I-Team: Love and Justice
posted 5:45 pm Mon February 25, 2008 -
Lloyd Miner won commendations throughout his career for fighting crime, chasing violent Jamaican gangs and interrogating a suspect with a rap sheet even taller than himself, but when he got involved in a personal affair of the heart, Miner came out on the wrong end of the law.
Miner is facing up to 10 years in prison for harboring an illegal alien and enticing her to stay in the United States. Miner says the only thing he's guilty of is falling in love. "We really, really love each other," Miner said.
His troubles are traced to his past relationship with Robert Schofield, his former supervisor now in prison for taking more than $600,000 in a "sex for green cards" scandal.
Miner was the one who blew the whistle on Schofield.
"They were absolutely certain that I was involved in Schofield's criminal enterprise," Miner said. Federal Agents followed Miner's every move, "They went as far as Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam."
Agents also put his Centreville home under surveillance.Last April, the FBI (web), Secret Service, and Investigators from Homeland Security made their big move. Miner recalled the invasion, "They had kicked my door in, had come in, were going through my things. They had lassoed my dog, injured him in the process. They were walking through my backyard looking for buried money that somehow was connected to Schofield."
In the end, Agents found nothing, except "the girl that I was dating," Miner said. The girl Miner was dating, Somoun Batjargal, was living in the U.S. from Mongolia on an expired student visa.
"We didn't have any intention of doing anything illegal," Batjargal expressed. Batjargal and Miner met in 2005, they said they fell in love and a year later, moved in together.
"She said she was a student. There were different times where she was studying and taking courses. I just assumed everything was as it appeared to be," Miner said.
When Batjargal was arrested for being in the country illegally, Miner posted bond. Then he was charged for harboring an illegal immigrant.
"I'm not shielding her from detection. You released her to me. I'm at a loss how that's harboring," Miner said.
Until sentencing, on March 7th, court-ordered ankle
bracelets track Batjargal and Miner's every move. Immigration expert, Neville Cramer, says this sort of issue is usually handled administratively and believes the investigators needed to come up with something.
"The prosecution spent a great deal of money looking for something a lot bigger, and they didn't find it so they had to justify the expenditure of the money," he said.
"We're supposed to be in a war against terrorism and we're prosecuting Lloyd Miner for falling in love with an illegal alien," said Rosemary Jenks, who lobbies Capitol Hill for tougher immigration laws.
Miner provided documents to Congress about corrupt and lax enforcement of immigration laws, which Jenks believes sparked what this entire investigation is about, retaliation.
"The moral of the story, if you work for the government, don't blow the whistle," Jenks said.
Miner says he was a whistle-blower, but no one knew that until his computers were raided.
Miner now lives in his sister's basement and faces 10 years in prison, "I've lost my home. I've lost my retirement. I've lost all of my medical benefits. I've lost everything."
*Officials of the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice declined to be interviewed for this story.
Latest Comment on I-Team: Love and Justice
bajarat
2:03 pm on 03/08/08
There's nolthing worse than a dirty cop. This guy is a dirty cop.
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