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Driver in injury crash escaped prior prosecution
Immigration hold placed on 22-year-old man
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BROOMFIELD — A man jailed for causing a rollover crash in Broomfield on Saturday that left him and three family members injured is a suspected undocumented immigrant with a previous record of traffic violations, including drunken driving.
Daniel Barrales, 22, who was jailed on $1,000 bond for careless driving resulting in injury and driving without a valid license after Saturday’s crash at 144th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard, also was placed on an immigration hold.
In March, Barrales was stopped in Adams County by a state trooper and charged with driving under the influence, making an illegal lane change, driving without a license and driving with false plates.
The charges were dismissed in May. Krista Flannigan, spokeswoman for the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, said the charges were dropped because the court had not received necessary paperwork from the Colorado State Patrol. She characterized the mistake as rare.
Barrales is unlikely to avoid detention after Saturday’s crash.
He will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement if he pays his bond or charges are dropped. The agency will investigate his legal status and could begin deportation proceedings, ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said.
The local prosecution on the traffic charges would proceed independently.
Barrales was advised of his rights in a court hearing Monday and is scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 21 in Broomfield County Court, Flannigan said. He has not paid his bond.
Broomfield police said Barrales was driving a van carrying his 24-year-old sister-in-law and her two children when he ran a red light at the intersection of 144th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard around 11:30 a.m. Saturday. The van clipped an oncoming SUV and rolled onto its roof, police said.
No one in the SUV was hurt.
Barrales was transported to Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette, said Wendy Forbes, spokeswoman for North Metro Fire Rescue District. After treatment, he was taken to Broomfield County jail.
The woman, whose name was withheld by North Metro Fire Rescue, and her infant son also were taken to Good Samaritan with minor injuries. Her 2-year-old daughter was airlifted to Denver’s Children’s Hospital, where she is recovering, Forbes said.
The crash happened a month after a fatal accident in Aurora for which an illegal immigrant was arrested. Francis Hernandez, 23, is charged with causing that crash, which killed three people.
Hernandez is accused of broadsiding a pickup truck in Aurora on Sept. 4, sending both vehicles careening into a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop. Two women in the pickup were killed, as was a 3-year-old Aurora boy who was in Baskin-Robbins with his mother.
Hernandez had numerous contacts with Colorado law enforcement in the past five years.
Aurora police said Arapahoe County sheriff’s officials referred Hernandez, a Guatemalan, to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after he was arrested April 25 on suspicion of speeding and driving without a valid license. But ICE officials said Hernandez had never been referred to them before the crash.
His lengthy record and immigration status outraged some Colorado lawmakers, prompting an examination by State Auditor Sally Symanski. Symanski said she will return to the Legislative Audit Committee with proposals next month.
“(The databases) are not integrated well enough,” said audit committee chairman Jim Kerr, R-Littleton. “Otherwise, the 16 encounters with law enforcement would have red-flagged this individual.”
The Rocky Mountain News contributed to this report.


Posted by Stan_Weekes on October 7, 2008 at 9:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It is very apparent, exhibited by the Denver Impoundment vote on Initiative 100, that the public wants unlicensed drivers off the road. Numerous safety studies have shown the only way to alter the patterns of abuse behind the wheel is to....
Take away the keys and impound the vehicle.
We need to stop the lawlessness on the spot, before the courts can plea down the offense, and put a measured punishment in place prior to adjudication.
As tragic as this accident is, it is being repeated over and over. We need to take a stand and rid the roadways of those who have thumbed their noses at our system of lawful presence. It starts with a 30 day impoundment of the vehicle, as our neighbors in Arizona did by state statute (28-3511) several years ago. The city and county officers need a mandated directive instructing them to just do the lawful enforcement the public expects.
Local city councils, using regular ordinance motion action, can provide quick relief to the public by supplementing the Model Traffic Code now. The City initiative process will likely proceed if officials don't recognize the critical and urgent need to deal with this daily danger we all face.
I will, again, be working to bring this change to the Code (CRS 42-4-110) via statutory revision at the State Legislature, and if that fails, to a State wide Initiative. More complex laws -arrest & incarceration- will also be required, so contact your legislators now and let them know you want something done in the next session.
In addition, the State Auditor's Office will likely come forth with bi-partisan legislation to clarify and strengthen existing State immigration laws, and possibly introduce new database integration measures. Gov Ritter's Immigration Working Group will meet soon, with a cross section of stakeholders examining changes necessary to existing systems.
We have a human right to expect that others on the road understand the rules, will stop at the red light, and insure their actions properly.
It simply is a matter of public safety and good old common sense.
Stan Weekes
State Director, cairco.org
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