“You should be ashamed” – judge’s verdict on Honduran who returned to dealing fentanyl in SF after Alameda thwarted his deportation
A federal judge erupted in fury today as she sentenced a Honduran fentanyl dealer whose expected deportation had been frustrated by Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, allowing him to return to San Francisco and continue selling the deadly narcotic outside a public library.
Jose Moises Hernandez-Mendoza had earlier admitted a new charge of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl plus probation violations arising from a previous federal conviction in 2024.
In that case he was given a lenient ‘time served’ sentence by U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley on the understanding that he would be handed over to immigration officials for removal.
“Despite an order requiring his release to the U.S. Marshal,” explained assistant U.S. attorney Jeffrey Bornstein in a sentencing memorandum, “Santa Rita Jail instead honored an outstanding warrant that was pending in Alameda County. That warrant resulted in dismissal of then pending charges in state court and Hernandez was released to the street.”
Alameda County, in whose jail the vast majority of federal prisoners in the Bay Area are housed, refuses to cooperate with immigration authorities.
Four months later, in September 2024, Hernandez was caught selling drugs again in San Francisco.
“I tried to appeal to his humanity and his not wanting to hurt people. He didn’t care — he just wanted the money.”
U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley
“I tried to appeal to his humanity and his not wanting to hurt people,” said an irate Judge Corley this morning sentencing Hernandez to three years’ imprisonment.
“He didn’t care — he just wanted the money.”
“He was given break after break after break after break and he didn’t care.”
33-year-old Hernandez-Mendoza had been arrested on March 23 2024 near the intersection of Hyde and Fulton Streets in the city’s Tenderloin district in possession of fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Police were concerned to see him selling drugs in the vicinity before his arrest. He had been arrested four times in the Tenderloin since March 2023 for drug possession and sales and had been told to stay out of the neighborhood by San Francisco judges.
In the face of local officials’ torpid approach, federal prosecutors charged Hernandez-Mendoza with possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. They offered him a deal whereby he would receive a time served sentence of a little over a month and then be immediately handed over to ICE officers for removal.
This ‘fast track’ scheme is a key plank of the U.S. Attorney’s strategy to address rampant drug crime and an atmosphere of lawlessness in some city neighborhoods. Federal judges in Northern California are divided on the program, with some refusing to impose what they say are unduly lenient sentences.
On May 8 2024 at a hearing at San Francisco federal courthouse Judge Corley accepted Hernandez-Mendoza’s guilty plea and imposed the recommended sentence of time served plus one business day.
“The expectation by everyone,” wrote Hernandez’ attorney Matthew Dirkes, “[was] that he would be taken into ICE custody the following day and placed in deportation proceedings.”
“The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office had other plans, however, and instead returned him to Alameda County because of an outstanding warrant there. Alameda County then released him on his own recognizance.”
Four months later Hernandez was arrested again after selling fentanyl to an undercover police officer outside the main branch of San Francisco public library.
Today in courtroom 8 of San Francisco federal courthouse Hernandez was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment for violating the terms of his probation to run concurrently with a 36 month term for his latest ‘possession with intent to distribute’ conviction.
“You mean he got another break,” said Corley today as the defendant’s attorney explained why he had not been handed over to ICE.
“After getting break, break, break, break,” the judge continued.
“He was given the freedom to go back to his wife and children and…he came straight back to deal the deadly drug which kills people.”
Corley pointed out that this was hardly the first time Hernandez had benefited from lenient treatment – his state cases had been marked by multiple releases on his own recognizance.
“In San Francisco he gets arrested, they OR him, he gets arrested they OR him, he gets arrested they OR him. They finally convict him and everything else gets dismissed.”
“I tried to appeal to his humanity and his not wanting to hurt people and he didn’t care — he just wanted the money.”
“You should be ashamed,” the Judge told Hernandez.
In a relatively unusual joint recommendation prosecution and defense attorneys had asked the judge to impose a 36 month sentence in pre-hearing filings.
Today those attorneys adjusted their recommendation to 30 months.
“I just want to say I’m sorry because you did give me a break,” said Hernandez today through a Spanish interpreter. “But sometimes one makes mistakes and one must learn from those mistakes.”
“Upon release the defendant will likely, but as we know not necessarily, be deported,” the judge wryly observed at the end of the hearing.
Hernandez appeared in court today wearing clothes of a kind worn by inmates of San Francisco County Jail rather than those of Alameda’s Santa Rita Jail.
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