Re: Border Agents !!!!! Please Help

After signing and forwarding the link to friends this was sent to me by one of them. The last article is the one that is the one that caught my attention the most. I just thought that maybe everyone would like to see it. VERY LENGTHY SO SCROLL TO LAST ARTICLE IF YOU DONT HAVE TIME FOR ALL OF THEM.

Office of Border Patrol:


Border agents sentenced in shooting (Washington Times)

Washington Times

By Jerry Seper

October 20, 2006

Washington Times



Two U.S. Border Patrol agents who shot a drug smuggling suspect in the buttocks last year as he fled across the U.S.-Mexico border were sentenced to lengthy prison terms yesterday despite a plea by their attorney for a new trial after three jurors said they were coerced into voting guilty in the case.



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 in their convictions 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.



A federal jury convicted Compean, 28, and Ramos, 37, in March after a two-week trial. The judge ordered them to report to prison Jan. 17. The Border Patrol fired both men after their convictions.



"Federal agents who protect our border deserve our respect, gratitude and trust. It is a difficult and dangerous job," said U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, whose office prosecuted the case. "But when law-enforcement officers use their badge as a shield for carrying out crimes and then engage in a cover-up, we cannot look the other way.



"Agents Compean and Ramos shot an unarmed, fleeing suspect in the back and lied about it," he said.



Defense attorney Mary Stillinger argued unsuccessfully in a motion this week for the convictions to be set aside and a new trial ordered after three jurors -- Robert Gourley, Claudia Torres and Edine Woods -- signed sworn affidavits saying they were pressured to return guilty verdicts after being told by the jury foreman that the judge would not accept a hung jury.



"Essentially ... they conceded their votes, believing that they did not have the option to stick to their guns and prevent an unanimous verdict," Ms. Stillinger said in the motion.



Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof, who prosecuted the case, told the court that the motion was not timely and lacked merit because "it does not constitute newly discovered evidence." She said the affidavits were obtained six months after the defense said it had done what it could to obtain juror affidavits and after the court had denied an extension of time for filing new motions.



The judge denied the motion yesterday before passing sentence.



Neither man spoke in the courtroom.



Federal prosecutors brought the charges after Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, a Mexican national, was given immunity and agreed to testify for the government following an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General.



Aldrete-Davila was shot after he illegally entered the United States near Fabens, Texas, and refused efforts by the agents to stop his vehicle. Court records show he jumped from his van and ran south to Rio Grande, where he was confronted by Compean, who was knocked to the ground. Aldrete-Davila managed to cross the border and escape in an awaiting van.



The immunity agreement protected Aldrete-Davila from being charged in the United States as a drug smuggler. Ramos and Compean found 743 pounds of marijuana in the van he abandoned near the Rio Grande.



Aldrete-Davila's attorney, Walter Boyaki, asked the judge during the sentencing hearing to do her job "and not have the possibility that we put a bull's-eye on every illegal alien and say 'Go get 'em.'?"



Mr. Boyaki, who said Aldrete-Davila was physically incapacitated and could not be in the courtroom yesterday, represents the Mexican citizen in a pending case against the U.S. government. Aldrete-Davila has filed a claim with the Border Patrol, saying the agency was negligent and asking for $5 million in damages.



Last month, Mr. Sutton said in an unusually detailed three-page statement that the two agents "fired their weapons at a man who had attempted to surrender by holding his open hands in the air."



The government's prosecution began after an investigator from the Office of Inspector General located Aldrete-Davila in Mexico. The investigator had been dispatched after Aldrete-Davila's mother complained to a Border Patrol agent in Arizona that her son had been shot. The agent notified Homeland Security.


Agents Get Prison for Wounding a Smuggler (Los Angeles Times -- CA)

The border officers were doing their job, backers say. The two had tried to cover up the shooting.

