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Not a pardonable offense (Border Patrol Barf Alert)
San Diego tribune ^ | 02/10/2007 | Ruben Navarrette

Posted on 02/10/2007 2:05:41 PM PST by TheeOhioInfidel

For an agent of the Mexican government, Johnny Sutton speaks pretty good English.

That's the title anti-immigrant zealots hung on the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas after prosecutors in his office convicted ex-Border Patrol agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos of shooting 15 times at an unarmed suspect who was running away.

Sentenced to 12 years and 11 years in prison, the former agents are behind bars.

Because the defendants were once Border Patrol agents and because the convictions relied on testimony from the victim - a Mexican drug smuggler who got immunity - the prosecutors have become absolutely toxic in the minds of those who think an invasion is under way and that Border Patrol agents are the sentries against the tide.

Hence the accusation by some that Sutton - along with his bosses, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and President Bush - has become an agent of the Mexican government.

"We just evaluate the facts," Sutton said. "We don't get to choose the facts. We don't get to choose the witnesses. We just have to decide whether a crime was committed and whether it's appropriate that it be prosecuted."

According to the evidence presented at the trial, including the agents' testimony and their statements after the incident, here are the facts.

On Feb. 17, 2005, about 1 p.m., Compean and Ramos were on duty along the U.S.-Mexico border when they observed a suspicious vehicle - a van that turned out to be loaded with 700 pounds of marijuana.

The driver - later identified as Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila - jumped out of the vehicle and tried to run back into Mexico.

Ramos and Compean testified they made a point of looking at the suspect's hands and saw no weapon. Compean fired at least 14 rounds and Ramos fired once.

Ramos wounded the suspect and saw him limp into Mexico. The agents collected the shell casings and filed false reports, trying to cover up the incident.

The case has become a cause célèbre for radio talk-show hosts, anti-immigrant groups, congressional Republicans, Minuteman vigilantes and cable television talkers with a knack for turning ranting into ratings.

The convictions also have been sucked into the wind tunnel of the immigration debate and turned Republican hard-liners into bleeding hearts.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, wrote a resolution demanding that Bush pardon Compean and Ramos.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, has called Bush a "disgrace" and someone who is "on the side of our enemies."

Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach - who used to be a lobbyist for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a nativist organization that wants to limit even legal immigration - quipped that, since Bush wants amnesty for 12 million illegal immigrants, he should simply add two more names to the list.

Basically, Bilbray lumped together former Border Patrol agents with illegal immigrants. What would the two have in common? Only Spanish surnames.

Apparently, you can take the congressman out of the nativist group but you can't take the nativism out of the congressman.

I asked Sutton about the insistence by some that this case illustrates the contempt the Bush administration has for border security and the Border Patrol.

"I don't take it too seriously," he said. "I'm a federal prosecutor in charge of prosecuting drugs and immigration for 660 miles of Mexican-Texas border. I'm in the business of locking up illegal aliens who come across and drug smugglers who come across, and so I work with Border Patrol day in and day out."

Sutton said he has a lot of respect for the Border Patrol and its responsibilities.

"They do have a very, very hard job," he said. "And 99.9 percent of them are out there doing it right, abiding by the rules in these very stressful situations, and they're doing just fine. But when you're in those kinds of high-stress situations, you can make big mistakes."

By all accounts, these agents made big mistakes. The same goes for those who are shamelessly using this sad case to advance their own agendas.

"It's just so rare that you have a situation like this," Sutton said. "But (Border Patrol agents) are human beings, and sometimes, just like anyone else, they're going to step over the line, and if they commit crimes, just like everybody else, they're not above the law."

Bush has said he will examine the case and determine if a pardon is warranted.

It isn't.

Navarrette is a columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune. His e-mail address is ruben.navarrette@uniontrib.com.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections; US: California; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: aliens; bologna; border; borderagents; borderpatrol; immigrantlist; immigration; pardonamericanheroes; rubennavarrette; wod
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To: napscoordinator

"am I alone in this bothering me?" Hopefully, yes!


