Lawyer Does Slow Burn Over ICE

The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department deliberately delayed the release of a Springs man accused of rape, to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents time to pick him up when he was finally freed, an East End attorney charged this week.

The family of Bryan Ordonez-Albarracin, 23, posted $80,000 cash bail at about 10 AM at the county jail in Riverside April 19.

Ordonez-Albarracin is facing multiple sexual abuse charges involving two young women he was acquainted with, including three charges of rape in the first degree.

The bail was posted by the family. “They had him sit. They called immigration and said, ‘We’re processing him,’” his attorney, Melissa Aguanno of Edward Burke Jr. and Associates, charged last week. “I kept texting his mom. ‘Are they saying anything?’ ‘No, they are not saying anything.’”

After six hours, at 4 PM, Ordonez-Albarracin was finally released, according to Aguanno. As he passed through the gates of the facility, five ICE agents were waiting. “They are trying to circumvent the law,” Aguanno said. Back in November, the sheriff’s office agreed not to continue holding defendants after bail was posted, based on a non-judicial ICE detainer request. Aguanno said that, despite the change in policy, Suffolk County sheriffs are still contacting ICE before certain prisoners are released and then dragging out the release process.

Ordonez-Albarracin is currently being held in a facility in Hackensack, NJ. “Technically, he is out of custody, even though he is in immigration custody,” Aguanno said. She spoke about the case on April 25, after she had had East Hampton Town Justice Lisa Rana add $500 bail to the case. This will allow Ordonez-Albarracin to accrue the time he spends in ICE custody toward any eventual sentence he receives in Suffolk County.

t.e@indyeastend.com