After he was indicted last year on visa fraud charges, Salt Lake City attorney James Hector Alcala was allowed to remain free if he stayed in Utah and wore an electronic monitor, among other conditions.
The lawyer now is facing time behind bars even before he gets to trial. On Tuesday, Alcala admitted at a hearing in federal court that he had traveled to Mexico, where he met with clients applying for U.S. work permits and took photos of the perimeter of the American consulate in Ciudad Juarez.
But Alcala insisted he had no intention of violating his pretrial release conditions. He asked U.S. Magistrate David Nuffer "to have mercy" and release him from jail, where he landed after his arrest on Friday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett Parkinson urged Nuffer to keep Alcala locked up until the case is resolved. He said the lawyer has ties to Mexico and violated the most significant release condition by leaving not only Utah, but the country.
And, Parkinson said, Alcala's GPS monitor has not worked for the past month and appears to have been tampered with. Testing to determine why it has been malfunctioning will take a few weeks, he said.
Nuffer ordered Alcala - who denied tampering with the monitor - detained until at least next Tuesday,march 16 when he scheduled another hearing. The magistrate expressed doubt about Alcala's chance for freedom.
"I don't see how I can manage him on pretrial release," Nuffer said.
Alcala said he and his wife flew on Feb. 28 to El Paso, where they crossed the border to Ciudad Juarez and delivered legal briefs to three clients who were scheduled for interviews at the U.S. consulate there. In addition, he said, he looked around to assess the safety of the city for his clients, which has a high murder rate because of drug cartel violence.
Defense attorney Ron Yengich said Alcala took photos of the consulate so his clients could see how it looked and how to get in and out and scouted out hotels where they could stay.
Alcala had faxed a request to travel two weeks before the trip to his pretrial services officer, who was out sick and did not respond, according to Yengich. He said Alcala had been allowed to travel to San Francisco last year for business so he thought it was OK to go to Mexico.
The trip to Mexico was "incredibly stupid," Yengich added, but was not an attempt to flee. He said Alcala identified himself to consulate employees, who questioned him about why he was taking pictures.
Alcala made the trip without his passport, which he had surrendered to the court as a release condition.
