Traffic charges dropped against Ga. teen in ICE custody, police say
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Police said they’ve dropped traffic charges against a Dalton teen being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after investigators discovered she was pulled over by mistake.
Despite the dismissal, 19-year-old Ximena Arias-Cristobal remains in ICE custody and is facing deportation to Mexico.
On Monday, Dalton officials said in a press release that the Dalton Police Department and the city’s prosecutor dismissed charges against Arias-Cristobal of making an improper turn and driving without a valid driver’s license because the arresting officer’s dashcam video shows he stopped the wrong vehicle.
“She hopes that people will see she is not a hardened criminal,” Dustin Baxter, the attorney for Arias-Cristobal, said of the new development.
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The undocumented Dalton State College student has been detained in ICE’s Stewart Detention Center in south Georgia since shortly after she was arrested during the May 5 traffic stop.
“We hope that it strengthens her bond request since we can show that she does not have any criminal record whatsoever,” Baxter said of the dismissed charges. “Unfortunately, it does not mean that immigration will release her.”
City officials said police dashcam video of the incident showed that “Arias-Cristobal’s vehicle appeared similar to the offending vehicle but was not the vehicle that made an improper turn.”
Police told Dalton’s city on Monday that “a dismissal for the improper turn citation was in process” after they reviewed the dashcam video, officials said in the press release.
The city attorney reportedly “was consulted and concurred with dismissing any and all charges related to” the traffic stop, then immediately told Arias-Cristobal’s lawyer.
“It’s a regrettable situation in a regrettable place we’ve ended up in,” Chris Crossen, Dalton Police assistant chief, said during a press conference Monday night.
Officials said the incident began when the arresting officer saw a black pickup truck traveling west on Walnut Avenue make an illegal right turn onto Thornton Avenue in Dalton.
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The officer’s dashcam video shows the black truck traveling west on Walnut Avenue and getting in the right turning lane. Officials said it made the illegal turn at the red light after it was out of the camera’s view.
The video shows the officer try to turn right onto Thornton Avenue to stop the truck, but he’s blocked by a car waiting at the red light.
A line of vehicles traveling east on Walnut Avenue then turn left onto Thornton Avenue. Officials said one of those vehicles, a dark gray Dodge pickup truck, was driven by Arias-Cristobal.
After those vehicles move past, the officer gets the green light to turn onto Thornton Avenue.
He travels north looking for the truck and stops Arias-Cristobal’s Dodge when he catches up to it near the intersection with Crawford Street.
The video shows Arias-Cristobal getting pulled over, then the officer telling her she’s going to jail because she doesn’t have a license.
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Arias-Cristobal is heard pleading with the officer.
“I can’t go to jail. I have finals next week and my family depends on this,” Arias-Cristobal said. “I know it was a one-time mistake. I never do this.”
She was then arrested and placed in ICE detention because she’s in the U.S. without authorization.
Though she’s undocumented, Arias-Cristobal has been in the U.S. since she was 4 years old. Her family said the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program stopped accepting new applications before she was eligible.
Arias-Cristobal’s father, Jose Arias-Tovar, is also undocumented, and has been held in the same detention center as his daughter after he was arrested for speeding and driving without a license.
Baxter said Dalton police realized their mistake too late for Arias-Cristobal.
“This dropping of the charges, you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube,” Baxter said. “She’s in ICE custody, and ICE doesn’t care one way or another if the charges were dropped.”
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