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Imprisoned border agent did report shooting
WorldNetDailyc.om ^ | February 7, 2007 | Jerome R. Corsi

Posted on 02/07/2007 2:07:58 AM PST by Man50D

WND has obtained a Department of Homeland Security memo indicating Border Patrol agent Jose Compean made a complete, in-person verbal report to his supervisor at the scene immediately following the shooting incident for which he and colleague Ignacio Ramos are now in prison.

The May 15, 2005, report filed by DHS Special Agent Christopher Sanchez documents a conversation between Compean and his supervisor that explains the decision by all nine Border Patrol agents and supervisors on the scene not to file written reports.

As reported by WND yesterday, a DHS memo filed by Sanchez April 12, 2005, shows seven agents and two supervisors were present at the Feb. 17, 2005 incident also decided not to file written reports.

The April 12, 2005, DHS memo stated that all the agents present at the incident were equally guilty for not filing a written report.

These memos directly contradict the repeated statements of the prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, that agents Ramos and Compean filed false reports about the incident.

As far as WND can determine, no written reports were filed by any of the Border Patrol agents or supervisors on the field.

Moreover, the record of the May 15, 2005, memo indicates Compean was truthful in reporting verbally to the most senior supervisor present at the incident.

Sanchez's memo of May 15, 2005, is a transcript of a hearing held by Compean with El Paso Border Patrol Sector Chief Louis Barker. The hearing was held at Compean's request in order to protest his proposed indefinite suspension resulting from his March 18, 2005, arrest on criminal charges.

The first part of the hearing was held April 7, 2005, before Compean's April 13, 2005, indictment. The second recording from the hearing is dated April 28, 2005.

At the administrative hearing, Compean was accompanied by union representative Robert Russell, a vice president of Local 1929, the El Paso branch of the National Border Patrol Council.

In the opening statement transcribed from the April 7, 2005, audio cassette, Russell makes Barker aware that Compean had made a complete report on the scene to Jonathan Richards, the more senior of the two supervisors who present at the incident.

Russell's testimony references a wound Compean suffered on his hand, a gash between the thumb and index finger, which he suffered when scuffling in the ditch with the drug smuggler, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, who had abandoned his vehicle and was attempting to escape back to Mexico on foot. Russell points to this wound as evidence of aggravated assault committed on Compean by the drug smuggler.

Here is Russell's recorded testimony:

Well, I mean, the base … the basis of this is basically … ummm … Mr. Compean … an assault took place that day against one of our agents, and he did defend himself, and the part of the assault is never mentioned in the complaint or anywhere by OIG (Office of Inspector General) that they know clearly how this did take place. A few sentences later, Russell again references that what transpired at the scene was observed by the agents and supervisors in the field and subsequently fully known to the Border Patrol management at the station in Fabens, Texas.

Russell indicates that management at Fabens themselves chose not to make a report about Compean's injury. Here is his testimony:

Even management at the station in Fabens was fully aware of what had transpired and for whatever reason nothing was ever generated … and once all this comes forward, I mean, it's my belief even his attorneys' belief that even once that does come forward and all that information is presented that the charges will possibly be dropped … or dismissed … or he will be found not guilty … based on that … what did transpire. Directly contradicting prosecutor Sutton's assertion that agents Ramos and Compean filed false reports, the April 2005 administrative hearing reveals Compean was forthcoming concerning the events of the incident.

In the second cassette, Russell makes clear that the reluctance to do more formal reporting after the incident came from supervisor Richards.

But the fact of the matter is an assault did take place. Umm … Mr. Richards did know about it. Umm … whether Mr. Compean … Mr. Compean said yes sir to this or whether he was assaulted or not … doesn't negate Mr. Richards responsibility to take some action from the facts that were presented to him as to what happened out there.

He was on the scene. He was told by another agent exactly what had happened and it pretty much apparently stopped at that point.

Russell argues Richards did not want to go through the trouble of filing written paperwork. So rather than press the hand injury, which Compean felt was minor, Compean gave in to Richards' pressure to forget about the hand injury, obviating the only issue the supervisor felt might be needed to document in writing.

Station Chief Barker asked Compean why he didn't report the shooting. Compean admitted that possibly a written report should have been filed, but he and the other Border Patrol on the scene considered the incident inconsequential.

Compean testified:

As …As I stated to … umm … to this earlier … I didn't … I just … I know it was wrong for us not to reported it and I … if I would have thought that he had been hit or anything like that had happened I would have … I didn't … I just … I knew we were going to get in trouble because the way … the way it's been at the station the last two … three years … uhh … I mean everything always comes down to the alien. The agents are as soon as anything comes up … it is always … always the agent's fault. The agents have always been cleared but, with management, it's always been the agent's fault. We're the ones that get in trouble. Compean continued to note that Aldrete-Davila escaped, and none of the agents in the field thought he had been hit. All the agents and supervisors in the field knew there had been a shooting and none of the agents or supervisors filed any written reports. There was no "cover-up" of anything that happened that day in the field, the documentation indicates. The only defect was failure by all to file a written report, including the two supervisors present.

Compean emphasized that the failure to report the incident was considered minor given the outcome:

He (Aldrete-Davila) was already gone back south. I … really didn't … didn't think he had been hit. The way I saw him walking back south he looked … he looked fine to us and we just didn't … nothing was ever said as … as to don't say anything keep your mouth shut nothing like that was ever … was ever brought up either. We just … we just didn't bring it up. Compean's testimony emphasized supervisor Richards pressured him not to file a written report:

When we got back to the station it was the same thing he asked me and the way … the way I … the way he … he asked me ... he made it seemed like he wanted me to say no and that's why I said it. By denying he had been injured, Compean made it possible for Richards to avoid the trouble of filing a written report on the incident.