Los Angeles Times (CA)

By Miguel Bustillo
October 20, 2006

Los Angeles Times



EL PASO, Texas — Two U.S. Border Patrol agents were watching the Mexican boundary last year when they stopped a van carrying 743 pounds of marijuana. The driver fled back across the Rio Grande — with a gunshot wound in his buttocks.



Federal prosecutors convinced a jury in March that the agents had shot a defenseless man and schemed to cover it up. Much of the evidence against them came from the drug runner, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, who reported the shooting to a friend at the Border Patrol in Arizona. Aldrete-Davila was given immunity from prosecution by the U.S. attorney's office.



On Thursday, the agents — Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean — were sentenced to 11 years and 12 years, respectively, for offenses that included violating the smuggler's civil rights. Outraged supporters and anguished family members packed the courtroom, and many wept as the sentences were announced.



Outside the courthouse, members of the Minuteman Project, a group that opposes illegal immigration, carried "Free Nacho" placards. "I'm just happy to be going home to my family tonight," Ramos said as he left the courtroom, surrounded by his attorneys and relatives. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone agreed to let the men remain free until January, when they must report to prison.



The case has become a cause celebre among activists against illegal immigration and advocates of stronger border security, who say it epitomizes misplaced priorities of federal prosecutors as well as the predicament of Border Patrol agents, who must fight heavily armed criminals with little or no force. Among the rules broken by the agents, supporters note, was a policy forbidding agents from chasing suspected drug smugglers without permission from supervisors.



After Ramos and Compean were convicted, members of Congress demanded a review of the case; tens of thousands of people signed a petition supporting the agents and the efforts of the Border Patrol, which is vastly outgunned in its battle against narcotics cartels and human smuggling rings.



But Walter Boyaki, an attorney representing the smuggler, commended federal prosecutors for having the courage to carry on with a politically unpopular case, and argued that if the agents had not been punished, it would have "put a bull's-eye on every illegal alien."



The agents were convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon and defacing a crime scene as well as violating Aldrete-Davila's rights. One of the charges against both agents, using a firearm in the commission of a felony, carried a mandatory 10-year term. Although only one shot struck Aldrete-Davila, both agents fired. Lawyers for the agents successfully sought reduced sentences for the other counts, arguing that the men had solid records before the shooting. Cardone gave Compean a longer sentence because she found him more culpable. She did not explain why.



"He's a good man who did his job," said Compean's attorney, Chris Antcliff. "What's got people so upset is the draconian punishment in this case."



Added Andy Ramirez, head of Friends of the Border Patrol, a California group that has rallied support for the agents: "Why are they trying to protect this dope smuggler so badly? Why are they ruining the lives of two agents for doing their job?"



Federal prosecutors say the facts — including evidence that Ramos and Compean did not report the Feb. 17, 2005, shooting near Fabens, Texas, to their superiors — clearly warranted a tough prosecution. They say illegal-immigration opponents have spread lies and half-truths in a calculated campaign to turn the agents into martyrs.



"Federal agents do not get to shoot unarmed people as they are running away in the back and then lie about it and cover it up," said Johnny Sutton, U.S. attorney for Texas' Western District. "It is very important for border agents to follow the laws they enforce, and in those rare instances where they do not do that, it is our job to bring them to justice."



Ramos and Compean said they had scuffled with Aldrete-Davila and he appeared to be holding a gun. Aldrete-Davila said he was unarmed and had held up his hands in surrender; he said he fled only after Compean tried to beat him with the end of his shotgun.



As he ran toward the Rio Grande, Aldrete-Davila said, he felt a sharp sting and fell. When he touched his backside, he said, his hand came away bloody, and he limped back to Mexico. Ballistics experts matched the bullet extracted from Aldrete-Davila's buttocks to Ramos' handgun.



He has sued the federal government for $5 million, claiming he was permanently injured.



The agents' description about what had occurred was contradicted by other agents who arrived on the scene. One testified that Compean had admitted to picking up shotgun casings to cover up the fact that he fired at the smuggler.



