I am an award winning bilingual investigative journalist with experience reporting in Peru, Colombia Mexico, Nicaragua, Arizona and New York. I use data to hold power accountable and uncover the human cost of policy. My work has ranged from uncovering misconduct by prosecutors in Ohio that left innocent people in jail for decades, to the mistreatment of political prisoners in Nicaragua, the impact of U.S foreign policy on the Colombian peace process and the failure of the coroner system in the U.S to accurately count COVID-19 deaths in rural areas.Based in San Diego, California, my work has appeared in National Public Radio, Reuters, The Guardian, USA Today, The Miami Herald, Univision and OZY. 
PRosecutorial MisConduct in ohio
Nearly two years of reporting shows that county prosecutors across Ohio have violated standards meant to preserve a defendant's civil rights in criminal trials; in some cases, they have done so more than once. Defendants spent decades behind bars, trying to prove their constitutional rights were violated at trial. Meanwhile, the responsible prosecutors have faced few, if any, consequences. I started working on this project by trying to understand how to examine prosecutorial misconduct from a data perspective. No data tracked allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in Ohio. I worked on a team at Columbia Journalism Investigations to build a database and report out the leads it generated for nearly two years, longer than any other reporter on the project. The result was a collaborative investigatigative series with NPR and member stations WVXU/Cincinnati Public Radio, Ideastream Public Media and The Ohio Newsroom, published in a series called “Improper Conduct.”We examined hundreds of state appellate decisions to identify claims of prosecutorial misconduct in Ohio, reviewed hundreds of pages of police records and personnel files, and interviewed dozens of criminal justice experts, legal scholars, judges and defense attorneys from around the United States. We used the database to identify prosecutors responsible for improper conduct and follow what happened to defendants whose trials were tainted by it. The findings are a first-ever attempt to pull back the curtain of anonymity shielding Ohio prosecutors from public scrutiny when appeals courts affirm claims of improper conduct. They also show a systemic failure to hold prosecutors accountable that experts say is not exclusive to Ohio. This series won a first place National Headliner Award.
Improper COnduct: Ohio prosecutors broke rules to win convictions and got away with it - NPR
Our anchor story, which features a six-minute segment on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” reveals that Ohio courts affirmed improper conduct by more than 100 county prosecutors over a four-year period. Thirteen of these prosecutors did so at least twice — and none of them faced any documented history of discipline as a result, Full story herePhoto: Dustin Franz for NPR
Improper Conduct : How undisclosed evidence can put Ohioans behind bars -Ideastream
In part two of the series, we delve into what experts consider an egregious kind of prosecutorial misconduct: Brady violations. We analyzed more than 100 claims that prosecutors had withheld police reports, witness statements and other evidence that could have favored the defense. Judges ruled that four defendants had trials so tainted by this misconduct that it warranted a new trial. All but one of these cases occurred in a single Ohio county. Our installment included a print piece and a four-minute radio segment that aired on Ohio’s public-radio stations, including in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton. Photo: Ryan Loew -Ideastream Public Media
covid - 19 pandemic investigations
Uncounted: Inaccurate death certificates across the country hide the true toll of COVID-19 - usA today
Graphic: USA Today
After running a story about a Missouri coroner who told me he never put COVID-19 on a death certificate at the height of the pandemic, I found a way to report out how widespread the practice was by collaborating with a Boston University researcher who had excess death estimates of all counties nationwide. We found the counties with the most excess deaths not attributed to COVID-19 and obtained cause-of-death data from coroners via public records requests. Our investigation with USA Today found that after overwhelming the nation’s health care system, the coronavirus evaded its antiquated, decentralized system of investigating and recording deaths. In some counties, half of the spike in deaths during the pandemic is attributed to COVID-19. Researchers say that points to a massive undercount.Short-staffed, undertrained and overworked coroners and medical examiners took families at their word when they called to report the death of a relative at home. Coroners and medical examiners didn’t review medical histories or order tests to look for COVID-19. They and some physicians attributed deaths to inaccurate and nonspecific causes that are meaningless to pathologists. In some cases, stringent rules for attributing a death to COVID-19 created obstacles for relatives of the deceased and contradicted CDC guidance. These trends are clear in small cities and rural areas with less access to health care and fewer physicians. They’re especially pronounced in rural areas of the South and Western USA, areas that heavily voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. This investigation won first place for online pandemic coverage or project in the 2022 National Headliner Awards, the Community Champion Award as part of the Institute for Nonprofit News INNY Awards and was shortlisted as one of the top 100 data projects of 2022 globally by the Sigma Awards.
