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2011-10-26 Home Front: WoT
U.S. border agent jailed for improper arrest of suspected drug smuggler
A U.S. Border Patrol agent has been sentenced to two years in prison for improperly lifting the arms of a 15-year-old drug smuggling suspect while handcuffed — in what the Justice Department called a deprivation of the teenager’s constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force.

Agent Jesus E. Diaz Jr. was named in a November 2009 federal grand jury indictment with deprivation of rights under color of law during an October 2008 arrest near the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, in response to a report that illegal immigrants had crossed the river with bundles of drugs.

In a prosecution sought by the Mexican government
Scoring points at home...
and obtained after the suspected smuggler was given immunity to testify against the agent,
So he had no obligation to tell the truth...
Diaz was sentenced last week by U.S. District Judge Alia Moses Ludlum in San Antonio. The Mexican consulate in Eagle Pass had filed a formal written complaint just hours after the arrest, alleging that the teenager had been beaten.

Defense attorneys argued that there were no injuries or bruises on the suspected smuggler’s lower arms where the handcuffs had been placed nor any bruising resulting from an alleged knee on his back. Photos showed the only marks on his body came from the straps of the pack he carried containing the suspected drugs, they said.

The defense claimed that the smuggling suspect was handcuffed because he was uncooperative and resisted arrest, and that the agent had lifted his arms to force him to the ground — a near-universal police technique — while the other agents looked for the drugs.
So far I'm not hearing anything that a Chicago cop wouldn't do.
The allegations against Diaz, 31, a seven-year veteran of the Border Patrol, initially were investigated by Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of Professional Responsibility, which cleared the agent of any wrongdoing.

But the Internal Affairs Division at U.S. Customs and Border Protection ruled differently nearly a year later and, ultimately, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas brought charges.

The Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council said the government’s case was “based on false testimony that is contradicted by the facts.”
Such as the statement from the now-immunized perp?
In a statement, the council said that because the arrest took place at about 2 a.m., darkness would have made it impossible for the government’s witnesses to have seen whether any mistreatment took place.
Which means anyone claiming to have seen mistreatment couldn't have, either...
It said Marcos Ramos, the Border Patrol agent who stood next to Diaz, testified that he did not see any mistreatment of the smuggling suspect.

The council said other witnesses made contradictory claims and some later admitted to having perjured themselves. Such admissions, the council said, were ignored by the court and the government. It also said that probationary agents who claimed to have witnessed the assault raised no objections during the incident and failed to notify an on-duty supervisor until hours later.

“Instead, they went off-duty to a local ‘Whataburger’ restaurant, got their stories straight and reported it hours later to an off-duty supervisor at his home,” the council said. “Then the ‘witnesses’ went back to the station and reported their allegations.”
'Probationary', eh? What are they doing now?
The council also noted that the teenager claimed no injuries in court other than sore shoulders, which the council attributed to “the weight of the drug load, approximately 75 pounds, he carried across the border.”

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas, which brought the charges, is the same office that in February 2006 — under U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton — prosecuted Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean after they shot a drug-smuggling suspect, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, in the buttocks as he tried to flee back into Mexico after abandoning a van filled with 800 pounds of marijuana. Aldrete-Davila also was given immunity in the case and testified against the agents. Agents Ramos and Compean were convicted and sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison, respectively.
I sense a pattern here...
Posted by Steve White 2011-10-26 12:24|| || Front Page|| [3 views ]  Top

#1 Our biggest threat to our border security is our own fucking government.
Posted by DarthVader 2011-10-26 14:16||   2011-10-26 14:16|| Front Page Top

#2 What I don't understand is why Border Patrol agents keep working under these conditions.
Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2011-10-26 14:22||   2011-10-26 14:22|| Front Page Top

#3 Comment read elsewhere: "This will teach those BP to leave authorized government drug smugglers alone."
Posted by Anonymoose 2011-10-26 15:20||   2011-10-26 15:20|| Front Page Top

#4 I'll have to drill down sometime into primary news sources on this one, because this story doesn't tell us the key thing: what did the BP agent do that was wrong? Lifting a man's cuffed arms up? That's SOP, from what I've read, and I believe it. Hurts like hell so the perp stops resisting; if you're a cop that's a very good thing.

There has to be something more, and I'll look to find some trial news and post it.
Posted by Steve White 2011-10-26 16:28||   2011-10-26 16:28|| Front Page Top

#5 Here is current coverage from another source.
Posted by Steve White 2011-10-26 16:31||   2011-10-26 16:31|| Front Page Top

#6 Coverage from April, 2011, in the Examiner.
Posted by Steve White 2011-10-26 16:33||   2011-10-26 16:33|| Front Page Top

#7 I think your government is trying to destroy your country.
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2011-10-26 19:02||   2011-10-26 19:02|| Front Page Top

#8 BP, the question is whether they are doing it to weaken us in preparation for the introduction of totalitarian Marxism or whether they are doing it because they are greedy, stupid and corrupt. Either way it's not good.
Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2011-10-26 19:15||   2011-10-26 19:15|| Front Page Top

#9 2 years! If guilty, fine him, but 2 years!

Totally political!
Posted by Creregum Glolump8403 2011-10-26 20:36||   2011-10-26 20:36|| Front Page Top










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