his initial decision by setting bail Monday for two Northwest Arkansas men charged with harboring illegal aliens.
It was unclear Monday whether Arturo Reyes Jr., operator of the Acambaro Mexican restaurant chain in Northwest Arkansas and Missouri, and his brother, Armando, will be released in the near future. The Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a detainer on them because the government claims they are in the country illegally.
Assistant U. S. attorney Christopher Plumlee said Monday that the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has 48 hours to decide whether to release the men.
Marc David Seitles, a Miami-based lawyer representing the Reyes brothers, said he had hoped immigration officials would defer to the judge’s decision.
Saying he did not have complete information when he ordered the brothers jailed in December, U. S. Magistrate Judge James Marschewski set bail at $ 50, 000 for Arturo Reyes Jr. and $ 35, 000 for Armando Reyes. He ordered that both be electronically monitored, report to the court’s probation office and not to travel outside the federal court’s Western District of Arkansas.
Marschewski ordered that the bonds be secured through three couples who pledged their houses as bond to assure the Reyes brothers appear in court for future proceedings.
The couples are Samuel and Elena Reyes of 4429 W. Sandingham St., Fayetteville; Arturo and Berta Hernandez of 8805 Colley St. in Lowell; and Jesus and Angelica Socorro of 771 Ford Lane in Lowell.
It could take days to process the property deeds and to complete the paperwork for the Reyeses’ bonds, Plumlee said. The two were not released from custody Monday. Arturo Reyes Jr., 35, of Rogers and Armando Reyes, 33, of Lowell are charged in a three-count indictment with conspiracy and aiding and abetting in harboring illegal aliens by providing financial support through employment. They also are charged with money laundering.
They are scheduled to go on trial on those charges June 2.
Federal prosecutors said the two are flight risks because they are illegal aliens and because the Reyes family has substantial property in Mexico.
A sister of the Reyeses, Erica Reyes Patino of Monett, Mo., testified Monday that Arturo Reyes Jr. owns a two-bedroom house in Rancho Zatemaye in Guanajuato, Mexico, that is valued at $ 5, 000.
Reyes could go there to avoid trial, Marschewski said.
Marschewski also noted that he didn’t know earlier of the Reyeses’ involvement in the community, of contributions to local charities and of involvement in their church that he learned from Seitles’ motion for reconsideration and affidavits submitted by friends and relatives of the Reyeses.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
