Jessica Colotl
MDJ Staff/ Laura Moon
MDJ Staff/ Laura Moon
In a 10-minute hearing, Cobb County State Court Judge Kathryn Tanksley ruled that Colotl must serve the remainder of her sentence, which includes three days in jail, of which roughly 10 hours remained; 12 months’ probation, of which 11 months and 27 days remain; about $1,400 in fines and fees; and 20 hours of community service, to be completed in the first three months of her probation.
Colotl was convicted of driving without a license but cleared of impeding the flow of traffic, both misdemeanors, on Nov. 11, 2010, and was sentenced a few days later.
Her attorney, Jerome Lee, appealed her conviction, but the Georgia Court of Appeals upheld her conviction and the Georgia Supreme Court later declined to hear the case.
Lee asked if Colotl could serve her remaining jail time in court on Monday, but Tanksley said she could not. Colotl was immediately taken into custody and booked into the Cobb County Jail, where she was held until 8:20 p.m.
Lee said he was disappointed with the hearing but is glad it’s over.
“She’s a strong young woman, but this is the end of it,” Lee said after the hearing. “It’s unfortunate that politics have dictated the outcome, but Judge Tanksley has been infinitely fair with us.”
Lee said Colotl’s case has been going on for years because judges are bowing to voters’ demands.
“They are elected officials … and their constituents feel very strongly about this issue, even though with the recent executive order from the president, this issue is dead,” he said. “There will be no more deportations for college kids or ‘Dreamers.’”
Lee said Tanksley and Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley, who is presiding over Colotl’s felony case, serve a constituency that cares a “great deal” about his client’s case for reasons he doesn’t understand.
“While both judges are judges, they are also politicians, so they have to do what their constituents want them to do,” he said.
Lee said the case would have been over long ago if it hadn’t involved Colotl.
“It would have been dismissed when she got the license,” he said. “I can pull a hundred of my cases, but it’s just this one for some reason, once it got rolling, it became a press issue, everybody started focusing on it and suddenly it became something more.”
Lee said the courts are playing “silly games.”
“The rest of the world is racing ahead, and we need to figure out a way to resolve these kind of things in a more expeditious and more transparent sort of way,” he said. “It’s just been disappointing … especially when there are such larger issues to deal with.”
Lee said Staley is still “sitting” on a dismissal order for Colotl’s pretrial diversion program in regards to felony charges for lying to the sheriff’s office about her address when arrested in 2010, but Staley said she has not received that paperwork.
“I’m not sitting on anything,” Staley said. “(Lee) may be confused. There was an order submitted, and that was the one that I told (District Attorney Pat Head and Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren) to go back to square one (on Oct. 7, 2011), but I’m not aware of another order. There is no diversion order sitting on my desk.”
However, Head said the order was delivered to her.
“For her to say she has nothing on her desk is somewhat disingenuous,” he said. “My assistant tendered a Nolle Prosequi to the judge in open court several months ago. The Judge said she was taking it under advisement and so far has done nothing with it. I have heard nothing else from her.”
Lee said Colotl now lives in Gwinnett County with either her aunt or sister and is working as a clerk. She moved out of Cobb County shortly after the court proceedings for her case began in 2010.
Colotl, who was brought into the country by her parents as a child, was arrested on charges of driving without a license following a traffic stop in March 2010 and was found to be in the country illegally. She was turned over to immigration authorities and nearly deported. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement has repeatedly deferred action on her case, allowing her to finish her studies at Kennesaw State University.
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With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
--so I can read the social security check I get. Too bad the Americans do not know how to game the system the way we do. You are so stupid you Americans. I came here at night. I took a job in construction. We say=ty and laughed at the Americans we displaced. Then I used my money to bring my wife here. She has had three children since she came. We get $1100 a month per child, for you stupid Americans that is $3300 a month for the children.
