A12 From Page One


Driver had DUI record before fatal crash in Va.


crash from A1


torney Paul B. Ebert voiced anger about the case in an interview Monday. “He’s thumbed his nose at the


laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia for years,” Ebert said of Montano. “He continued to drive, even though his privilege had been revoked and he didn’t have the right to drive. And he contin- ued to drive drunk, which led to this horrible, horrible situation.” Montano was intoxicated when the 1997 Subaru Outback he was driving in the Bristow area struck a guardrail on Bristow Road near Wright Lane shortly before 8:30 a.m. Sunday, police said. The Outback, traveling north, spun out of control and careered into the southbound lanes, colliding head-on with the nuns’ 2003 Toy- ota Corolla.


Sister Denise Mosier, 66, a for- mer missionary in Africa who was riding in the back seat, was killed. The driver, Sister Connie Ruth Lupton, 75, and the front- seat passenger, Sister Charlotte Lange, 70, were in critical condi- tion Monday at Inova Fairfax Hospital, said Sister Glenna


Smith, a spokeswoman for the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia, the nuns’ order. Police did not say whether


Lange and Lupton were wearing seat belts, but Mosier apparently was not wearing one. Mosier, Lupton and Lange, res- idents of the Saint Benedict con- vent in Richmond, were on their way to a five-day religious re- treat at the Benedic- tine Sisters monastery in Prince William. As for the injured nuns’ prognosis, Smith said: “We don’t know yet. They’re in the trauma unit on ventilators, the two of them. They’re being kept sedated.” The retreat began as scheduled Monday morning, Smith said, but would be “abbreviated.” Police would not disclose Mon-


tano’s alleged level of intoxication or discuss other evidence. Mosier, a native Pennsylvanian who entered the convent nearly a half-century ago at age 18, was “a good and faithful servant of the


Trust.


Lord,” Bishop Paul S. Loverde, leader of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, said in a statement. “This tragedy, which comes alleg- edly as a result of a young man’s drunk driving, was avoidable. “The sisters now live with the consequences of this behavior, as do countless other families,” Lo- verde said. “While we pray for the driver, let us also recommit our- selves to eliminating this absolutely unac- ceptable behavior.” Montano, hospital- ized with injuries au- thorities said were not life-threatening, was charged with involun- tary


manslaughter,


Carlos Montano, 23, is charged in the crash.


punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and driving after an alco- hol-related license rev-


ocation, which carries a potential one-year term, Ebert said. Montano was also charged with drunken driving, Ebert said. Because the charge is Montano’s third in less than five years, all in Prince William, it is punishable by up to five years in prison, Eb-


ert said.


Reading from a computer printout, Ebert recited a list of Montano’s arrests or citations — under several names and Social Security numbers, he said — for reckless driving in 2006; speed- ing on two occasions in 2007; public drunkenness in 2007; driv- ing an uninspected vehicle in 2008; and three instances of driv- ing after a license revocation, in 2008, last year and in April. Ebert said Montano was not sentenced to jail for any of the of- fenses, all but one of which oc- curred in Northern Virginia. The two cases that disturb him most, Ebert said, are Montano’s drunken-driving convictions in 2007 and 2008.


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About 3:15 a.m. on July 7, 2007, according to court documents, a police officer found Montano asleep behind the wheel of a car idling at a stop sign. After the offi- cer ordered him to step out, Mon- tano “was extremely unsteady on his feet and almost fell to the road,” a police report says. It says Montano told the officer he had consumed about eight beers. Tests showed Montano’s blood- alcohol level was 0.13 percent, well above the 0.08 percent legal limit for driving in Virginia, court records show. His license was sus- pended after his conviction, but he was not sentenced to jail. Just after 2 a.m. on Oct. 4, 2008, a police officer stopped Montano for driving erratically, court documents show. He told the officer that he had consumed five or six beers, a police report says. It says that a breath test giv- en to Montano 90 minutes after his arrest found his blood-alcohol level to be 0.17 percent, more than twice the legal limit. In Virginia, a second drunken- driving conviction within five years is punishable by up to a year in jail, and the defendant must serve at least 10 days. Mon- tano was given a 363-day sen- tence with all but 20 days sus- pended, records show. Mosier, who grew up in the


northwestern Pennsylvania town of Kane, entered the convent af- ter graduating from high school in the early 1960s and later re- ceived a bachelor’s degree in Eng- lish, Smith said. She said Mosier taught in parochial schools in Pennsylvania and Virginia and served as a missionary in Ethio- pia and Tanzania for eight years in the 1970s and ’80s. For about the past 12 years, Mo-


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sier’s main role in the religious order was as a spiritual counselor to groups and individuals. “Denise was very special,” said Smith. “She had a genuine love for all people. . . . Very person- able, very outgoing. Almost al- ways happy and upbeat. She was one of the most generous and for- giving people I’ve ever known.” buskej@washpost.com dugganp@washpost.com


S


KLMNO


Sister Denise Mosier, far left, a former missionary in Africa, was killed Sunday in a head-on crash in Prince William County. Sister Connie Ruth Lupton, center, and Sister Charlotte Lange were


critically injured.


TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2010


Opinion backs checks of immigration status


immigration from A1


opinion because he feared that the Senate, under Democratic control, would not approve legislation per- mitting law enforcement officers to inquire about legal status dur- ing routine stops. Bills seeking similar powers were killed in the Senate in recent years. Marshall wrote to Gov. Robert F.


