The Indiana Court of Appeals rejected on Thursday an Illinois man’s bid to throw out his conviction.
Francisco A. Perez, 35, of South Holland, Illinois, argued he had an ineffective lawyer, who never told him he could face deportation for signing a plea deal for touching a 15-year-old girl.
Prosecutors had upgraded the case to Level 3 felony rape, before he pleaded guilty in 2019 to sexual misconduct with a minor. After the plea deal, Perez was sentenced to three years in prison.
Perez, a U.S. permanent resident, was released from the Indiana Department of Correction in 2022. Court records note that he was in federal immigration custody awaiting deportation when he applied for post-conviction relief.
After that challenge was denied in January, Perez appealed to the Indiana Court of Appeals.
In a 3-0 decision, Appeals Judge Mark Bailey wrote the law requires attorneys to notify all clients without U.S. citizenship that if they get a felony conviction, they could be deported. He also noted it was written in the plea deal that Perez agreed he understood that “if he is not a United States citizen, a conviction may affect his immigration status.”
He also wrote that Perez’s lawyer testified during a post-conviction relief hearing that he went over the plea repeatedly with his client.
Perez could appeal the decision to the Indiana Supreme Court.
The victim told cops she was babysitting for her relative in February 2018 when Perez, then 28, her relative’s boyfriend, came back first. The relative later returned with her friend. All smoked marijuana.
When the relative went to take a friend home, the victim went to sleep. Perez climbed in the bed and started touching the girl, then put his hands down her pants, court records show. The girl screamed. She called a boyfriend, then the relative.
Perez told his girlfriend he touched the girl as “payback,” court records show.
