Jon Christian Ryter -- Border Patrol agents railroaded for open borders, Part 2

BORDER PAROL AGENTS RAIROADED FOR OPEN BORDERS
PART 2 of 2

By Jon Christian Ryter

October 25, 2006

NewsWithViews.com

Assistant US Attorney Debra Kanof pointed out at the trial of Ramos and Compean that the Border Patrol agents violated Aldrete-Davila's civil rights by shooting him as he fled from the scene of his crime. What civil rights should an illegal alien�stealing into the country with 743 pounds of illegal marijuana expect? None. Or, at least, no more than any other felon who has no legal right to be in this country. The Bill of Rights should be narrowly construed by US Courts to protect [a] natural or naturalized citizens of the United States and/or [b] legal residents living lawfully within this nation. Illegal aliens, just like the citizens of any other nation within the UN are, and legally should be, protected only by the tenets of the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights since it binds the governments and peoples of all other nations on Earth. The Constitution of the United States should not provide blanket amnesty for all peoples of all nations since it is a national document, not an international one. The preamble of the Constitution begin: "We the people of the United States..." not "We the people of the world..." The "people" of the United States are citizens�natural or naturalized�not illegal aliens who sneak into the country to conduct their criminal activities and do harm to the American people.

Further, as Kanof spoke to the jury, she pointed out that US Border Patrol regulations forbids agents from shooting unarmed felons, telling them it was a violation of the 4th Amendment�which, of course, it's not. The 4th Amendment guarantees "...[t]he right of the [citizen] to be secure in their person, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Absolutely nothing there prevents Border Patrol agents from shooting at a fleeing felon who is evading arrest for drug smuggling�and who has assaulted a federal agent in the commission of a felony.

Other than Aldrete-Davila's word that he was shot by the Border Patrol while trying to evade capture, there was no mention of a blood trail to suggest he had been hit by the shots fired by either Ramos or Compean�information the government would have released in order to poison the jury pool if evidence existed that Aldrete-Davila had been hit by shots fired by either agent. Had Compean hit him, the blood trail would have started at the levee. Had Ramos hit him, the blood trail would have started closer to the border. Ramos and Compean were both charged with shooting him. That suggests there was no blood evidence to indicate which officer shot him. It also means its just as likely that Aldrete-Davila was shot by his employer in Mexico who would have been disgruntled over losing over a million dollars in contraband..

In addition to the fact that Aldrete-Davila was attempting to enter the United States illegally, he smuggled enough marijuana into the country to qualify for at least 20-years in a federal prison. Yet Kanof told the jury they could not use the marijuana to mitigate the charges against Ramos and Compean since the Border Patrol agents had not yet looked in his van and did not know Aldrete-Davila was a drug smuggler. And, of course, the Bush Justice Department gave the smuggler immunity from prosecution in order to convict two agents on charges that, had it been conducted in an administrative hearing, would have cost them a five-day suspension. Instead, Compean was sentenced to 12 years and Ramos, 11 years and one day. US District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone ordered the former agents to report to prison on Jan. 17, 2007. Walter Boyaki, the attorney for Aldrete-Davila, asked Cardone during the sentencing hearing to "...do your job and not have the possibility that we put a bullseye on every illegal alien and say, 'Go get 'em!'" Boyaki is representing Aldrete-Davila in his $5 million lawsuit against the US Border Patrol. Boyaki knows the more severe the sentence, the more convincing his argument that the officers and not the druglord shot his client�and the more likely he will get the $5 million he's seeking. I wonder why our judicial system continues to reward criminals who claim they were injured in the commission of crime? Last month as public expectations rose that Compean and Ramos might get probation, Sutton fanned the fire by issuing a three-page statement to the media in which he said the two agents "...fired their weapons at a man who was attempting to surrender by holding his open hands in the air." More smelly mackerel.

