Immigration Charges Stem From HPD Death
Cindy George
Federal grand jury indicts a landscaping owner who's suspected of harboring an illegal immigrant accused in an officer's killing
A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted a landscaping owner on federal immigration law charges, accusing him of harboring an illegal immigrant who was later charged with capital murder in the death of a Houston police officer.
Robert Lane Camp, 47, was arrested last month on a criminal complaint that accuses him of taking significant steps to help Juan Leonardo Quintero remain on the job at Camp Landscaping in Deer Park before the September 2006 killing of officer Rodney Johnson.
Camp is charged with encouraging or inducing Quintero to enter the country illegally and later harboring the immigrant in the Houston area. Quintero worked for Camp for at least 11 years, according to an affidavit filed by the investigating immigration agent.
Camp appeared before a federal magistrate last month and posted $50,000 for his release.
The affidavit and indictment accuses the entrepreneur of a decade of assistance to Quintero. In August 1998, Camp posted a $10,000 bond for the immigrant after he was jailed on a charge of indecency with a child and hired an attorney to defend him. After the worker was deported in May 1999, Camp sent him money in Mexico and later bought him a plane ticket from Phoenix to Houston after Quintero re-entered the U.S. illegally through Arizona. Camp then bought a home in Houston and rented it to Quintero, who is listed in federal court records as Juan Leonardo Quintero-Perez, the affidavit says.
In September 2006, officer Johnson stopped a truck owned by Camp's company for a traffic violation and arrested Quintero after the worker could not provide a driver's license.
As Johnson prepared a report in the front seat of his patrol car, Quintero pulled a pistol overlooked in a body search and shot Johnson four times in the head, police said. Quintero is scheduled for trial later this year.
Camp faces up to 10 years in prison.
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