We also get WIC EBit and the other benefits. When we don't feel good , for any reason even a headache, we go to an emergency room because you stupid Americans force them to treat us. It makes for a good afternoon on the weekend.whole ball of wax, as you say.
Here in Cobb, we cost the schools about $8000 each for the two of our kids who go. It's not problem to us. You got a lot of stupid parents who say go tax the viejos . They live too good.
You are so funny --and stupid. My wife and I have saved enough to build a nice little house bac in our home country, but we decided we are not going back. They are not as stupid back there as here. There the elites are banded as one against the poor. We have no voice. Here we can walk boldly anywhere we want because of the unnumbered stupid people in your churches and groups that say that there are too many of us to deport us. It would be so easy for you to do it, if you were not so stupid.
Don't blame politics or judges. The judge followed the law.
The majority of people in the US, especially those of whom have been forced to support, educate, feed and clothe people like Colotl while suffering from the general lawless nature of their culture are fed up. We are the ones who vote and immigration enforcement is a major issue.
Bush was only elected because he talked tough on enforcement and then disappointed us once elected. Giving illegal alien children green cards will not sit well with voters, especially since their children are having difficulty with getting a job.
And Jessica, a few words of advice ... don't ever try driving without a license and then lying about it back in your native Mexico. And make travel plans to return there before January -- when the Obama Administration will no longer be around to block enforcement of our immigration laws!
For the record, 100 years ago it was the Irish who were treated like this. I say this as the great grandchild of a woman who did laundry to support herself and her children. Fast forward two or three generations, her family members now include doctors, business owners, educators and not one single person with their hand out for the government to solve their problems. Do not paint these people with a broad brush.
BTW, I think it is a shame the good judge caved to political pressure on this one. The punishment is odd considering the children of politically connnected people have done far worse in Cobb and gotten NOTHING.
We sure are trusting of our homes, neighborhoods, children & belongings to people that have lied and cheated the system to get here, obtain a false identity and undercut Americans wages to stay here.
I agree fully,... please give it thought before opening your home to these criminals!
In the US, legals are welcome.
Illegals go out with the rest of the trash.
I will certainly think about when I talk to the lady who cleans my house or the gentleman who occassionally helps with my yard, of course they are americans who go back generations. Both are happy to do those jobs and are good at them.
You are the one with the nerve - no one is being racist as the attacks on the Irish were, we could care less if she is latino, middle eastern, or asian. The fact is she is not only illegally here but also that she broke the law. Then she had the temerity to act like she shouldn't be held accountable.
If you're embarrassed to be in Cobb feel free to move.
Oh, and to the gentle reader who has teens looking for jobs....talk to me about that! Perhaps you could shed light on that to the "teen" who was offered $15.00 an hour to teach swimming lessons at our club and guaranteed 3 eight hour days a week, only to say it was not worth her time to make the 20 minute drive every day. Or perhaps you can tell that to the high school girls who feel slighted when you pay $10.00 an hour cash for babysitting one kid.
Watch out America, we are being taken over while we are asleep. Our Country is under attack by all of these illegal immigrants who were originally brought here as two, three and four year olds by their parents crossing our borders illegally with their children five to thirty years ago. They have taken our jobs, our seats in the classrooms of public schools and colleges, our tax dollars to get food stamps and other government supported programs and much, much more. So you thought Al Qaeda was a threat to this Nation...Well, maybe you'd better take a second look if it is not too late. The true threat is something most of us never thought would be. This is how nations fall.....
I am a white male in Cobb, but I am looking forward to the day when America is no longer a white-majority nation (which, according to estimates, will be between 2020 and 2030). Immigrants will bring with them a strong work ethic, family values, and other facets of morality that America is losing at a rapid pace.
The state of GA has for too long been run by the white business elite. Racism in this county, state, and nation is--for the most part--not outright acts/words of discrimination, but rather systematic. I sincerely hope that as the white proportion of society decreases, these structural inequalities will vanish, as well.