Franklin County hearings on false identity charges are waived (Chambersburg Public Opinion)

Franklin County hearings on false identity charges are waived

By VICKY TAYLOR Staff writer

Two men accused of being in the country illegally gave up their rights to preliminary hearings Tuesday on a variety of identity charges. One had previously been deported, according to an immigration agent.

The agent told Pennsylvania State Police investigators that Fita De Los Santos Rivera-Bonilla, 29, had been deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at some time in the past after the investigator contacted ICE to determine Rivera-Bonilla's immigration status.

An alert state trooper is credited with Rivera-Bonilla's apprehension. He is charged with identity theft and tampering with records.

In another case, a Chambersburg Police officer recognized a forged identification card presented by another immigrant when he was taken into custody last week during a burglary investigation.

As a result, Juan Ajanel-Alvarez, 20, was arrested and charged with forgery, providing false identification to a police officer and theft.

According to an affidavit filed in the case, Ajanel-Alvarez admitted to the police officer that he had bought the Guatemalan identification card he was using in Kentucky. At the same time, he allegedly admitted stealing about $100 in loose change from a Meadowbrook Lane apartment in June.

In the Rivera-Bonilla case, a state trooper noticed someone looking inside a vehicle at Ron's Auto Sales in Marion the evening of July 12 and stopped to investigate. While he was trying to talk to the man, who didn't speak English, two more men walked out of the car lot's sales office who also didn't speak English.

He asked for backup from a bilingual trooper then went into the sales office and asked the employee there about the men who had come out of the office. She told him one of the men had transferred a vehicle title and that both men spoke and understood English.

The trooper got a copy of the identification papers used to do the title transfer work, then ran the name on the driver's license through a national police data bank. Closer examination of the driver's license showed it to be a fake.

Rivera-Bonilla was taken to the state police's Chambersburg station, where he was fingerprinted. He allegedly admitted to police that he was in the country illegally.

Both Ajanel-Alvarez and Rivera-Bonilla are in Franklin County Jail while awaiting formal arraignments on Sept. 1
In addition to the local charges, they could face ICE charges.