2 Border Patrol Agents: 12 years in Prison for wounding Illegal Alien Drug Smuggler

[dmp]

WHAT a crock of horseshit...I heard this on the radio this morning, and found this link:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52545


Two U.S. Border Patrol agents were sentenced to prison terms of 11 years and 12 years for shooting a drug-smuggling suspect in the buttocks as he fled across the U.S.-Mexico border.

U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, Texas, sentenced Jose Alonso Compean to 12 years in prison and Ignacio Ramos to 11 years and one day despite a plea by their attorney for a new trial after three jurors said they were coerced into voting guilty in the case, the Washington Times reported.

As WorldNetDaily reported, a federal jury convicted Compean, 28, and Ramos, 37, in March after a two-week trial on charges of causing serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and a civil rights violation.


Ramos is an eight-year veteran of the U.S. Naval Reserve and a former nominee for Border Patrol Agent of the Year.

On Feb. 17, he responded to a request for back up from Compean, who noticed a suspicious van near the levee road along the Rio Grande River near the Texas town of Fabens, about 40 miles east of El Paso.

Ramos, who headed toward Fabens hoping to cut off the van, soon joined a third agent already in pursuit.

Behind the wheel of the van was an illegal alien, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila of Mexico. Unknown to the growing number of Border Patrol agents converging on Fabens, Aldrete-Davila's van was carrying 800 pounds of marijuana.

Unable to outrun Ramos and the third agent, Aldrete-Davila stopped the van on the levee, jumped out and started running toward the river. When he reached the other side of the levee, he was met by Compean who had anticipated the smuggler's attempt to get back to Mexico.

"We both yelled out for him to stop, but he wouldn't stop, and he just kept running," Ramos told California's Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. Aldrete-Davila crossed a canal.

"At some point during the time where I'm crossing the canal, I hear shots being fired," Ramos said. "Later, I see Compean on the ground, but I keep running after the smuggler."

At that point, Ramos said, Aldrete-Davila turned toward him, pointing what looked like a gun.

"I shot," Ramos said. "But I didn't think he was hit, because he kept running into the brush and then disappeared into it. Later, we all watched as he jumped into a van waiting for him. He seemed fine. It didn't look like he had been hit at all."

The commotion and multiple calls for back up had brought seven other agents – including two supervisors – to the crossing by this time. Compean picked up his shell casings, but Ramos did not. He also did not follow agency procedure and report that he had fired his weapon.

"The supervisors knew that shots were fired," Ramos told the paper. "Since nobody was injured or hurt, we didn't file the report. That's the only thing I would've done different."

Had he done that one thing differently, it's unlikely it would have mattered to prosecutors.

More than two weeks after the incident,(emphasis mine) Christopher Sanchez, an investigator with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General, received a call from a Border Patrol agent in Wilcox, Ariz. The agent's mother-in-law had received a call from Aldrete-Davila's mother in Mexico telling her that her son had been wounded in the buttocks in the shooting.

Sanchez followed up with a call of his own to the smuggler in Mexico.

In a move that still confuses Ramos and Compean, the U.S. government filed charges against them after giving full immunity to Aldrete-Davila and paying for his medical treatment at an El Paso hospital.

At trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof told the court that the agents had violated an unarmed Aldrete-Davila's civil rights.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it is a violation of someone's Fourth Amendment rights to shoot them in the back while fleeing if you don't know who they are and/or if you don't know they have a weapon," said Kanof.

Kanof dismissed Ramos' testimony that he had seen something shiny in the smuggler's hand, saying that the agent couldn't be sure it was a gun he had seen.

Further, Kanof argued, it was a violation of Border Patrol policy for agents to pursue fleeing suspects.

"Agents are not allowed to pursue. In order to exceed the speed limit, you have to get supervisor approval, and they did not," she told the Daily Bulletin.

Those shell casings Compean picked up were described to the jury as destroying the crime scene and their failure to file an incident report – punishable by a five-day suspension, according to Border Patrol regulations – an attempted cover up.

The Texas jury came back with a guilty verdict. Conviction for discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence has an automatic 10-year sentence. The other counts have varying punishments.

"How are we supposed to follow the Border Patrol strategy of apprehending terrorists or drug smugglers if we are not supposed to pursue fleeing people?" said Ramos, who noted that he only did on that day what he had done for the previous 10 years. "Everybody who's breaking the law flees from us. What are we supposed to do? Do they want us to catch them or not?"

