By Cindy Gonzalez
OMAHA — More than two years after leaving public office, former State Sen. Ernie Chambers emerged in South Omaha on Wednesday to call out as “sexist and racist” a $10 million bond set for a Hispanic woman accused of manslaughter.
“Even mobsters don’t have $10 million bonds imposed on them,” said the civil rights activist and longest-serving Nebraska lawmaker.
Chambers joined Latino community advocate Ben Salazar at a news conference in criticizing the bond amount for Jessica Hernandez, 26, who is charged in connection with the beating death of gym owner Carlos Salguero-Canar.
Salazar said they weren’t making a judgment on Hernandez’s innocence or guilt. The two said their raised voices were a matter of protecting the constitutional rights of a person of color who hadn’t yet been tried or convicted.
They pointed out that co-defendant Nadim Zarazua-Hernandez Jr., 24, is accused of carrying out the fatal blows, and that his bond was a much lower $200,000. He is out of jail after posting 10% of that, or $20,000.
Jessica Hernandez, a mother of two, would have to post $1 million, or 10% of the bond, to be released pending a trial. She’s charged with manslaughter and evidence tampering.
Chambers said he plans to file a formal complaint with the Nebraska Judicial Qualifications Commission against Douglas County Court Judge Grant Forsberg and the Douglas County Attorney’s Office, who he called “co-conspirators in this blatant show of racism and sexism.”
While it was not uncommon for Chambers to file misconduct complaints against officials during his half-century as a state lawmaker, he said this would be one of the few times he’d done so since his last legislative term ended in January 2021.
Said Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine: “It’s a high bond, there is no question. But we don’t set the bond.”
Prosecutors have said that Salguero-Canar, 30, was beaten to death June 2 and found at an apartment complex near 27th and Harrison Streets. Surveillance video acquired by law enforcement showed Zarazua-Hernandez striking Salguero-Canar until he collapsed.
At some point, Salguero-Canar and Jessica Hernandez dated. Prosecutors have said that she gave false information and tampered with evidence in the case.
Hernandez’s attorney, Bassel El-Kasaby, said the prosecution has accused his client of “orchestrating” the crime as a sort of “mastermind.”
He said, however, that the probable cause affidavit that contains the basis for detention is sealed, and that he has not been allowed access to the document.
“I’m doing bond review hearings blindfolded,” said El-Kasaby, who did not participate in Wednesday’s news event, organized by Salazar. El-Kasaby said a hearing is scheduled Thursday to determine whether he can access the affidavit.
Salazar said he was also bothered that local authorities allowed the father of Hernandez’s two children, ages 6 and 3, to take the children to Oregon, where he lives.
Hernandez’s family members said that a local police officer accompanied the father to their house and that the officer told them the father had the right to take the children with him. Neither the family nor the children’s mother wanted the children to go.
A spokesman for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services said it could not confirm or deny that it was aware of the circumstances, but noted that DHHS is not involved in all such incidents.
“Sometimes it is only law enforcement involved,” said the DHHS spokesman.
Standard procedure, if DHHS were involved in a child’s removal from a parent, would be to rule out legal or criminal barriers. Consideration would go first to a biological parent, then relatives, kinship and traditional foster care.
Margo Juarez was among a handful of advocates who attended the news event in la Plaza de la Raza along South 24th Street. Juarez serves on the Omaha Public Schools board, but she spoke in her capacity as a community representative.
She said she was concerned about the well-being of the children “and how that was handled.”