
Mai Vu Vang served a 54-month prison sentence, but was moving to withdraw her guilty plea because it included a provision that allowed the government to deport her.
MINNEAPOLIS — A woman who served time for swindling her church congregation has been deported to Laos by ICE before legal proceedings that could allow her to stay in the U.S. could be completed.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office was working with 55-year-old Mai Vu Vang and her attorney to withdraw a guilty plea in the theft by swindle case, a development that could have potentially allowed her to remain in Minnesota.
Last week, KARE 11’s Lou Raguse reported on the unusual legal proceedings surrounding Vang, a woman who pleaded guilty in 2020 after bilking a number of fellow church members by telling them she was dying of cancer. Prosecutors say Vang stole $450,000, which she spent on gambling.
Vang pleaded guilty to the charges and served 54 months in prison. But recently, her attorney filed a petition for post-conviction relief and asked to withdraw Vang’s guilty plea, saying she was wrongly advised by previous counsel that her potential penalties would have been worse if she took her case to trial and was found guilty.
“Ms. Vang wrongly believed she risked an aggravated sentence if she went to trial; she did not understand the direct consequences of her guilty pleas, rendering her guilty pleas unintelligent. Alternatively, Ms. Vang’s guilty pleas were rendered involuntary because she was coerced into pleading guilty by the false threat that if she went to trial, she risked an aggravated sentence,” Assistant State Public Defender Chang Lau wrote.
There was another consideration: By pleading guilty, Vang agreed that if she was not a citizen of the U.S., she could be deported.
The move to withdraw her guilty plea came after Vang was taken into custody by ICE in Kandiyohi County on Feb. 18 after a federal immigration judge issued an order of removal. A statement from ICE says Vang was deported to Laos on March 27.
At the time of her deportation, Hennepin County Chief Judge Kerry Meyer was in the process of ruling whether Vang could withdraw her guilty plea from 2020 and stay in the U.S., at least temporarily. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office is on record as supporting the effort to have Vang’s guilty plea withdrawn.