Judge sets high cash bail to stall man’s deportation until after July trial

ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — A judge in Arapahoe County imposed a high bail in a drug case – $500,000 in cash only – to potentially stop the man’s impending deportation, 9NEWS Investigates has learned.

The unusual move was part of an effort by prosecutors to make sure Adan Desiderio Pavon-Andino, 30, faces prosecution in Arapahoe County with a possible prison sentence before he is deported to his home country, Honduras.

“I’ve never seen a case where there’s a bond for half a million dollars in cash, and the sole reason is because the person is an immigrant,” Giancarlo Small, Pavon-Andino’s attorney, told 9NEWS. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Pavon-Andino was the only person arrested during immigration raids in the Denver area in January and February who was publicly identified by federal officials. Picked up at a mobile home park in Thornton, a press release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) included his picture and his name.

According to court documents, Pavon-Andino was first discovered in the United States without proper authorization in 2013. He returned to Honduras voluntarily.

Then he entered the country again. In 2015, he was charged with selling heroin in two separate arrests. In a deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to distributing marijuana. A judge sentenced him to 30 days in jail and 30 days of unsupervised probation.

In 2018, an immigration judge in Arizona ordered Pavon-Andino’s deportation. Sometime after that, he entered the U.S. a third time.

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, ICE has moved to swiftly deport people like Pavon-Andino. That position was laid out by Jonathan Pullen, special agent in charge of the Rocky Mountain Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, during a Feb. 17 appearance on FOX News.

“That extra immigration push is essentially allowing us to take people off the streets and send them to their home countries as opposed to spending time and money investigating, prosecuting and incarcerating them,” Pullen said.

But that’s at odds with what many local prosecutors want to see happen in cases where people in the country without authorization are charged with committing crimes locally.

“I’m here to represent the people of Arapahoe County,” District Attorney Amy Padden said. “If someone’s committed a crime in Arapahoe County, they should be held accountable by my office and by the court system. So, I want that process to play out first before they are deported.”

She said that, among other things, deporting someone who hasn’t yet been prosecuted does a disservice to crime victims.

“I can’t get justice for my victim if someone is deported before they face the criminal charges for the crime that they’ve committed,” Padden said.

On June 7, 2023, Aurora Police arrested Pavon-Andino after they found a woman in an apartment handcuffed with her legs bound. Prosecutors charged him with kidnapping, felony menacing, third-degree assault, false imprisonment and possession with fentanyl with intent to distribute. All but the drug charge were dismissed last May after prosecutors concluded they had little chance of obtaining a conviction in court.

Pavon-Andino posted a $100,000 bail, using a surety. Meaning he likely had to come up with 10% of the bail, or $10,000. Pavon-Andino attended every court hearing since being released.

“He posted a bond because he wants to fight this case,” Small said. “He’s innocent. He wants to clear his name.”

He said that if Pavon-Andino wanted to flee to avoid prosecution, “he would have left a long time ago.”

But after his arrest in the Feb. 5 immigration raid, Arapahoe County prosecutors went to court and asked District Judge Eric White to revoke Pavon-Andino’s bail, noting that while free, he was subject to deportation. In a filing, prosecutors noted that state law allowed the judge to revoke bond based on a “breach or threatened breach of any of the conditions of bond.”

A breach would include failing to show up for future court hearings – something that would happen if Pavon-Andino was no longer in the country.

Judge White concluded that Pavon-Andino’s deportation would be tantamount to “depriving” prosecutors of the ability to take the case to trial, revoked his bail and set the new one at $500,000. By designating it “cash only,” Pavon-Andino would have to come up with the full amount before he could be released.

He is scheduled to go on trial in that case in July.

In the meantime, he’s also facing a federal criminal charge of “illegal re-entry of a removed alien.” That trial is set for May 5.