I.C.E. Team case heads to court - 6.6.07

Two Hispanic men, at the center of a Cleveland County I.C.E. Team controversy that head two local attorneys questioning the methods and motivation of traffic stops along I-85, headed to court Wednesday morning.

Jury selection began this morning. The trial is expected to continue to Friday.

About the stop
On June 14, 2006, Sgt. Rodney Fitch said he received a phone call at 4 a.m. from a U.S. Customs agent in Charlotte requesting the I.C.E. team pull over a vehicle that just left a warehouse under surveillance for drug distribution.

He said the agent told him the vehicle’s occupants, Jose Arrassaenz and Jose Rodriguez-Otero, just put several bags in the red Ford Ranger and were on I-85 headed toward South Carolina.
Fitch said he parked in the median and waited as the agent continued to update him about where the vehicle was on the interstate.

Fitch said he spotted the vehicle and then pulled behind it. He said he paced the vehicle going 70 mph in a 65-mph zone and said the driver crossed the white line twice. Fitch then pulled over the vehicle driven by Arrassaenz. Rodriguez-Otero was Arrassaenz’s passenger.