A lawyer arrested in South Texas earlier this month on suspicion of human smuggling told authorities that he was a judge in an apparent attempt to get off, according to a police report obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Corpus Christi attorney Timothy Daniel Japhet was arrested Aug. 13 by Texas Department of Public Safety and Galveston County Sheriff’s Department officers working near the border towns of Eagle Pass and Del Rio. Police documents note that Japhet told officers he was a judge, a claim that has not been proven true but became more confusing after a constable claimed on social media that the man was a “federally appointed immigration magistrate.”
Police took off after Japhet’s rented BMW on that Saturday afternoon for failure to drive in a single lane, according to a report filed by a Galveston County deputy. Japhet had been driving north on a back road that the deputy’s report indicated was “used to circumvent the United States illegally” because it bypasses a more accessible road that has a Border Patrol highway checkpoint.
After being pulled over by the sheriff’s deputy and state trooper, Japhet refused to turn off the vehicle or exit, according to law enforcement. The deputy then reached in and opened the door from inside. Japhet slapped the officer’s hand and was pulled out of the front seat. The officer struggled to detain Japhet as he resisted arrest.
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“While attempting to place the male in custody he was yelling ‘I’m a Judge, I’m a Judge.’ Once I had the male subject in custody, I advised dispatch the male subject was an elected Judge he corrected me and said ‘No, I am an appointed Judge,’” the report reads.
The incident became more baffling after Galveston County Sheriff’s Constable Jimmy Fullen posted on Instagram that police had arrested a “federally appointed immigration magistrate” on human smuggling charges. Judges and magistrates are different positions, and the deputy’s report had made no mention of Japhet working in immigration law.
Fullen spoke with the Washington Examiner on Monday and said Japhet had shown the deputy his State Bar of Texas membership card. The state troopers and Galveston-area deputy were deployed to the border under Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) Operation Lone Star, an initiative to assist federal law enforcement in responding to record-high illegal immigrant apprehensions.
“My deputy took him at his word that he’s a federal magistrate. I don’t know why he would sit there and throw that out there,” Fullen said.
Immigration courts in the United States are run by the federal government. More than 500 immigration judges nationwide make up the court, though they are not appointed by the president. An Executive Office for Immigration Review spokeswoman told the Washington Examiner that it does not have any magistrates. It did not respond to a request regarding Japhet having worked for EOIR, though it is unlikely.
Fullen issued a follow-up post correcting his earlier statements.
“Several day ago I posted and gave details of an arrest of a certain attorney that was arrested for human smuggling and resisting arrest in Kinney County, Texas. I would like to set the records straight on what transpired, who made the arrest and what we’ve verified since the arrest and or post,” Fullen wrote. “[T]he arrestee stated to Deputy Gonzalez several times once in custody that he was a federal Immigration judge. That assertion by the arrested has since been disproved.”
Japhet was charged at the state level in Kinney County District Court with four counts of human smuggling. He told local news outlet KIII that he made a $40,000 bail bond after being in jail for six days.
The four men found in his rental car from Corpus Christi were identified by Border Patrol agents as Mexican citizens between the ages of 36 and 48. The men were taken into federal custody and processed at the nearby Border Patrol station in Bracketville, according to the report.
Japhet told KIII that he had been driving from Corpus Christi to a casino in Eagle Pass. He had rented the BMW in Corpus Christi and brought his dog with him. He had pulled his car over on the side of the road in a remote area after going 40 miles past Eagle Pass in order to let his dog go to the bathroom. While Japhet was on the side of the road, two men he described as hitchhikers approached him and asked for a ride. He agreed to drive them, and two additional men approached him and asked for a ride.
Neither the report nor Japhet’s account state where he was headed after picking them up. The closest city is San Antonio, a couple of hours’ drive east. Fullen took issue with Japhet’s claim that he had been headed to Eagle Pass yet was pulled over after going 38 miles past Eagle Pass.
Japhet claimed he was driving erratically to get the attention of police along the road.
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“I thought, this is not looking good for me right now,” Japhet said. “I made a bad decision.”
Japhet faces a warrant request for resisting arrest from the sheriff’s department. Texas DPS was the arresting agency on the smuggling charges.
