Posted on 10/19/2006 3:37:27 PM PDT by no dems
Edited on 10/19/2006 4:07:46 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Ex-border agents sentenced for shooting smuggler
AP
EL PASO, Texas -- Two former U.S. Border Patrol agents were each sentenced Thursday to more than a decade in federal prison for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler and then trying to cover it up.
Ignacio Ramos was sentenced to 11 years and one day, and Jose Alonso Compean was sentenced to 12 years. Both were fired after their convictions on several charges including assault with a deadly weapon, obstruction of justice, and a civil rights violation.
The men, neither of whom spoke in court, will be allowed to turn themselves in Jan. 17.
The agents have proclaimed their innocence in the Feb. 17, 2005, shooting of admitted drug smuggler Osvlado Aldrete Davila.
Aldrete was shot in the buttocks as he fled across the Rio Grande into Mexico after a confrontation with Ramos and Compean. The agents said they shot in self defense, but prosecutors charged that they had no reason to shoot at the fleeing man, who later claimed he was unarmed.
Since their convictions, support for the agents has swelled. Several prominent law makers, including U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, the Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House judiciary committee, have even called for a Congressional investigation into the agents' prosecutions.
The union representing most rank and file Border Patrol agents established a legal defense fund. And civilian border watch groups have asked the U.S. Attorney General's office to review the case and throw out the jury's guilty verdicts.
This article claims he is a lifelong republican.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4670239/
Or at least that he claims he is :-)
Given that the Republicans are having troubles with their base, or so it is said, I would think that if it was going to done, *before* the midterms would be better than after. Sure, it'll PO the folks who weren't going vote, either at all, or at least (R), but it will help bring out the base.
Doesn't matter...they did cover it up.
Well, that's the problem: nobody can independently assess that because they destroyed the evidence and didn't make a full and complete report of their activities to competent authority.
I am going to believe them when they say they saw a weapon and thought they were being fired upon.
If you had picked up your shell casings and not filed a report until your neighbor contacted the police, the police would not extend the same courtesy to you--they would assume that you were guilty, and act accordingly.
So they picked up some shell casings, whoopdie frigin doo. They didn't find the perp and thought it was a non event.
Firing a weapon is most assuredly an event.
The guy they shot was an armed invader against this country, I wish they would have offed the bastard.
That's apparently what they were trying to do--and when their supervisor showed up in response to hearing Ramos' gunshots, they suddenly tried to conceal what happened.
So the drug smuggler should be back in business by now while these two cops sit in prison? This is nuts!
LOL --- please direct your comments to the poster who thinks this country sucks. I am quite content to stay here and work to make changes I think are needed.
This country is full of corrupt prosecutors - many of them Republican.
I never said it was all that good either.
I don't think so.
I don't think anything will happen.
I posted that before I knew the entire story.
PS - it's not posted on this thread. That's about 1/3rd of the story give or take.
Sincere condolences. It's a story becoming all to common here in California. Were they killed in TN or while vacationing here in the 'high speed police chase' capital.
Here is a little help...the DOJ report on the case. They shot at an unarmed man 14 times.
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txw/press_releases/2006/Sutton%20statement%20re%20compean%20and%20ramos%20conviction.pdf
They are law enforcement officers, duly sworn to uphold the laws of this land, including the ones that might cramp their style.
They didn't.
These are BP, and the guy is a drug smuggler, not a 16-year-old with a dime bag, or some old retired guy with his savings under the mattress.
So you're saying that it's OK to engage in apparently extralegal application of force against this guy?
Maybe your state has different laws. Here we have guns ~ and can carry them openly in public.
I can assure you that, in El Paso, the prosecutor is almost certainly a Democrat, as is the judge.
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