Fake signatures found on forms to keep inmates in jail for ICE, NC sheriff says
A veteran detention officer at a North Carolina jail is facing 20 counts of felony forgery, after it was determined documents linked to deportations had fake signatures, according to investigators.
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The paperwork was used to hold suspected undocumented immigrants in jail for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, officials said.
“On Friday … the Guilford County Magistrate’s Office notified the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office of a potentially forged court document submitted by GCSO Detention Officer Michael Diehl,” the sheriff’s office said in a Sept 11 news release.
“Further review of jail booking records identified 19 additional … forms associated with 19 additional inmates that contained allegedly forged signatures of magistrates.”
State law requires ICE detainers to be presented to magistrates, who then issue an AOC-CR-662 form to keep an inmate behind bars up to 48 hours for ICE agents. The suspicious signatures were found on AOC-CR-662 forms, county officials said.
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Officer Michael Shaun Diehl Jr., 40, was fired, arrested and released on $5,000 bond, officials said. He had been with the department since 2008.
All the inmates involved in the case are wanted by ICE for deportation, officials said.
“It appears that in each of these 20 cases, ICE had issued a detainer based on evidence that the inmate who was the subject of the detainer was in violation of United States immigration law,” the sheriff’s office said.
The Guilford County Detention Center is in Greensboro, about a 90-mile drive northeast from uptown Charlotte.
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