21 posted on 02/10/2007 2:41:27 PM PST by F.J. Mitchell (Democrats: Too dumb to lead, too vain to follow, too egotistical to get the hell out of the way!)
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To: TheeOhioInfidel
Ramos and Compean testified they made a point of looking at the suspect's hands and saw no weapon. Compean fired at least 14 rounds and Ramos fired once.

Hey Ruben Navarrette, since the trial transcripts haven't released, let's have a source for this so we can be sure it's not from the same Johnny Sutton who also lied when he claimed the illegal drug smuggler was shot in the back.

Ramos wounded the suspect and saw him limp into Mexico. The agents collected the shell casings and filed false reports, trying to cover up the incident.

Again, please source this incriminating statement that could only have come from Mr. Ramos. Every other report I've read said the illegal drug smuggler ran back to Mexico seemingly uninjured.

22 posted on 02/10/2007 2:41:45 PM PST by RJL
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To: napscoordinator

no


23 posted on 02/10/2007 2:47:02 PM PST by muleskinner
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To: RJL
That statement wasn't incriminating in the least. Anyone who ever worked for the government in any capacity that required familiarization with weapons and target practice, are always equally indoctrinated into always policing up the brass.
24 posted on 02/10/2007 2:49:39 PM PST by F.J. Mitchell (Democrats: Too dumb to lead, too vain to follow, too egotistical to get the hell out of the way!)
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To: TheeOhioInfidel
From article:Ramos and Compean testified they made a point of looking at the suspect's hands and saw no weapon. Compean fired at least 14 rounds and Ramos fired once.

Who is the Reubin Navarette guy who wrote this article? From everything else I have read this statement is a lie. All the articles I have read said they thought they saw him with a gun in his hand. Besides who believes that a drug runner would be running drugs without carring a wheapon? NOT ME!

25 posted on 02/10/2007 2:52:36 PM PST by Spunky ("Everyone has a freedom of choice, but not of consequences.")
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To: RJL
Every other report I've read said the illegal drug smuggler ran back...

What reports? WND? The info. I read, from the D.A.'s office (your pal J.Sutton), states they shot him, hit him in the bootoks, and left him laying were he fell. Then picked up the spent brass.

26 posted on 02/10/2007 3:00:29 PM PST by muleskinner
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To: F.J. Mitchell
That statement wasn't incriminating in the least. Anyone who ever worked for the government in any capacity that required familiarization with weapons and target practice, are always equally indoctrinated into always policing up the brass.

You're correct, I didn't mean to cut and paste the second sentence.

Also a poor choice of words, I was trying to point out that only Ramos knows what Ramos saw, and every report I've seen indicated that the illegal drug smuggler easily ran back into Mexico seemingly uninjured.

27 posted on 02/10/2007 3:05:47 PM PST by RJL
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To: investigateworld
Mr. Sutton, you are a liar. The court record shows your office made dozens of motions to exclude witness and facts you didn't want on the record.

To be fair, that type of abuse is exactly how adversarial courts work. A legal system, not a justice system.

28 posted on 02/10/2007 3:09:01 PM PST by CGTRWK
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To: TheeOhioInfidel

If anybody should be put in gen-pop, it's the criminal prosecutor for violating their civil rights and the criminal warden for participating in a criminal cover-up of the beating of Ramos and not allowing him to have medical treatment for his injuries. Both of them deserve to be prags.


29 posted on 02/10/2007 3:11:04 PM PST by bigdcaldavis ("I'm not some candy-assed white liberal looking to turn you into better citizens." - Martin Querns)
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To: muleskinner
What reports? WND? The info. I read, from the D.A.'s office (your pal J.Sutton)

No no, not my pal. Tar & feathers followed by running him into Mexico on a rail is far too good for Johnny Sutton.

I may have been unclear, but as I have since clarified, I am firmly and absolutely on the side of the Border Patrol Agents Messrs. Ramos & Compean.

30 posted on 02/10/2007 3:13:22 PM PST by RJL
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To: napscoordinator

"Am I alone in this bothering me?"

No, the fact that these guys attempted to cover up evidence bothers me also. This is not a cut and dried case on either side. The drug smuggler got shot attempting to bring his poison into the U.S. and in my opinion got what he deserved. The Border Patrol Agents proved they were not rocket scientists by romoving evidence from the scene, so they got what they deserved, no one is above the law, and these guys know that.


