Racist Juror Comment Leads To New Trial For Mexican Restauranteurs

huffpostBy Huffington Post Latino Voices

Here’s one juror who has trouble laying aside his prejudice.

A federal judge allowed two Mexican restaurant owners, in the state of Maine, accused of hiring undocumented workers to have a new trial on Monday after he was told that a juror used racist language to refer to the defendants, the Bangor Daily News reports.

A U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services officer wrote to Judge Broack Hornby to say he’d had a conversation with the juror in which he said brothers Hector and Guillermo Fuentes were “all guilty wetbacks anyway,” according to the paper, citing the judge’s 23-page decision. The Fuentes brothers, both of whom are lawful permanent residents, own the Fajita Grill and two Cancún restaurants.

The racially charged term “wetback” grabbed headlines back in March, when Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) used it during a radio interview while discussing immigration reform.

“My father had a ranch. We used to have 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,”  …

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

[Photo by YardSale]

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