The second travesty of the trial came during jury deliberation. Three members of the jury believed Compean and Ramos were innocent of the charges, and held out for a not guilty vote against the nine jurors who were convinced the government would not have charged them if they weren't guilty. On March 15, 2006, at 2:15 p.m., the jury found them guilty. Mary Stillinger, Ramos' lawyer, noticed that a couple of the jurors began to cry after the verdict was read and, later, contacted them. Three jurors�Gourley, Torres and Woods agreed to speak to Stillinger on the record. All three were convinced the Compean and Ramos were innocent. They told Stillinger they were told by the jury foreman that Cardone instructed the jury that all of the jurors had agreed on a verdict. When the three jurors could not convince the other nine to vote "not guilty," they believed they were then obligated to change their vote�and did so. The three stubborn jurors should have demanded to see the judge's instructions�since Cardone did not order those who thought the pair was innocent to vote with the majority for the sake of unity.

When the sentences were announced to the media, Sutton took the limelight and said that "...[f]ederal agents who protect our border deserve our respect, gratitude and trust. It is a difficult and dangerous job. But when law-enforcement officers use their badge as a shield for carrying out crimes and then engage in a coverup, we cannot look the other way. Agents Compean and Ramos shot an unarmed, fleeing suspect in the back and lied about it."

The coverup mentioned by Sutton had to do with Ramos and Compean not writing a formal report that they had discharged their weapons at the fleeing Aldrete-Davila even though their supervisors, who were on the scene within minutes, knew the agents had engaged in a gunfight. There was no coverup�just a frantic search by Sutton's office to find charges they could file against the agents. Why? Specifically to instill fear in the Border Patrol and to make sure that, in the future, agents would be reluctant to draw their weapons when chasing illegals�even in self-defense.

I believe that was the whole point of the Justice Department's exercise in political jurisprudence�serving notice on the Border Patrol that moderation along the border is mandated by the new openess between Mexico and the United States. I further believe that's why Bush's "can-do" boy, Sutton, and not his chief assistant in El Paso, Leachman, was put in charge of the overall legal strategy to sacrifice two innocent men in order to appease the Mexican government�and, as an added bonus, get the Mexican druglords to rescind their $10 thousand bounty on Border Patrol agents.

This appears not to be the first time Bush's "can-do boy" Sutton played a key role in an international narco-border incident. Between August, 2003 and January, 2004 approximately 15 Hispanics were tortured and executed by narco-traffickers working for Herbiberto Santillan-Tabares, a top lieutenant of the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel. One of those executed was a 29-year old legal American resident named Luis Padilla who was murdered by narco-traffickers by mistake and was, along with the others, buried in the yard of a home in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico just across the border from El Paso. Padilla, a resident of El Paso, left behind a widow and three small children. The victims were all supposed to be drug dealers who ran afoul of narco-trafficker Santillan-Tabares. One of the assassins was a former Mexican Federal Highway Police officer known by the nickname "Lalo." Lalo was Eduardo Martinez Peyro aka Jesus Contreras. Lalo (neither of which is probably his real name). Lalo was a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] informant who participated in the 15 murders.

Sandalio "Sandy" Gonzalez, who was Special Agent-in-charge of the DEA's El Paso, Texas field office until January, 2005, send a letter to Sutton on February 24, 2004 providing specific details of Lalo's direct involvement in the murders of the 14 drug dealers�and Padilla, who was grabbed by mistake. According to federal law enforcement sources that spoke anonymously to the Internet Narco News Bulletin, federal agents with ICE, working in concert with one of Sutton's subordinates, Assistant US Attorney Juanita Fielden, "...allegedly went to great lengths to conceal the informant's complicity in the murders. Specifically, the sources allege that documents related to the case were shredded once the media began to pick up on the story in the spring of 2004." Narco News Bulletin further reported that ICE moved Lalo from safe house to safe house to keep the DEA from finding and questioning him. Further, the cyber media reported that a high-level supervisor in the El Paso field office [a] ordered his staff not to cooperate with federal agencies investigating the informant's role in the murders, and [b] allegedly paid Lalo $50 thousand in "hush money," and then concealed the payoff by using money that was designated for another informant�who had previously been assassinated by narco-traffickers in Mexico when they discovered the man was a snitch.