McDonnell (R) onMonday asking him to codify Cuccinelli’s opinion through executive order. He said he thinks that Virginia can avoid legal trouble by allowing but not mandating the checks by police. McDonnell spokesman Tucker


Martin said the governor will re- view the opinion, saying it built upon an opinion he issued as at- torney general in 2007. “That opin- ion detailed how local and state law enforcement officials can work in cooperation with federal au- thorities to ensure the criminal immigration laws of this nation are upheld and enforced,” Martin said in a statement.


‘The same inquiries’


In his opinion, Cuccinelli also wrote that local law enforcement officers can arrest those they sus- pect of committing criminal vio- lations of immigration laws — crossing the border — but not those they think have violated civil immigration statutes — overstay- ing visas. But he says that checking immigration status is different than arresting for a violation, and that law enforcement can inquire. “Virginia law enforcement offi-


cers have the authority to make the same inquiries as those con- templated by the new Arizona law. So long as the officers have the req- uisite level of suspicion to believe that a violation of the law has oc- curred, the officers may detain and briefly question a person they sus- pect has committed a federal crime,” he writes. Cuccinelli said, however, that lo-


cal law enforcement can arrest those suspected of violating crimi- nal laws, but that it is generally “inadvisable” to arrest those sus- pected of committing civil vio- lations. “The ability to arrest lies clearly when there is a criminal of- fense and it is decidedly unclear where there is a civil offense,” he said. The attorney general’s legal opinion was issued amid a grow- ing national debate about immi- gration. A U.S. district judge tem- porarily blocked the most contro- versial sections of Arizona’s law, which took effect last week. Nearly 20 states have introduced bills similar to the Arizona law, and nine states, including Virginia, are filing appellate briefs supporting Arizona. In Virginia, Corey A. Stewart (R-


At Large), chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervi- sors, is pushing state lawmakers to pass legislation that would crack down on illegal immigrants. His proposal includes language that would require police to check the legal status of anyone who is de- tained if there is “reasonable sus- picion” that the person is in the United States illegally. Stewart said Cuccinelli’s opin-


He ri t age


teamwork strengtH Commitment


ion is a “positive step” that presses local jurisdictions to act. He said police have been reluctant to check immigration status because of the workload and fears that they would be accused of racial profil- ing.


Senate Majority Leader Richard


L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) said some lo- calities may adopt ordinances based on Cuccinelli’s opinion, but predicted such ordinances would be challenged. “I think they will have a prob- lem in court,’’ he said. “They’re go- ing to be told to go back to the General Assembly.” Of the estimated 12 million ille- gal immigrants in the United States, 275,000 to 325,000 live in Virginia, according to the Pew His- panic Center in Washington. And some regional advocacy groups fear that Cuccinelli’s legal opinion gives law enforcement the imme- diate authority to check immigra- tion status. “There’s a danger that some law enforcement would do this,’’ said Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, a for- mer Virginia chief deputy attorney general who lobbies for immigrant organizations. “They may use this as a permission slip.”


Caught off guard


Cuccinelli’s opinion caught some law enforcement groups in the state off guard, including the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police. “We were not consulted, and we


always welcome the opportunity to talk with the office of the attor- ney general. We would have wel- comed the opportunity to talk with him before this opinion, but we still welcome it,” said Dana G. Schrad, the group’s executive di- rector. The association does not have a position on asking about immigration status during stops. “We have a mixed bag of feelings on immigration status matters, so it’s more complicated than do we support it or not,” she said. Although procedures vary by


department, Schrad said police and sheriffs in the state who in- quire about immigration status tend to do so after an arrest, not during routine stops, although de- partments including Prince Wil- liam may ask about status during a traffic stop to help determine iden- tity if someone lacks valid identifi- cation. Prince William Chief Charlie Deane has criticized any sweeping questioning, saying it would cost taxpayers by sapping police re- sources and could lead to allega- tions of racism while harming community relations. Department spokeswoman Sgt. Kim Chinn said Deane will review Cuccinelli’s opinion.


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Corinne Geller, a spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police, said Superintendent W. Steven Flaher- ty is aware of the opinion but does not plan to make procedural changes. She said that troopers are allowed to question the people they stop, but that they do not un- less they have a specific reason. For example, she said, if someone’s license, registration and insurance do not match. Officials at the Virginia Associa- tion of Counties and at the Vir- ginia Municipal League, which represents cities, towns and some counties in the commonwealth, said it is too soon to say how mem- bers will react to the opinion. But the action comes as several local jurisdictions continue to weigh how best to handle the influx of il- legal immigrants. “I think the general sense seems to be that Prince William seems to be the only county interested in enforcing federal law at this point,” said James D. Campbell, executive director of the counties associa- tion. “There doesn’t seem to be a lot of discussion elsewhere in the state.” Mark Flynn, director of legal


Jay O’Brien Executive Vice President


services at the Municipal League, said the nonpartisan association’s board recently asked him, with help from graduate students at George Mason University, to pre- pare a report on the costs of illegal immigration that are borne by lo- cal jurisdictions. “We found that, yes, it has terrif- ic costs on local government,” es- pecially on schools, social services and police, Flynn said. But Flynn said the group discovered that cal- culating those costs precisely is difficult; the group also recognized that immigrants have brought benefits that are equally challeng- ing to quantify. In the end, with members’ pol-


icies ranging from the get-tough action in Prince William to the open door in Arlington County, the league has decided to remain neu- tral on the approach to illegal im- migration. kumaranita@washpost.com heldermanr@washpost.com


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Staff writers Fredrick Kunkle and Mary Pat Flaherty contributed to this report.


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