Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis personally intervened to make sure that a man wanted on rape and sexual-abuse charges in Oregon was arrested after Washington County officials in Oregon declined to request his transfer from Florida, a Florida sheriff said.
But Washington County prosecutors on Monday disputed the Florida sheriff’s office version of events and said they were never asked by Florida officials to seek Juan Jose-Sebastian’s transfer to Oregon.
The case came to light after a Florida sheriff’s office posted about it on Facebook and it got the attention of DeSantis and a U.S. representative from Florida.
It quickly became a Republican talking point on the nation’s much-debated immigration policies.
The controversy began when Jose-Sebastian, 26, was about to complete a jail sentence in Martin County, Florida, for driving without a license. The sheriff’s office there said it discovered Washington County in Oregon had a warrant out for Jose-Sebastian’s arrest on three rape and sexual-abuse charges.
But, the sheriff’s office wrote in a March 1 Facebook post, Oregon officials wouldn’t extradite Jose-Sebastian.
Jose-Sebastian is an undocumented man from Guatemala, and the Martin County Sheriff’s Office also said it had reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about detaining him based on his immigration status.
But the federal agency declined to hold the suspect, according to the sheriff’s office, later saying he did not meet “current enforcement priorities.”
“The wanted rapist will be released into our community today,” the Martin County Sheriff’s Office wrote in the Facebook post. “There is no legal way for the Sheriff’s Office to continue holding Jose-Sebastian.”
That quickly changed.
Several hours after the sheriff’s office released Jose-Sebastian, the Martin County department re-arrested him on an immigration hold, the sheriff’s office wrote the following morning. It was able to do so after DeSantis and Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Mast intervened, according to the department.
“Reaction from our community was swift,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a March 2 Facebook post. “As a result, ICE officials authorized (the sheriff’s office) to locate and re-arrest the Fugitive From Justice. He is now in the custody of Immigration officials.”
That same day, a local ABC affiliate TV station published a segment on Jose-Sebastian’s case. Martin County Sheriff William Snyder told reporters that his deputies called Washington County, but that officials there declined to extradite him.
The station quoted the Washington County District Attorney’s Office in a subsequent update to the online article accompanying the segment.
“The WCDA’s Office stands ready and willing to prosecute all criminal cases, especially those involving sex charges,” the district attorney’s office told 25WBPF News, according to the article. “We support ensuring Oregon’s state extradition program is fully funded.”
The Washington County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Monday that it never received a request from the Florida governor’s office or Florida law enforcement officials to extradite Jose-Sebastian and that the first Washington County prosecutors heard of the issue was from media accounts.
At his news conference on March 5, DeSantis, who recently dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, took credit for the re-arrest of Jose-Sebastian and accused Oregon officials of being lax on crime.
“They weren’t interested in seeking justice, apparently, on behalf of victims, potential victims, of his crimes, and so the plan was just to release him on the streets of Florida,” DeSantis said. “Well, that is unacceptable. So we fought back.”
A DeSantis spokesperson also wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “The Biden administration was going to put an illegal alien and alleged rapist back on the streets in Florida. (DeSantis) didn’t let that happen.”
The Washington County District Attorney’s Office told The Oregonian/OregonLive that, under “longstanding” Oregon Governor’s Office policy, in most cases only people facing high-level felony charges are extradited to the state from anywhere outside Oregon in the United States.
The district attorney’s office confirmed that Jose-Sebastian faces charges in Washington County but did not list specific counts, saying that they involved a “class C” felony. Third-degree rape, a class C felony, is statutory rape where the victim is 15 or 16 years old and the suspect is three or more years older, the office said.
On March 6, the day after DeSantis’ news conference, the Washington County District Attorney’s Office asked the Oregon Governor’s Office to extradite Jose-Sebastian, and the request was approved 10 minutes later, according to a timeline provided by the governor’s office.
The Washington County District Attorney’s Office asked for an exception to the governor’s office’s general policy limiting nationwide extradition to high-level crimes, the district attorney’s office said in a statement.
Oregon’s governor’s office disputed the district attorney’s characterization of the state’s extradition policy.
“The Governor’s Office reviews and considers each extradition request on an individual, case-by-case basis,” spokesperson Anca Matica said in an email. “Some considerations include the seriousness of the crime, public safety concerns, the likelihood that the person will be released pretrial after extradition, the fugitive’s criminal history, the cost of extradition, and any other relevant information provided with the request.”
A Miami ICE detention center is currently holding a Guatemalan man named Juan Jose-Sebastian, according to that agency’s online database of detainees.
