Robert Nolin reports:
Eight undocumented immigrants whom a Broward sheriff’s deputy is accused of sexually assaulting are embarrassed, afraid of retaliation by other officers and equally afraid of being deported should their names and personal information become public, a prosecutor said Thursday.
So Assistant State Attorney Dennis Siegel requested that all such information regarding the men be excluded at trial and that a limited gag order be imposed restricting what lawyers in the case can say about the victims.
Circuit Judge Matthew Destry, however, rejected the request. “I don’t see any reason for imposing any special restrictions or closings in this case,” he said.
The eight men are expected to testify in the trial of suspended Deputy Jonathan Bleiweiss, who faces 58 counts, including sexual battery and imprisonment, stemming from early morning encounters with immigrants he had pulled over from August 2008 through June.
Read more in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.