Pier-slaying defendant came to S.F. at sheriff’s request

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi gestures during an interview Monday, July 6, 2015, in San Francisco. Mirkarimi has defended the release of Francisco Sanchez from jail on April 15, who is now accused in the shooting death of a woman at a popular tourist site. (AP Photo/Ben Margot) less San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi gestures during an interview Monday, July 6, 2015, in San Francisco. Mirkarimi has defended the release of Francisco Sanchez from jail on April 15, who is now accused in the ... more Photo: Ben Margot, Associated Press Photo: Ben Margot, Associated Press Image 1 of / 62 Caption Close Pier-slaying defendant came to S.F. at sheriff’s request 1 / 62 Back to Gallery

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi has deflected blame in the release of a Mexican national now facing murder charges in the Pier 14 slaying by demanding to know why federal authorities returned him to San Francisco to face a 20-year-old marijuana charge in the first place.

The answer, it turns out, is that the Sheriff’s Department asked federal officials to do so.

Mirkarimi’s agency requested custody of Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez as he was completing a 46-month stint in federal prison in March in San Bernardino County, according to a Sheriff’s Department letter obtained by The Chronicle. Lopez-Sanchez had been deported five times to Mexico and had been imprisoned for illegally re-entering the U.S.

The federal Bureau of Prisons alerted the Sheriff’s Department in March that Lopez-Sanchez was going to be released. Mirkarimi’s agency, realizing that Lopez-Sanchez was wanted on a $5,000 bench warrant related to a 1995 marijuana possession-for-sale case, asked prison officials March 23 to hold him and to notify San Francisco authorities “when the subject is ready for our pick-up.”

“Also, please notify us if the hold cannot be placed or the named subject is released to another jurisdiction prior to our receipt,” said the letter, signed by Vic Gaerlan of the sheriff’s warrant bureau.

Lopez-Sanchez arrived in San Francisco on March 26, and the marijuana case against him was discharged the following day. He was returned to jail, however.

Prisoner in legal limbo

For the next three weeks, sources with knowledge of the matter told The Chronicle, sheriff’s deputies sought clarification from the department’s legal division on whether to hold Lopez-Sanchez so Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials could pick him up for possible deportation. ICE had requested that the city detain Lopez-Sanchez.

In the end, the legal division told deputies they had no basis to hold Lopez-Sanchez, and he was released April 15. He was arrested last week in the July 1 shooting death of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle on San Francisco’s waterfront, and has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

Mirkarimi’s office did not immediately comment on the letter. It initially scheduled a news conference for Thursday to “set the record straight” on Lopez-Sanchez’s release but called it off late Wednesday “out of respect for Kate Steinle’s funeral services.”

In an interview Tuesday on KQED radio, the sheriff questioned why Lopez-Sanchez had been sent to the city.

“We’re trying to understand why ICE returned Sanchez to San Francisco on a 20-year-old marijuana possession charge in a city that really doesn’t even prosecute marijuana possession … and knowing that he had been deported and illegally entered the country,” the sheriff said.

Freya Horne, legal counsel for the Sheriff’s Department, told The Chronicle on Tuesday that her office had dispatched a private transportation outfit to pick up Lopez-Sanchez.

“It seems kind of amazing that after all that time, he was brought back here for that purpose,” Horne said.

Joseph Russoniello, former U.S. attorney in San Francisco, said the city’s request to take custody of such an offender was “very unusual.” He said sheriff’s officials could have checked with local prosecutors about the case and opted not to intervene.

“They had the capability to examine the status of the file and determine whether or not to pursue the matter or move to cancel or withdraw the warrant,” he said.

The Sheriff’s Department letter came to light on the same day that San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee attacked Mirkarimi, saying his decision to cut off even basic communication with federal immigration officials led to Lopez-Sanchez’s release.

Mirkarimi has said a 2013 city law designed to protect people without immigration status — a law signed by Lee — mandated the April release after the local charges against him were dropped.

But the mayor said the sheriff’s office could have satisfied both city and state law by simply picking up the phone and asking immigration agents to come over and pick up Lopez-Sanchez before the “serious, repeat” felon was set loose.

“I’ve sent that message over to the Sheriff’s Department regarding communications with the federal authorities,” Lee said at a news conference. “Do we need to educate somebody on how to pick up the phone?”

Lee said Mirkarimi “needs to read the entire ordinance” the mayor signed in 2013. The law prohibits most inmates suspected of being in the country illegally from being held for ICE after their scheduled jail release. The 48-hour holds are known as detainers.

No law against discussion

Lee said that rather than detaining an inmate post-release, it would be prudent and legal to turn him over earlier.

“Nothing in this sanctuary-city law prohibits the officials of the city and county of San Francisco to communicate, to engage in discussion” with immigration officials before a person’s scheduled release, Lee said.

The sheriff has said that his department cannot detain someone suspected to be in the country illegally without a warrant or a court order. And records show Mirkarimi cut off nearly all communications with ICE in spring 2014.

In a brief response Wednesday to Lee, Mirkarimi told The Chronicle in a text message, “It really looks like the Mayor is running away from the 2013 law he signed into effect ... A law that I and our department adhere to. If he has had a change of legislative heart then he should’ve communicated this to me but then again I haven’t heard from him in three years despite my numerous letters and attempts to meet with him. I think it’s cowardly that he's placing politics before public safety.”

Lee and Mirkarimi have butted heads since the mayor tried to oust the sheriff for his highly publicized domestic-violence-related conviction in 2012.

Lee’s comments put him in step with federal immigration officials who have insisted that, had they merely been notified about the planned release of Lopez-Sanchez, they would have picked him up and taken him into custody for deportation.

They said they had made clear to local authorities in California — including those who have refused to honor post-release detainers in recent years due to civil rights concerns — that they were looking to get such prerelease notifications.

But Mirkarimi has limited his department’s cooperation with immigration agents in ways that go beyond the 2013 city ordinance signed by Lee.

In May 2014, he announced in a news release that his department “will no longer honor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers unless they are supported by judicial determination of probable cause” or an arrest warrant.

A year later, Mirkarimi essentially cut off the type of communication that federal immigration officials are now seeking.

Communication cut off

He issued a memo March 13 stating that his staff was barred from giving immigration agents “information or access” to records about detainees — including their citizenship status, their booking and arrest documents, and their release dates.

Before that, some deputies had informally called ICE about inmates who might be deportable. But deputies told The Chronicle that the new policy led to a complete stoppage of communication.

Virginia Kice, an ICE spokeswoman, said courtesy notifications from San Francisco deputies dropped off dramatically in spring 2014.

“By April 2014, it was standard practice for no cooperation and no phone calls,” Kice said. “We were not getting much stuff, over the transom or under the transom, at all. What stuff we were getting was few and far between at the very best.”

The mayor said he cannot “order” city officials to communicate with federal officials about inmates who may be in the country illegally. But he said he has sent a strong message to members of the Board of Supervisors and other city officials that there should be cooperation — and direct communication — in serious cases.

Jaxon Van Derbeken , Car la Marinucci and Evan Sernoffsky are San Francisco Chronicle staff writer s . E-mail: j vanderbeken @sfchronicle.com , c marinucci @sfchronicle.com and esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com