Immigration Agent Guilty of Assault

Larry Welborn writes in the Orange County Register:

A former immigration official wept Tuesday when a Superior Court jury found him not guilty of a felony charge of attempting to force a 29-year-old female client to perform a sex act.

But the same nine-woman, three-man jury also found Eddie Romualdo Miranda, 60, a former district officer for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, guilty of misdemeanor assault. He could get a year in jail.

The jury also deadlocked – at 9-3 for not guilty – on a whether Miranda, of Fontana, committed felony sexual battery when he fondled the woman in his car after he asked her to meet him to discuss her application for naturalization in January 2006.

Deputy District Attorney Karen Schatzle said she will decide by Sept. 14 whether to re-try Miranda on that count.

The woman testified that she met Miranda at a Starbucks coffee shop when he called to discuss her case. She said she did not resist Miranda’s advances out of a fear that he would ruin her chances to become a United States citizen. Click here for the rest of the story.

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