Government paid $336 Million for ventilators unsuitable for COVID-19 intensive care units - Univision
At the height of the pandemic, Trump touted a $336 million contract that directed HHS to buy 50,000 ventilators from Ford and General Electric to prepare for the pandemic. Our reporting showed the ventilators were almost useless for COVID-19 patients, their purported use, since they were only designed to intubate a patient for a couple of hours while COVID-19 patients usually need two weeks or more.‘Like we’re on an island’: How Missouri’s inaction allowed delta variant to spread - Kansas City Star
Photo: Missouri government emails obtained via public records requests
We obtained thousands of pages of internal emails and other documents from 19 local health departments via public records requests that was used as the basis of a joint investigation by The Kansas City Star and Columbia University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation to trace the growing alarm and a sense of near-resignation among officials about their chances of halting the advance of the variant. The investigation reveals how June became a lost month in the fight to slow the spread of delta across Missouri. The emails paint a portrait of local health officials eager to vaccinate their communities but encountering resistance from residents, apathy from some politicians and a milquetoast state-level response. FEATURES and Breaking News
Cots, Food scarcity and constant confusion: the toll of New York’s migrant shelter evictions- The Guardian
Photo: Olga Loginova The Guardian
The city says evicting migrants will make them self-sufficient – but some say it’s a tool to deter people from seeking asylum. With Texas shipping busloads of migrants to the city, social services are overwhelmed. New York city started to evict families from shelters every 60 days.
I followed two families through the eviction and reapplication process for this story, conducting interviews in Spanish and translating to English.
From Home to Rubble: Growing Weather Risk Fuels Mexico Landslides- Reuters
Photo: Jake Kincaid
The landslide that hit the Cerro del Chiquihuite hill on the edge of Mexico City on Sept. 10 buried Eustacia Angel Valentin's home and three other houses, killing four people and forcing over 140 families to relocate. It was just one of scores of natural disasters to strike Mexico in the past few years, exacerbated by urban growth and extreme meteorological conditions, which are becoming more commonplace due to climate change, scientific studies show.
Colombia’s Hip-Hop Gardener Fuels a Green Resistance- OZY
Photo: Jake Kincaid
Luis "AKA" Ramirez helps heal a traumatized slice of Medellin through gardening, music and street art. Starting in Comuna 13, his collective, Agro Arte, takes control of sites of tragedy and turns them into green spaces that memorialize the victims.
Nicaraguan doctors say population now fighting two enemies: the government and COVID-19 - Miami Herald
Photo: Jake Kincaid
While the rest of the world scrambled to get critical medical supplies and implement quarantines in the early days of the coronavirus, the Nicaraguan government held a march calling for “love in the time of COVID-19,” and encouraged the population to ignore social distancing. As deaths from suspected coronavirus cases mounted. Doctors reported being forced to give false pneumonia diagnoses and list other causes of death before victims were sent away for quick, closed-coffin clandestine burials in the middle of the night. Still, healthcare workers defied the government and President Daniel Ortega and sounded the alarm that the virus was being widely transmitted in Nicaragua.
