Hanover
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested Xi Liu on Nov. 30 in Hartford for “violations to his nonimmigrant status as a result of a felony state child exploitation charge.” His arrest was part of a New England enforcement action sweep that resulted in the arrests of 58 people over a five-day span.
“As a result of the state conviction, which is under appeal, Liu is subject to removal proceedings,” ICE spokesman John Mohan said. “Liu was served with a notice to appear and will remain in ICE detention pending proceedings before the immigration judge.”
It’s unclear whether he could be deported before his appeal process plays out. Liu, through an attorney, appealed his Grafton Superior Court felony conviction of certain uses of computer services prohibited to the New Hampshire Supreme Court on Dec. 6.
Liu, 32, first was arrested in August 2016 after he tried to solicit sex from a 15-year-old boy through an online app. The person he was corresponding with actually was an undercover police officer, Sgt. Richard Norris of the Lebanon Police Department, according to court documents.
John Martin, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration Court, declined to comment on the specifics of Liu’s case, but said generally that a pending appeal would “not necessarily make (a person) ineligible for removal. It depends on the case.”
Liu, a Chinese citizen, entered the United States lawfully on a nonimmigrant visa, Mohan said.
He came to the United States in 2015, federal officials said, and had been a graduate student at the Thayer School of Engineering, but no longer is a student there, according to Dartmouth spokeswoman Diana Lawrence.
A friend of Liu’s, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions, said Liu still is in a detention facility in New Hampshire and wants to fight his case.
“He is still hopeful that the conviction will be overturned,” the friend said.
Liu’s criminal case started on Aug. 18, 2016, when he pursued a meeting with the boy on the social networking app, even after being told the boy was only 15 years old. When Liu went to meet him at a West Lebanon gas station, Norris arrested him, according to court documents. The age of consent in New Hampshire is 16.
Police cited him into court on a Class A misdemeanor.
However, a grand jury indicted Liu on a felony computer-related offense in January 2017, which he pleaded not guilty to a month later. The case went to a jury trial, and Liu was convicted in December 2017.
This March, Judge Peter Bornstein sentenced Liu to a year in jail, with six months suspended. Liu also was required to register as a sex offender.
Liu in April filed a notice of appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, and the county court stayed his sentence pending the appeal.
In his appeal dated Dec. 6, Liu claims the trial court erred by admitting at trial email statements Liu made to Lebanon police prosecutor Ben Leduc shortly after he was charged. His argument is that New Hampshire’s rules of evidence bar the state from admitting any statements a defendant makes during “plea discussions” with a prosecutor, according to the appeal written by Eric Wolpin, who is with the appellate defender program.
At trial, Liu’s defense was that he thought the boy was over the age of 15, according to the documents.
In the emails to Leduc, Liu sought leniency, saying he wasn’t familiar with the U.S. criminal justice system and that he struggled to understand his court paperwork.
“(I) really not meant to let this happen. All happened because of 1. my ignorance of his age, 2. innocence of U.S. laws,” Liu said in part.
A message left for Wolpin wasn’t immediately returned.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office has not yet responded to Liu’s Supreme Court appeal.
At least one Dartmouth College professor earlier raised questions about Liu’s ICE arrest in an email to Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon, but that was before the professor learned more about the case. She said on Friday she no longer is pursuing the issue.
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.