Man sought in Dominican Republic homicide back in custody months after release by RI judge

A man wanted in connection with a 2021 homicide in the Dominican Republic is back in custody nearly three months after disappearing following his release by a Rhode Island federal judge who was not made aware of the warrant.

Bryan Rafael Gomez failed to self-report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office on May 5 after U.S. District Judge Melissa R. DuBose ordered that he be re-detained.

In a court filing Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Rhode Island disclosed that Gomez was arrested in Massachusetts. The status update did not state where he was taken into custody or where he had been, only that ICE officers plan to detain him.

An immigration judge has issued a final order of removal against Gomez, according to the court filing. 

“As a result, the petitioner is within the 90 days during which the government is obligated to detain him, and he is not entitled to a bond hearing,” the filing states.

Gomez, 27, who entered the United States in 2022, was first detained by ICE officers earlier this year on April 4, following his arrest in Worcester, Massachusetts, on assault and battery charges.

DuBose on April 28 granted a writ of habeas corpus to Gomez, allowing him to seek a bond hearing before an immigration judge in Massachusetts after being held at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls. Gomez was scheduled for a bond hearing in Burlington, Massachusetts, on June 2. 

An arrest warrant issued by Dominican authorities in January 2023 was never disclosed to DuBose. 

Court filings show ICE’s Northeast Region legal office instructed Rhode Island’s U.S. Attorney’s Office on April 24, four days before DuBose’s decision, to neither confirm nor deny the warrant’s existence because its status was unconfirmed at the time Gomez’s habeas petition was filed with the court.

A translated version of an arrest warrant says a man with the name spelled as “Brayan” Rafeal Gomez and a man referred to only as “David” shot two people in March 2021, after an argument, killing one. Rhode Island Current’s own translation found the original Spanish-language warrant only claims the shots were fired by the man identified as David.

Confirmation was not given to ICE until April 30. That same day, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security called DuBose an “activist judge” and slammed her for releasing “a violent criminal illegal alien who is wanted for murder in the Dominican Republic.” 

The press release is still online and was defended by James Percival, general counsel for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in a May 12 op-ed for the conservative online magazine The Federalist 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Bolan has repeatedly apologized for the omission. Still, the incident prompted court officials to initiate an investigation into why the warrant was withheld from the court record.

A court-appointed special counsel determined in June that Bolan violated professional conduct by not informing the judge of the warrant, but no formal disciplinary action was taken by Chief Judge John J. McConnell.