Oregon: Latino Judge 'Helps Illegal Alien Escape ICE'

An Oregon judge is being investigated after she allegedly helped an illegal immigrant elude ICE agents in January by guiding the man through a private entrance at the courthouse.

Multnomah County Judge Monica Herranz was notified by court staff that ICE agents were waiting outside her courtroom to possibly apprehend Diddier Pacheco Salazar, a 22-year-old Mexican national attending a DUI hearing, U.S. Attorney Billy Willaims said.

Specific details about what happened inside the courtroom next is not clear. But Salazar reportedly somehow managed to leave the room using an employee exit.

"I prepped my client. I said, 'I don't know if they're going to pick you up outside or what, but here's how to prepare,'" John Schlosser, Salazar's court appointed lawyer, told a local paper. "After the court appearance, I went out in the hallway and sat. My client never came out. I can't say that I'm surprised he didn't come out, but I gave him his options, and assume he had to have been escorted out some other way."

Salazar was arrested two weeks after the incident.

ICE agents decided not to investigate Herranz, who is also on the board of directors of the Oregon Hispanic Bar Association, but Chief Judge Nan Waller is conducting an internal investigation.