After the trial, three jurors gave sworn statements that they felt pressure to convict, not understanding a hung jury was possible. Attorneys for the agents sought a new trial before the sentencing, but their request was denied. They plan to appeal.



Border agents given 11, 12 years plan to appeal (San Bernardino Sun -- CA)

San Bernardino Sun (CA)

Sara A. Carter

October 20, 2006

San Bernardino Sun



EL PASO, Texas - For the families of two Border Patrol agents convicted of violating a drug smuggler's civil rights, the day was bittersweet.



The hours Ignacio Ramos' family spent in his attorney's office before heading to the sentencing hearing were nerve-wracking. They were quiet and pensive. Every once in a while, tears would fall from their eyes.



"Is this it?" Ramos' wife, Monica, asked from the office of attorney Mary Stillinger. "I don't even know what to say or think right now."



It would only be a few hours later that U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone would sentence Ramos to 11 years and one day in prison and fellow agent Jose Alonso Compean to 12 years. Their families gasped when the sentences were read.



But the agents were not taken into custody. Ramos and Compean were granted self surrender and have until Jan. 17 to turn themselves in if they are not granted bond pending their appeal.



The families sighed with relief. Their ordeal wasn't over yet, but the agents would be home for the holidays with their children.



"The happiest thing and the best thing is that I get to go home and be with my children," said Ramos after the hearing. "I get to see my family and my kids and be with them for the holidays. I can't tell you how much that means to me."



Ramos' three young sons had gone to school late Thursday morning so they could spend extra time with their father. The three boys, 6, 9 and 13, didn't know if he would be coming home.



"I talked to them in the morning," Ramos said. "It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do."



In the small courtroom, national and local media sat in designated seats while Compean's and Ramos' family members sat in the back rows. Five U.S. marshals stood stoically on guard inside the courtroom. Compean's mother and father held each other close. His two sisters sat in silence, tears in their eyes.



"His 2-year-old son looks just like him when he was that age," said Claudia Martinez, Compean's sister.



Compean has three children, the youngest just a month old.



"We can't even enjoy the children the way we would like, or our family, because of this," Martinez said. "We look at them and think, `Will they have a father coming home to them?"'



Shuffling feet, a cough and the tapping of pens against tables were the only sounds in the courtroom before Cardone took her seat.



U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton sat in the front row, scanning notes for the news conference he planned to hold shortly after the sentencing. He disappeared quickly after the sentence was read.



TJ Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing 11,000 Border Patrol agents, sat in the courtroom to support the families. Andy Ramirez, chairman of the Chino-based Friends of the Border Patrol, stood with Minuteman volunteers and other supporters outside the federal courthouse.



For the families, the long court proceeding involving attorneys Stillinger, Chris Antcliff - representing Compean - and U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof, who successfully prosecuted the case, seemed like an eternity.



The attorneys presented their opinions, weighed in on the sentencing guidelines and tried to persuade the judge to look at the merits of their case when making her decision.



Cardone reduced sentences on all the counts against the agents, save discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, which carries a minimum 10-year sentence.



Ramos and Compean were convicted in March of assault with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, a civil-rights charge and obstruction of justice for shooting Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila near Fabens, Texas, as he attempted to smuggle nearly $1 million worth of marijuana into the U.S.



The U.S. Attorney's Office granted Aldrete-Davila immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying against the two agents. During the hearing, Kanof said Aldrete-Davila was just trying to get back home to Mexico when he was accosted by the agents.



Aldrete-Davila, who many believed would make an appearance Thursday, didn't show.



His attorney, Walter Boyaki, who is assisting Aldrete-Davila in his $5 million lawsuit against the U.S. Border Patrol, was in the courtroom and said that regardless of the fact that his client was committing a crime, he did not deserve to have his rights violated.



"(Ramos and Compean) are not the victims," Boyaki said. "My client is."