How to defend Nicaragua’s political prisoners in a rigged system- OZY
Photo: Jake Kincaid
Julio Montenegro has worked constantly since May 2018 to free 80 people arrested for participating in a civic protest calling for Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to step down. Montenegro quickly attained fame unusual for lawyers. People regularly stop him in the street, or honk and cheer as they drive by. His popular defiance reflects a country that’s been in crisis for more than a year.
Trump's Gamble Could Unravel Colombia's Peace Deal- OZY
Photo: OZY
The Colombian peace deal of 2016 ended the longest-running conflict in the Western hemisphere. It won the country’s then-President Juan Manuel Santos the Nobel Peace Prize. But now, with the world’s attention on the internal strife in neighboring Venezuela, the Colombian deal faces its greatest threat yet. President Ivan Duque and his party, Democratic Center, are rejecting key elements of the pact, determined to renegotiate it. And they have found in the Trump administration a vital international ally to back them up.
The Death Defying Activist Standing in the way of a $4.5 Billion Dam- OZY
Photo: OZY
Isabel Zuleta continues to fight the megaproject that will destroy her hometown- despite several murdered colleagues and an attempt to kidnap her. The company behind Colombia’s largest-ever hydroelectric dam project, long mired in corruption and mismanagement, had been forced to stop the flow of the river and flood the machine room to ensure that the dam would not collapse, sending a tidal wave from the center of Colombia to the Caribbean coast that would displace thousands and kill hundreds. Zuleta’s is the figurehead of a movement to hold them accountable for killing the river ecosystem and putting riverside communities in mortal danger.
A Nicaraguan refugee escapes to Costa Rica and plots his comeback - OZY
Photo: Jake Kincaid
Luis Sandino and his band of 14 political fugitives had been hiding in the jungle on the apron of Ometepe Island’s volcanoes for 18 days. The Nicaraguan military was tracking them with dogs and drones. They were almost out of the bread and honey they had subsisted on. They were growing desperate. Their only chance for escape? A shoddy wooden boat.
Coca Eradication hits highest levels since peace deal during coronavirus pandemic - Miami Herald
Photo: Jake Kincaid
Marco Rivadeneira was murdered while brokering a deal for coca growers in Puerto Asís to voluntarily switch to another crop. An analysis of Colombian Ministry of Defense and the Observatory of Drugs in Colombia data shows that in the months following Rivadeneira’s death, as the coronavirus pandemic swept the country, Puerto Asís became a target in a wave of forced eradication of coca crops by Colombian military forces not seen in at least a decade, putting growers in danger and leaving them with no source of income amid the pandemic.
U.S Heads for record Nicaraguan deportations despite Ortega Criticism - Reuters
The United States began deporting a record number of Nicaraguan migrants in 2021, data reviewed by Reuters show, as people flee the Central American country to escape a crackdown against dissent by President Daniel Ortega.
Despite early, strict quarantine measures, Peru has worst COVID-19 death rate in the world- Miami Herald
Photo: Jake Kincaid
Despite drastic early measures that were applauded by international health organizations and kept infection rates low early in the pandemic, Peru now has more COVID-19 deaths per capita than any other country in the world, with almost 30,000 total deaths in a total population of about 33 million, double the rate of the United States and Brazil.
Local news
Hunt Management CFO can’t account for $9 million in paymesnt- Pinal Central
Photo: Jake Kincaid
Part of a series of stories on a private water utility,. I broke this the story that showed could the chief financial officer could not account for millions of dollars diverted to a subsidiary owned by the son of the utility owner while under investigation by state agencies.
What did Johnson Utilities do with Millions?- 12 News Phoenix
Photo: 12 news Phoenix
As a result of my coverage on the local water utility, I was invited as a guest on Phoenix’s channel 12 news show Sunday Square Off to discuss my reporting..
Elderly, Disabled Find Affordable Housing Options Scarce in Pinal County - Pinal Central
Photo: Jake Kincaid
A shrinking pool of affordable house in the county caused seniors to get kicked out of their homes.
Photo: Jake Kincaid