By Katy St. Clair | Bay City News
A former special agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security whose undisclosed relationship with a federal witness led to a human trafficker being released from prison early was sentenced to two months in prison on Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice for the Eastern District of California said.
Melissa Saurwein, 45, of Martinez, was formerly a special agent in Northern California. Saurwein developed a sexual relationship with a victim witness in the case against Job Torres Hernandez, a Hayward contractor who ran construction businesses that exploited laborers.
In preparation for her testimony at trial, prosecutors asked Saurwein if she had a personal relationship with any witness or victim in the case. She then lied about her romantic relationship with a victim witness. The truth did not come to light until after the trial and sentencing of the defendant, prosecutors said.
Due to her falsehood, the judgment in the human trafficking case was vacated, with the Torres Hernandez having only served three years of his eight and a half-year sentence.
Torres Hernandez was convicted of exploiting undocumented workers in 2019.
According to the DOJ, Torres Hernandez “kept the workers in squalid conditions and shielded them from detection while making them work as long as 24 consecutive hours at a time. Many victims testified at trial, with the assistance of an interpreter, about how Torres treated them. Witnesses testified that Torres paid them far less than what he had promised to pay them, and when they complained, Torres threatened them or their family members.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office recused itself from this case and it was turned over to the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, according to the Department of Justice.
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