Rape suspect removed from country five times, previously charged with sexual battery

FOREST PARK, Ohio (WKRC) – Immigration officials said the man accused of a raping a woman near a Forest Park bus stop on Saturday has been removed from the country five times, more often than police initially thought.

German Mathews, who also goes by the name Hernan Mateos, first entered the U.S. illegally in 2005. He’s originally from Nicaragua.

Local 12 asked an immigration attorney how common it was for someone to enter the country illegally on five separate occasions.

“It is very rare, but it is possible,” said attorney Nazly Mamedova.

Mamedova said most illegal immigrants who are forced to leave the country are slapped with a re-entry ban. They typically run from three to ten years.

“Sometimes [the] ban is permanent too,” said Mamedova.

According to information Local 12 obtained from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Mathews was caught by the Border Patrol in Laredo, Texas, in June 2005 and voluntarily returned across the border.

“That is not a deportation, per say. You are able to come back again,” said Mamedova.

Clearly, Mathews did return. Just weeks later, Miami Police Department records show he was arrested for DUI and driving without a valid license.

Mathews was arrested three more times in Miami. In 2006, he was arrested for driving without a valid license. In 2009, he was arrested for disorderly intoxication.

In 2012, he was arrested for sexual battery by multiple perpetrators and false imprisonment, but court records show prosecutors chose not to pursue a conviction.

The jail held him for ICE and he was deported to Nicaragua seven months later.

Local 12 asked Forest Park police if they reported him to ICE after his arrest on Saturday. Police said that because he was being booked into the Hamilton County Justice Center, the decision was left up to the jail.

ICE filed an immigration detainer with the jail on Tuesday, the same day Local 12 began asking ICE about Mathews.

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office told Local 12 it only notifies ICE after an inmate has been released and only if there’s a court order. HCSO previously said it would ignore immigration detainers that aren’t backed up by court-ordered warrants.

After Mathews’ 2012 deportation, he made it back into the U.S. again.

ICE said Customs and Border Protection removed him from the country on three separate occasions in 2016 and 2017.

In a July 2017 criminal complaint, prosecutors said Mathews admitted to rafting across the Rio Grande into Texas.

The next day, Mathews was convicted and sentenced to time served – one day. He was also fined $10.

Mathews is currently being held on a $400,000 bond and would be released if the bond is posted.