31 posted on 02/10/2007 3:16:16 PM PST by sean327 (God created all men equal, then some become Marines!)
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To: F.J. Mitchell
"am I alone in this bothering me?" Hopefully, yes!

There has been dozens of threads on this, look them up and read them, make up your own mind.

32 posted on 02/10/2007 3:18:47 PM PST by org.whodat (Never let the facts get in the way of a good assumption.)
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To: DaveyB
It is amazing how lazy the press has become. Just quote the DA, don't bother investigating, don't question questionable assertions, just let your friends tell you how it is and report what they told you.

And publish a Carl Levin press release as Pentagon consensus.

33 posted on 02/10/2007 3:20:42 PM PST by Hacksaw (Appalachian by the grace of God!)
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To: CGTRWK
Can't argue with that~ But it seems that Sutton (via his office) filed the majority of the motions. Of course we don't know the details as the transcript still is notavailable.

And even then, with the redactions, we still won't know. Why the redactions?

What the borders are now some kind of national security issue? LOL !

34 posted on 02/10/2007 3:23:53 PM PST by investigateworld (Abortion stops a beating heart)
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To: muleskinner
What reports? WND? The info. I read, from the D.A.'s office ...

WND has and admits what's motivating their coverage, ie their bias. The real question is is what is motivating Sutton? Drug money, a wide open boarder preference from DC, blackmail or (it is a long shot) integrity?

The latter seems less plausible considering:

Only an fool would not question Sutton and what is really going on. The facts right now seem to be a casualty of someones agenda. Transcripts please - oh and pardon the agents!

35 posted on 02/10/2007 3:27:53 PM PST by DaveyB (Ignorance is part of the human condition - atheism makes it permanent!)
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To: napscoordinator
Am I alone in this bothering me?

No but the facts are skewered by the irrationalogues. Such as above the poster states that the supervisors were present during the shooting. They were not. They were at the scene of the shooting to investigate the van and the getaway of the smuggler. Nobody told them about the shooting and the shell casing evidence had been removed.

36 posted on 02/10/2007 3:27:58 PM PST by RGSpincich
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To: sean327
So now the Mexican drug smuggler is suing the US for 5million.

The National Gaurd is running away from the armed criminals, because they can't defend themselves.

The Mexican government is furnishing Spanish text books to border state American students which include references to taking the territory back to Mexican hands (Texas, NMex, Ariz, and, of course Kalifornistan)

This Country has gone nuts, and as a Texan and long time supporter of the POTUS, I cannot forgive him for not digging in his heels.

Of course the downside is that the legal and illegals vote rat, taking the Country into the abyss of socialism or worse with Osama Obama or the sheSatan.

37 posted on 02/10/2007 3:38:09 PM PST by oldtimer
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Navarette's "reconquista" embrace is simply one more indication that Sutton is corrupt and must go now. Because of Sutton, a foreign drug dealer is swaggering around free while the brave American cops who stopped him are locked up.
The Agents need to be released now, before Sutton's drug dealer associates have them murdered prison.
38 posted on 02/10/2007 3:40:26 PM PST by Godwin1
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To: napscoordinator

Why did they do this???? This is probably the reason they are in jail and most likely the reason they have not been pardoned yet. I just don't like the idea they covered it up. Am I alone in this bothering me?


I sure hope so. I could care less about the shell casings. What I do care about is seeing the US Attorney putting Mexican drug pushers in prison, not US Border Patrol agents

By and large the George Bush administration refuses to enforce immigration laws.
But they sure seem zealous when it comes to prosecuting Border Patrol agents
39 posted on 02/10/2007 3:56:23 PM PST by dennisw (What one man can do another can do -- "The Edge")
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To: sean327
The Border Patrol Agents proved they were not rocket scientists by romoving evidence from the scene, so they got what they deserved, no one is above the law, and these guys know that.

Bull!! Illegal aliens are above the law. Why isn't the George Bush administration enforcing our immigration laws? It could enforce existing employer sanction laws and identity theft laws and millions of illegals would self deport

40 posted on 02/10/2007 4:00:33 PM PST by dennisw (What one man can do another can do -- "The Edge")
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