Boyaki also wanted Compean and Ramos to apologize to Aldrete-Davila, a request met with gasps from the agents' family members in the courtroom.



Ramos and Compean plan to appeal their case to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.



"It's not over yet," Monica Ramos said as the family drove away from the federal courthouse in El Paso. "But he's home, and that's all that matters right now."



As Ignacio Ramos stepped into the car, he pulled out his cell phone to call his eldest son.



"Daddy's coming home OK," he told the teenager. "It's OK to tell your brothers I'm coming home."


Pair hope to stay out of prison during appeal (El Paso Times -- TX)

El Paso Times (TX)

By Louie Gilot

October 20, 2006

El Paso Times



The former Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug smuggler in the buttocks last year were sentenced Thursday -- Ignacio Ramos to 11 years in prison and Jose Alonso Compean to 12 years in prison -- but allowed to remain free on bond at least until mid-January.



The agents and their families, who had prepared themselves for the possibility that the agents would be taken to jail after Thursday's hearing, breathed a sigh of relief.



"I'm happy to be going home to my family right now," Ramos said.



"That was the biggest concern, that the six kids would have to spend Christmas without their fathers," said Joe Loya, Ramos' father-in-law.



Ramos and Compean each have three children.



The agents must surrender Jan. 17, but they hoped that they would be allowed to continue to stay free on bond until their appeal.



On Feb. 17, 2005, Ramos chased a van loaded with marijuana to a ditch near Fabens, where the van's driver, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, abandoned his vehicle and ran toward Mexico.



According to court testimony, agent Compean tried to block his path, but Aldrete continued running toward the Rio Grande. Compean and Ramos then shot at Aldrete and a bullet from Ramos' gun hit the smuggler in the buttock. Aldrete made it to Mexico, wounded. The agents did not report the shooting, and Compean picked up his shell casings.



The agents, who will be officially fired now that they have been sentenced, said in court that they thought Aldrete had a gun.



They were convicted of various charges, including violating the Aldrete's civil rights and tampering with evidence. The case has become a cause celebre among conservatives, especially in California.



After the sentencing Thursday, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, Border Patrol AssistantÊChief Robert Boatright and Jay Smith, the special agent in charge of the Office of the Inspector General at Homeland Security,Êpraised prosecutors for their work on an unpopular case.



Sutton said that the Border Patrol badge is not "a license to shoot people, especially unarmed suspects who are running away from you, lie to your superior and write a false report."



Sutton took to task radio talk shows and cable news shows for presenting only one side of the story.



He also questioned the agents' claim that they thought the smuggler had a gun.



"The evidence reflects something completely different," he said. "The agents did not take cover and did not tell other agents to 'Get down. Someone has a gun.' "



Sutton said that he felt no sympathy for Aldrete, whom he called a "piece of dirt."



Aldrete did not appear in court Thursday. But his lawyer, Walter Boyaki, who represents him in a lawsuit against the government, spoke. Boyaki said that his client, a truck driver by trade, was incapacitated by the bullet, which shattered his urethra, and cannot work.



"I was expecting at least one of them (agents) to say, 'I'm sorry,' " Boyaki said. "I know Aldrete Davila would say he was sorry, too."



The agents chose not to make statements to the court and presented no witness Thursday.



Compean's lawyer, Chris Antcliff, blamed Aldrete, saying, "Had he stopped like any normal citizen, we wouldn't be here today. É This case is a little bit upside down in my mind."



He called his client, "a good man in a really bad situation."



U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone said that she took into account the risk to the agents in prison and the conduct of the victim when deciding on lenient sentences on most charges, but that she could not reduce the 10-year mandatory, consecutive sentence mandated by federal law when a gun is discharged in the commission of a crime.



The agents were not ordered to make restitution to Aldrete.



Outside the United States Courthouse, dozens of family members and friends of the agents who couldn't fit inside the small courtroom waited three hours to hear the sentence. About five volunteers with the Texas Minutemen were also there, carrying signs in support of the agents. The Minutemen are in the Fabens area for a patrol operation this month.



