ICE Officer Put on Ice for Stealing from Immigrants

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060124/NEWS01/601240415/1003/NEWS

Ex-officer gets prison in thefts: Illegal immigrants lost $308,736 January 24, 2006 BY DAVID ASHENFELTER, FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Darwin Paz, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office jail administrator, surveys theoffice that once belonged to Patrick Wynne, a U.S. Immigration and CustomsEnforcement property officer. Most of the thefts happened at the MonroeCounty Jail, where immigration detainees were held.

Patrick Wynne says it took a 25-day stint in jail for nonpayment of child support for him to finally identify with the victims of his crimes.

“I can see now the impact I had on the people that I did it to — I do ask for their forgiveness,” a remorseful Wynne, 33, a former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement property officer, said during sentencing Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

U.S. District Judge Julian Cook sentenced Wynne of Monroe to 57 months in prison for stealing $308,736 from hundreds of illegal immigrants who were locked up pending deportation proceedings. Most of the thefts happened at the Monroe County Jail, where the government houses illegal immigrants.Wynne told Cook that his federal training taught him not to get attached to illegal immigrants, making it easier for him to steal from them. “I allowed myself to become an individual who looked at people and didn’t see a person, didn’t see a name, didn’t see a face. I saw bodies. I saw detainees. I saw traffic.”

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KJ