He also noted that none of the other agents who had responded to the incident filed reports that shots were fired and, besides, both supervisors at the scene knew they had discharged their weapons.

"You need to tell a supervisor because you can't assume that a supervisor knows about it," Kanof countered. "You have to report any discharge of a firearm."

"This is the greatest miscarriage of justice I have ever seen," said Andy Ramirez of the nonprofit group Friends of the Border Patrol. "This drug smuggler has fully contributed to the destruction of two brave agents and their families and has sent a very loud message to the other Border Patrol agents: If you confront a smuggler, this is what will happen to you."

The El Paso Sheriff's Department increased its patrols around the Ramos home when the family received threats from people they believed were associated with Aldrete-Davila.

 

[Nienna]

Bewildering how ANYONE could bring these charges to begin with, much LESS hand down the ruling that this judge & jury made.

 

[theHawk]

Where is the Presidential Pardon at?

 

[glockmail]

Where is the Presidential Pardon at?

Unless you are a VIP, you have to actually be in prison before you would be considered for a pardon.

U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, Texas, sentenced Jose Alonso Compean to 12 years in prison and Ignacio Ramos to 11 years and one day despite a plea by their attorney for a new trial after three jurors said they were coerced into voting guilty in the case, the Washington Times reported.

This will be appealed on these grounds and probably thrown out.

A Judge that would let this verdict stand should be impeached.

 

[90K]

I guess when real border security is taken seriously then real border security can be achieved:nine:

 

[insein]

saw this on Glenn Beck the other night. I have to have hope in the appeals process that these guys will never goto actually prison.

 

[ScreamingEagle]

three jurors said they were coerced into voting guilty in the case

How were these jurors "coerced"? The drug cartels are obviously very powerful and dangerous. Who knows? maybe the judge was also "coerced"?

 

[Annie]

Unless you are a VIP, you have to actually be in prison before you would be considered for a pardon.



This will be appealed on these grounds and probably thrown out.

A Judge that would let this verdict stand should be impeached.

Appointed by Bush in 2003.

 

[glockmail]

Appointed by Bush in 2003.

Gawd- another Souter?

 

[Gunny]

WHAT a crock of horseshit...I heard this on the radio this morning, and found this link:

Lesson learned: Don't shoot them in the ass, and hide the body.

 

[manu1959]

Lesson learned: Don't shoot them in the ass, and hide the body.

two in the chest one in the head and make sure they are on the mex side when you do it

 

[Gunny]

two in the chest one in the head and make sure they are on the mex side when you do it

And bury them DEEP.

 

[insein]

And bury them DEEP.

I think killing him is good enough. Dead men don't press charges.

 

[CrimsonWhite]

two in the chest one in the head and make sure they are on the mex side when you do it

Mozambique. Then let the coyotes have 'em.

 

[glockmail]

And bury them DEEP.

Most trackhoes can go to 20', well out of dog-sniffing range.

 

[trobinett]

I say we set the Democrats on this.

They'll form a few committee's, request a billion or so to fund the investigations.

After two, or three years of various dog, and pony shows, they'll find the janitor of the local appeals court, has connections with the Mexican Mafia, on his mothers side. They'll deport him, and they'll issue a four thousand page report on what a great job they did, and how it was really just a terrible misunderstanding.

Of course the boarder patrol officers will still be in jail.:talk2:

 

[Gunny]

I think killing him is good enough. Dead men don't press charges.

But ballistics DO convict.

 

[Eightball]

Where is the Presidential Pardon at?

Dead On! "GWB.......it's cajones time!". Pardon those two border guards!!!!!!!

It's time to inundate the White House with letters/phone calls, of wrath about this injustice!!!!

 

[Bullypulpit]

The Justice Department threw these guys to the wolves, when they should have been acting on their behalf. It's a bullshit case that should have been thrown out of court.

 

[Bullypulpit]

I say we set the Democrats on this.

They'll form a few committee's, request a billion or so to fund the investigations.

After two, or three years of various dog, and pony shows, they'll find the janitor of the local appeals court, has connections with the Mexican Mafia, on his mothers side. They'll deport him, and they'll issue a four thousand page report on what a great job they did, and how it was really just a terrible misunderstanding.

Of course the boarder patrol officers will still be in jail.:talk2:

Personally, i'd favor knee-capping the smuggler and dropping his sorry ass far out in the desert. Let the scavengers and carrion eaters deal with him.