Responding to a social media post from attorney general Todd Rokita, Monroe County Sheriff Ruben Marté denied ignoring a detainer request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The issue involves Manuel Lopez Lopez, who was arrested July 2 and accused of attempted rape after police said he attacked a woman on the B-Line Trail in Bloomington.
In July 2024, Monroe County Sheriff's deputies arrested Lopez Lopez on charges of attempted rape, battery and confinement. He pleaded guilty to the confinement charge. The attempted rape and battery charges were dismissed. Lopez Lopez served 222 days of a 444-day jail sentence before being released in February.
"Instead of honoring ICE's detainer request and getting this criminal out of our country entirely, he was released back into the community and has assaulted someone else," Rokita wrote on social media. "Now he is back in Monroe County jail. Don't make the same mistake. Work with ICE this time and DEPORT HIM."
Marté issued a statement late Thursday afternoon, saying the sheriff's office complies with the law.
The statement said that when Lopez Lopez was released, "there was not an immigration detainer on file for him with the Monroe County Correctional Center."
The jail, Marté said, had only a "Request for Advance Notification of Release" from ICE.
"This form specifically states that it 'does not request or authorize that you detain the subject beyond the time that he or she is scheduled for release from your custody.' That request was honored, and ICE was notified before (Lopez Lopez) was released."
In the arrest earlier this month, police said a man walking home on the B-Line Trail ran toward a woman screaming for help. The man found Lopez Lopez assaulting the woman on the ground and hit Lopez Lopez with his wooden cane, according to court documents.
Lopez did not get off the woman and the man grabbed him and told the woman to call police.
The woman had been walking home along when she was attached. Police said Lopez Lopez ran up behind her, grabbed her by the throat and pushed her to the ground. The woman was “screaming as loud as she possibly could in an attempt to alert someone to come help her,” police said.
She sustained scrapes on her arms and legs and the attack lasted about two minutes.