Two former Logan Justice Court employees are facing federal charges for allegedly helping an immigrant sought by Immigration and Customs Enforcement evade authorities and sneak out of the court facility.
“This case is about some state court clerks who abused their position of trust and took the law into their own hands by helping an illegal alien evade a lawful arrest by ICE,” read court documents in the two cases.
Federal officials filed charges against Lauren Kelsey Morrow, 26, and Jennifer Joma, 27, in U.S. District Court on June 3 and they were unsealed Tuesday.
Both women face charges of conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens, harboring illegal aliens, and obstruction of U.S. Department of Homeland Security proceedings. Joma faces a fourth count of transporting illegal aliens.
The alleged incident occurred on April 9 at the Logan Justice Court building, where both women worked as clerks, when an ICE agent appeared to arrest a suspected immigrant in the country illegally who had business that day in court. Word spread among court staff about the agent’s presence, according to court documents, and Morrow and Joma began scouring online court records to determine who the agent was seeking.
Ultimately, they identified three non-U.S. citizens, including the person sought by the ICE agent, and helped them sneak out of the building through a maintenance door, out of sight of the ICE agent and other court staffers, court documents state.
Joma allegedly drove them away from the site. Others in the courthouse allegedly helped, according to court papers, but only Joma and Morrow are named.
“Acting as self-appointed anti-ICE vigilantes, Lauren Morrow, her co-defendant Joma and others took it upon themselves to obstruct immigration proceedings and the lawful enforcement of United States immigration laws,” read court documents. Whatever the women’s “personal feelings regarding immigration policies or laws, this was a crime.”
After the incident, Logan officials announced the two women involved had resigned, though they didn’t identify them.
In a press release Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah said the women were spotted on a courthouse video camera while allegedly helping the immigrants. After leading one of the immigrants out of the courthouse, “Morrow and Joma were spotted on a surveillance camera waving and smiling at it, and Morrow used her middle finger in an obscene gesture at the camera,” reads the press release.
Both women were booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Tuesday and both were scheduled to be arraigned in federal court on Thursday. Federal officials aren’t seeking their detention, but listed several conditions for their release, including the surrender of their passports.
Joma’s brother, William Joma, said his sister was detained by federal officials on Tuesday in Logan after she had dropped her daughter off at a daycare center. He said he had to scramble to figure out what had happened and that he’s taking time off work to contend with the situation.
“I’ve been on big brother mode trying to find where my sister was being held at and understand the situation to get her out, home to her family and to protect from alleged federal charges that will harm her career,” he said.
Separately, a Salt Lake man and woman were arrested last month on federal charges alleging they helped a man who had been detained by immigration authorities escape.