An Ohio sheriff slammed fellow legislation enforcement businesses for beforehand releasing an unlawful immigrant with an intensive prison historical past, after he allegedly crashed into an Ohio nurse whereas driving drunk, leaving her significantly injured.
Johen Perez-Ventura, 27, an unlawful immigrant from Guatemala, is charged with aggravated vehicular assault, driving and not using a license and obstruction of justice, in keeping with Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones.
Courtney Steinmetz, a nurse and volunteer cheerleading coach, was driving alongside Route 747 on Nov. 20, when she was allegedly hit head-on by Perez-Ventura in Liberty Township, Ohio.
Perez-Ventura was first captured crossing the Texas border in 2019, and deported again to Guatemala, in keeping with Jones.
He returned to the US sooner or later, and in 2023, was charged with assault in Cincinnati.
That very same yr, he was arrested and charged with drunk driving in Westchester, Jones stated. Perez-Ventura was launched after each arrests.
Nonetheless, Perez-Ventura’s prison historical past didn’t finish there. In 2024, he was arrested twice for drunk driving, and launched once more.
“This low-life piece of s— named Johen, who has been arrested [four times] for DUIs … he had alcohol within the automobile, needed to be reduce out of the automobile, [went] to the hospital,” Jones stated in a video publish to the Butler County Sheriff’s Workplace Fb web page. “You recognize who pays for that. We do. … It’s not his first time. … He’s used to this. He was simply going to be within the wind. … Not this time. We waited after which [Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] made the apprehension.”
Jones stated Perez-Ventura didn’t have a driver’s license, speculating he might have proven pretend IDs to officers at different businesses, and so they let him go anyway.
“That’s appalling in itself,” the sheriff stated. “They most likely didn’t wish to ship him to my jail as a result of he can be deported. He [had] already been incarcerated at that time for DUI, assault, and he’d come throughout the border twice.”
Perez-Ventura, utilizing an interpreter, claimed he was not the motive force as a result of he was on probation for one in every of his prior offenses.
After the crash, Jones visited Steinmetz within the hospital and stated he might inform she was in “severe ache,” having suffered a backbone harm, damaged wrist and damaged ankle.
“She’s 27, residing her dream, working on the hospital as an RN, saving individuals’s lives. Now right now, she’s mendacity within the hospital,” he stated. “She’s not even out of the mattress but. She’s going to be out of labor for fairly a while. She’ll most likely have points the remainder of her life along with her backbone.”
A GoFundMe was set up for Steinmetz, to assist with medical payments, misplaced wages and her insurance coverage deductible — since Perez-Ventura didn’t have insurance coverage.
A member of the family wrote on the crowdfunding website that regardless of her accidents, Steinmetz nonetheless “hopes the opposing driver is doing OK regardless of the ache this has prompted.”
“He doesn’t care. You have a look at his mug shot, he has a smirk on his face,” Jones stated. “I promise you, he received’t be deported once more … He’s going to get just a little style of American jail. … He’ll get a cell till he goes to jail, then he can get deported when he’s quite a bit older. … This low-life is mendacity in my jail, getting three meals a day, whining and crying. [He] most likely doesn’t just like the circumstances, which they’re an entire lot higher than he deserves.”
Jones added he’ll pursue further fees in opposition to Perez-Ventura associated to the crash, and examine the companies who allegedly offered him the alcohol, individuals he was consuming with, and individuals who offered or loaned him automobiles.
“I’ve no sympathy,” Jones stated. “If he had been deported and stayed deported the primary time, we wouldn’t be going by way of this.”
Practically half a dozen unlawful immigrants, with fees starting from intercourse crimes and assault to DUI and medicines offenses, have not too long ago been arrested in Butler County, in keeping with the sheriff.
Fox Information Digital’s Mitch Picasso contributed to this report.