Lalo's handlers in the US Justice Department were, according to the 2005 Narco News Bulletin report, fully aware of Lalo's participation in the killings in Ciudad Juarez but did nothing to stop the killings or expose or arrest Lalo for fear of jeopardizing the US government's case against Santillan, who was in custody in the United States. Lalo's accomplice in the killings was the Juarez, Mexico police commandant, Miguel Loya Gallegos, who was also facing murder and drug trafficking charges. Lalo was not only Sutton's star witness, he was his only witness.

El Paso DEA head Gonzalez learned about Lalo accidentally when one of his agents�traveling with his family�was pulled over by one of Loya's crooked Ciudad Juarez cops who believed he was a competing drug trafficker. Had the DEA agent not been able to use his cell phone to get another DEA agent to the scene to confirm his identity, its very likely the agent and his family would have made a one-way visit to Loya's death house where Luis Padilla was buried.

Gonzalez, who retired from the DEA in January of this year, spoke with the Narco News Bulletin (and may even have been one of the high-ranking DEA sources who provided them with the details of the Lalo affair before he was forced to retire), was given a poor job rating after he wrote Sutton in February, 2004. Prior to his involvement in attempting to inform his supervisors that one of their informants was a narco-executioner, Gonzales had a stellar track record with the DEA. Because of Gonzalez exposing the Lalo connection Sutton was forced to cut a deal with Santillan in April, 2005. Sutton dropping the murder charges against him in exchange for 25-year prison sentence. In May, 2005, Sutton also dropped murder charges against the Mexican police commandante, Miguel Loya. In a prepared statement to the media at the time, Sutton said that "...Mexico had a superior interest in prosecuting those responsible for the slayings [in Ciudad Juarez]," adding that was the reason the United States dropped the charges. Mexico, of course, did not prosecute either man. The government's informant, Lalo, had suddenly become too dirty to serve as a credible witness.

A 26-year veteran with the Department of Justice before heading the El Paso office for the DEA, Gonzalez worked in the DEA's South American Office of International Operations and then as second-in-command in the DEA's Miami office. Gonzalez decided to become more actively involved in exposing Lalo when the DEA agent and his family were almost killed in Ciudad Juarez. It did not come without a price. Pressure from Bush's "can-do guy" Sutton on the DEA brass in Washington, DC brought retaliation against Gonzalez. The El Paso field office head received a negative job-performance rating, a demotion�and he was ordered by his superiors to keep his mouth shut not only about the Lalo affair, but about the letter he wrote to Sutton�and his efforts to get other federal agencies involved in the investigation not only of Lalo, but of Sutton as well.

To date Sutton has not brought criminal charges against Lalo for his role in killing a Mexican citizen carrying a US passport. A former DEA official told Narco News Bulletin that "...if Sandy Gonzalez or I had done something like this, we'd be in prison. When a US Attorney is incompetent, there are no sanctions. You have the Department of Justice that is supposed to control these US Attorneys, but they don't when it comes down to nutcutting."

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Sutton justifies his inaction claiming that he simply wasn't impressed with Gonzalez' background and did not feel compelled to meet with him when he received the El Paso DEA supervisor's letter suggesting that one of ICE's undercover operatives was part of an assassin team. (A federal law passed during the Carter years and strengthened during the Clinton years forbids the hiring as covert operatives any person engaged in criminal activity.) Yet, Sutton's office would have us believe that while he didn't think Gonzalez was credible, he thought the third party allegation of an illegal alien drug runner who was forced to leave 743 pounds of marijuana in a deserted van on the levee was credible enough that Sutton had a lawyer from Homeland Security's Inspector General's office go to Mexico to interview him�and return to the United States under a grant of immunity to testify against the Border Patrol agents. In addition, Sutton was so convinced in the integrity and credibility of the drug runner that the US government paid for reconstructive surgery to repair Aldrete-Davila's urethra that was damaged by the through-and-through bullet that passed through his buttock. For part one click below.

Click here for part -----> 1