Rhode Island Judge Cites Massive Breach Over Homicide Warrant
Rhode Island judge Melissa R. DuBose said the Rhode Island U.S. Attorney’s Office committed a massive breach of trust after it failed to disclose that Bryan Rafael Gómez was wanted for homicide in the Dominican Republic. DuBose said the omission affected her release order for the undocumented immigrant, who was later the subject of a dispute over what federal lawyers could tell the court.
She tied the issue to the court’s ability to make a release decision, saying the withheld material created a gap in the record before Gómez was ordered released by ICE on April 28 ahead of a bond hearing scheduled for June. The court later heard that ICE had told Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Bolan on April 24 not to confirm or deny the warrant because authorization from Dominican Republic authorities had not yet arrived.
DuBose And Bolan
At the remote hearing on Monday afternoon, DuBose said, “We operate here under the color of good faith and we’ve had a wonderful, functioning, working relationship with your office until this time.” She added, “It’s going to take a while to rebuild that trust. I believe that we can, but there certainly was a massive breach of this Court’s trust in this case.”
DuBose also said the withheld material was “relevant information that impeded my ability to make a thoughtful consideration as to whether or not this individual should be held.” She said, “I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of a scenario where an attorney coming before a judge in any court can, at their client’s request, withhold material information.”
Bolan responded, “It is something I’ve been wrestling with.” He added, “My understanding is that this information is, in some ways, the Dominican Republic’s to choose to disclose or not to disclose, and that may be wrong. I may not have a complete understanding, and that, of course, is part of one of the problems here,”
April 16 And April 30
The disclosure fight sharpened around two dates. DHS included details of the warrant in an April 16 press release, while ICE received confirmation on April 30 that the warrant was active and that ICE was authorized to disclose it in court proceedings.
That same day, DHS issued another press release criticizing DuBose after the release order. DuBose said the post was “the inflammatory post” and called its suggestion that the court knowingly released a dangerous individual into the community “patently false.” DHS had described her as an activist judge and criticized the release of what it called a violent criminal illegal alien wanted for murder in the Dominican Republic.
ICE And The Warrant
Brian E. Sullivan, acting assistant field office director for ICE in Burlington, Mass., was part of the record in the case, which centered on whether federal lawyers could keep quiet about the warrant before the bond hearing. The sequence left the court dealing with a release order issued before the warrant was disclosed in full.
DuBose said she appreciated Bolan’s apology but added that “there was a serious breakdown in the ethical codes here.” For Gómez, the immediate consequence is that his release order now sits inside a dispute over candor to the court, and that question is what the court has already put on the record.
