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Judd: 'I own that' regarding error listing illegal immigrant as American citizen

"Make no mistake about it," the sheriff said. "When we mess up, we fess up and we fix up."

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - Sheriff Grady Judd owned an error by a former deputy that listed an illegal immigrant, currently accused of brutally assaulting a Lake Wales police officer, as an American citizen during a 2017 arrest for assaulting another deputy and choking his K-9.

MORE: Man charged with attempted murder for beating Lake Wales police officer

"We did arrest him a year ago, we thought we reported him to ICE, but as our public information office's normal procedure, they followed up to make sure the briefing that they gave me was exactly accurate," Judd said Thursday afternoon, referring to a Wednesday press conference. "And we in fact had reported to ICE that day. Only he wasn't on the list. Well, I gave you wrong information, and I own that."

MORE: Clerical error might have allowed suspect accused of assault to illegally stay in US

Judd also apologized to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for his frustration that the agency didn't deport Marcelino Jimenez-Cruz prior to Monday's incident in Lake Wales.

"Make no mistake about it," he said. "When we mess up, we fess up and we fix up."

Error was discovered before presser

The deputy who arrested Jimenez-Cruz in 2017 for attacking a Polk County deputy wrote "unknown city of birth" on his processing paperwork, listing him as an United States citizen instead of leaving that section blank - despite Jimenez-Cruz having Mexican identification on him.

That deputy, who Judd did not name Thursday, left the department after five years under good standing in 2017 and is eligible for rehire. The department has yet to reach him regarding the report, Judd said.

The report was entered into a jail computer system that automatically notifies ICE of foreign-born inmates, but the system did not report Jimenez-Cruz because the report listed him as an American citizen, Judd said.

"Our detention supervisors knew that at nine minutes after 11 yesterday, but they didn't report it to communications, to Carrie (Horstman, sheriff's office spokesperson) who was on call, and therefore Carrie didn't report it to me, and I reported bad information," he said. "And I was wrong. And I own it. They work for me, I'm proud fo them, I love them and it didn't come as a shock to me. We work with human beings. We have apologized profusely to ICE. And I called the chief of Lake Wales (police department) and I apologized to him 'cause had we reported him like we should have a year ago, he very well may not have been out to beat their police officer up yesterday, and we own that too."

The error was initially discovered during an unrelated meeting after the department's detention chief gave the sheriff a report in preparation for a media interview, Judd said.

"I don't think we'll ever be able to stop human error from happening again," he said. "If so, the second coming has occurred and none of us will be here that believe in the good Lord."

Judd also described the criminal justice system as "complicated" and one with a cascading series of events.

"Something as simple as one block being inappropriately filled out caused all that to occur," he said.

Still frustrated with ICE

Judd also expressed frustration that Jimenez-Cruz has been arrested at least 10 times since 2010, including four times where he was reported to ICE.

"This is a bad man," Judd said. "He needs to be out of the country and we're doing everything we can."

Judd noted that ICE takes the worst offenders first and that Jiminez-Cruz may not have been high on their radar. Prior to the 2017 arrest, Jiminez-Cruz was jailed for multiple driving offenses including driving with a suspended license.

Jiminez-Cruz' driving record lists him as a non-immigrant:

Jimenez-Cruz driving record by Anonymous YhHeJs on Scribd

"The fact remains he was here illegally, he was reported four times, he was still here and he was still here to commit more violent crime, to resist us more violently and our reporting error occurred and we apologize to ICE for yesterday because we were wrong and I own it because I'm the sheriff and I love my people and they do a great job, but they made a mistake by not getting the information to Carrie soon enough," Judd said.

As for Jiminez-Cruz' current charges, which include attempted second-degree murder, Judd doesn't want him deported anytime soon.

"I hope it's decades because I want him to sit in the Florida prison system for decades for hurting that police officer and I want a violation of probation fo my deputy breaking his hand fighting with him a year ago," he said.

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