Police Officer Criticizes Detention Conditions, Calls for Charbel Chehoud's Release
A dozen people gathered outside of Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, New Jersey, on Tuesday to hold vigil for the release of Charbel "Charley" Chehoud. Among the people who attended and shared stories about Charley were faith leaders, advocates, friends and family, and even a Jersey City police officer. Charley has been in detention for over a year and has spent the last 32 days in solitary confinement. But he has committed no crimes. In fact, he helped solve them. After exhausting her resources fighting for Charley's release, his fiance Veronica Garcia started a Change.org petition that to date has nearly 15,000 signatures.
Charley is known as a local hero in his community. New Jersey police had deemed a brutal murder an accident, but Charley bravely came forward with a tip he heard from a co-worker that solved the case. Since then, he has worked undercover as a police informant for years, risking his life to make his community safer.
Charley was detained after missing a court date in his battle for asylum. He continues to be held by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, in spite of the calls for his release -- some of those calls even coming from local New Jersey law enforcement officials who worked with Charley. Says Jessica Fernandez, a Jersey City police officer who attended Tuesday's vigil, "Charley had the utmost respect for police and people in uniform." And then later, "The conditions he's being held in - no time outside, visitors refused - are shocking. They are treating him like a hardcore criminal."
Kathy O'Leary of Pax Christi NJ, which has led efforts for independent oversight of the controversial jail where Charley is being held, said she was disturbed by complaints filed by Charley. “We have repeatedly received reports about inhumane conditions," she said. "Charbel Chehoud, an immigrant detainee with no criminal record, has been kept in solitary confinement for nearly a month directly violating ICE Detention Standards Regulations, and this is just one story of many."
"I just want him to come home," Charley's fiance Veronica said as she tearfully thanked the group of vigil-goers on Tuesday.
After the vigil, Veronica went to the local ICE office to hand-deliver the signatures, which took up almost 400 pages when printed out. The ICE officer who received the petitions didn't ask about the details of Charley's case, but promised the petitions would be entered into his file.
"I wish I could call him to tell him about today," said Veronica as the vigil came to a close. "He only gets a 15 minutes for phone calls, but I want to tell him about the people who showed up to support him today".
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