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Officials Were Asked About Rape Suspect's Immigration Status

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 28, 2008

Updated: 08/28/2008 07:41 pm

Immigration officials confirmed today that Hillsborough County deputies and St. Petersburg police contacted them Aug. 5 about the immigration status of Rigoberto Moron Martinez, who later would be charged in the rapes of several women.

On Aug. 5, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn't have any record of Martinez in its databases, ICE spokesman Richard Rocha said today. A United States citizen wouldn't have been in the databases either, he said.

"Because he had not been previously encountered in our system and he had no serious criminal convictions, no detainer was lodged against him," Rocha said.

Martinez had been arrested on a domestic violence-related warrant, but investigators wanted to surreptitiously test his DNA in connection with an Aug. 3 rape in St. Petersburg. Martinez bailed out within hours of the Aug. 5 arrest, and investigators say the Mexican national later raped two Apollo Beach restaurant employees.

Martinez was arrested Aug. 20. Following that arrest, Hillsborough County deputies called ICE's Tampa office about Martinez's immigration status, Rocha said.

Given the criminal charges against Martinez, ICE investigators interviewed Martinez on Aug. 21. They determined he was an illegal immigrant and lodged a detainer against him, Rocha said.

The question of how Martinez could be released from jail early Aug. 6 became a hot-button issue after U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite called for an investigation into the communications about Martinez between Hillsborough deputies and immigration officials.

Deputies said they followed due diligence by contacting immigration officials, who didn't act before Martinez bailed out.

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