Family members said the fight was not over.



"It's going to be step by step," said Ramos' brother Hector Ramos. "The first step is going to get him home. It's a process."



Also Thursday, Judge Cardone denied the defense's motion for a new trial on the basis that three jurors said they were misled by theÊ jury foreman and voted guilty because they thought they were not allowed to have a hung jury.


Ex-border agents sentenced for shooting smuggler (AP)

Associated Press

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL

October 20, 2006

Associated Press



U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton has received dozens of angry letters and phone calls decrying the prosecution of a pair of former U.S. Border Patrol agents who were sentenced Thursday to more than 10 years in federal prison.



The agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, were convicted earlier this year of shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, a drug smuggling suspect, as the man fled across the Rio Grande into Mexico after a confrontation with the agents.



Ramos was sentenced to 11 years and one day, while Compean was ordered to serve 12 years in prison. The men were ordered to report to prison by Jan. 17.



Public support for the agents, both married fathers, has swelled since their convictions earlier this year. Several prominent lawmakers, including Wisconsin Republican James Sensenbrenner, have pledged to hold congressional hearings on the case.



Judge Kathleen Cardone, who rejected a defense request for a new trial Thursday, reduced the suggested sentences for several charges but was required by law to send the men to prison for 10 years on the charge that they used a firearm in the commission of a felony.



Sutton, who oversaw prosecutors in El Paso who handled the case, said much of the public support for the former agents is a direct result of talk radio and cable television support for the men.



"Frankly, if I only got my information from talk radio and cable news I would hate Johnny Sutton too," Sutton said.



He said he would have preferred to prosecute Aldrete. But there was no evidence linking him to a van load of marijuana found after a car and foot chase with the agents that ended with Ramos and Compean shooting at and wounding Aldrete in the buttocks. And the agents, he said, clearly violated the law.



"I feel no sympathy for the alien," Sutton said after the sentencing. "I feel he should be in prison. If we find him smuggling drugs again" we will put him in prison.



But Sutton said he was forced to charge Ramos and Compean because they broke the law when they shot Aldrete, didn't report it and then tampered with evidence by picking up several spent bullet casings.



"We cannot look the other way and we will not," Sutton said. He said the Border Patrol badge is "not a license to shoot people. It is not a license to shoot unarmed suspects who are running away from them."



Before the sentence was announced, Walter Boyaki, a U.S. civil lawyer for Aldrete, asked Cardone to do her job "and not have the possibility that we put a bull's-eye on every illegal alien and say 'Go get 'em.'" Boyaki said Aldrete was physically incapacitated and couldn't be in court Thursday.



In asking that the sentences be short, Mary Stillinger, Ramos' lawyer, argued Aldrete exhibited "very threatening behavior" the day he was shot and that should have some influence on the sentence.



Aldrete was shot, she said, "not because he's a drug dealer, not because he's an illegal alien, but because of his actions."



Compean's lawyer, Chris Antcliff, asked Cardone to consider Compean's history and his family — his wife gave birth to their third child about a month ago.



"It's a hard case to come to grips with ... this is a good man in an unfortunate situation," Antcliff said.



Border Patrol officials in El Paso have declined to discuss if the men had ever been disciplined before their 2005 arrests and eventual firings. Lawyers for both men have said they had no previous trouble in the agency.



But according to court records, Ramos was suspended for two days without pay in 2003 because he did not report being arrested in a domestic violence case. El Paso County court records show Ramos was arrested at least twice, though the charges were never pursued.



Doug Mosier, a Border Patrol spokesman in El Paso, said he could not discuss the Ramos case because of privacy issues. But he said any agent who is arrested must report that arrest to a supervisor, regardless of the outcome of the any criminal charges.



Lawyers for Ramos and Compean have pledged to appeal the convictions.