The issue about filing a written report, according to Compean's testimony, turned on his willingness not to mention the assault. The decision not to file a written report did not turn on wanting to hide the fact that shooting had taken place.

Moreover, Richards was well aware Compean had been injured in a scuffling match with Aldrete-Davila on the levee, when he wrestled the drug smuggler down. Compean did not even realize his hand had been cut until Richards pointed it out to him at the levee.

The Customs and Border Patrol manual mentions that the penalty for failure to report the discharge of a firearm or use of a weapon as required by the applicable firearms policy is a written reprimand, or at most a five-day suspension for the first offense. The manual makes no mention of the possibility of criminal punishment for failure to report the discharge of a weapon.

In a last, more belligerent section of the hearing, Barker charges, "There was a shooting where somebody was shot and NOTHING WAS SAID!" The capital letters were in the original transcript, probably reflecting Barker's emphasis.

Russell responds, according to the transcript: "That was an administrative violation on his part by not reporting it to the agency, yes, but on the same part the agency failed to act when it knew that an agent had been assaulted."

Then, Russell himself shouts out, "EMPLOYEES SAW IT," pointing out seven Border Patrol agents besides Ramos and Compean, including two supervisors, were at the scene.

According to the transcript, the pressure on Compean not to file a written report came from Richards, the senior supervisor on the field.

Richards was applying pressure on Compean not to report the assault, because that would have demanded paperwork.

Moreover, according to the hearing transcript, there is no record Richards ever mentioned to Compean the need to file a written report on the shooting.


TOPICS: UFO's
KEYWORDS: aliens; borderagents; compean; illegalimmigration; immigrantlist; nifonged; ramos; sutton
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To: philman_36

"As far as WND can determine, no written reports were filed by any of the Border Patrol agents or supervisors on the field."

Ok. So does anyone know if there were any reports?


41 posted on 02/07/2007 3:57:08 AM PST by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream)
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To: happinesswithoutpeace
Was there never a report filed?
Read the article a little closer...and look at my relpy above again.
The issue about filing a written report, according to Compean's testimony, turned on his willingness not to mention the assault. The decision not to file a written report did not turn on wanting to hide the fact that shooting had taken place.
42 posted on 02/07/2007 3:57:57 AM PST by philman_36
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To: happinesswithoutpeace

"Ok. So does anyone know if there were any reports? "

Correction: written reports.


43 posted on 02/07/2007 4:03:20 AM PST by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream)
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To: driftdiver
My guess is he was waiting for the 800 lbs of pot this guy was bringing in and was very disappointed when it didnt arrive.

To quote Judge Judy: "Follow the money."

Drug money, like Opec Oil money, gets spread around and ends up in the the pockets or in the off-shore accounts of people in high places.

Something smells about this whole incident and the reports that the drug dealer was given immunity twice.

Something smells that the incident came to light only through the drug dealer's mother-in-law telling 'a friend' who was a border agent in Arizona.

Something smells that the government would spend so much time and effort and money and personnel to prosecute this case. The compilation of cost would have been more effectively used to fight the drug trade.
44 posted on 02/07/2007 4:04:47 AM PST by TomGuy
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To: happinesswithoutpeace
According to the article...No, there were no written reports filed!
45 posted on 02/07/2007 4:06:51 AM PST by philman_36
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To: philman_36

"The decision not to file a written report"

Thank you for that post.

I am just trying to wade through all this.

Would the (Gov) position be that not filing the written was
a in and of itself "false"? Or was there a written we don't know about?

Or the prosecutor was lying?


46 posted on 02/07/2007 4:08:17 AM PST by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream)
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To: TomGuy

47 posted on 02/07/2007 4:08:47 AM PST by philman_36
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To: philman_36
This was an attempt by the Bush administration to root out more entrenched liberal beaurocratic lifers in the government with the full intention of regaing the support of the conservative base on the illegal immigration issue and he allowed it to go on because he intended to pardon both men eventually.

Right. And Bush nominated Miers for the Supreme Court just to enrage the base and make them support his true intended candidate because it was planned all along that Miers would decline the nomination. [Uh huh, yeh, right.]

And there are two special one-time-one, act now, deals that you can make: you can buy the Brooklyn Bridge or buy 2000 acres of ocean front property in Wyoming if you act now.
48 posted on 02/07/2007 4:10:25 AM PST by TomGuy
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To: philman_36

I am seeing your point now btw...but you have to admit that the actual transcript was vague.

“Nothing”,”brought up” "seemed” “we just didn't bring it up”, “the way” “wanted”


49 posted on 02/07/2007 4:11:37 AM PST by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream)
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To: happinesswithoutpeace
Would the (Gov) position be that not filing the written was
a in and of itself "false"? Or was there a written we don't know about?

I have no idea.
Or the prosecutor was lying?
Ibid.
50 posted on 02/07/2007 4:16:24 AM PST by philman_36
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To: philman_36
"I would be more apt to believe it was all done in an attempt to damage/discredit the administration."

In which case the men will probably die in prison. We all know how the left loves to count bodies (unless it's in the inner cities). The more the merrier.

51 posted on 02/07/2007 4:18:57 AM PST by Earthdweller (All reality is based on faith in something.)
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To: philman_36
The decision not to file a written report did not turn on wanting to hide the fact that shooting had taken place.

Per reports a couple of weeks ago, the ballistics evidence was so screwed up that the bullet 'recovered' from the drug dealer's butt could not be matched because it was too damaged.

More smell: Sutton had the ballistics done by the state agency in El Paso, rather than at the FBI. This raises question the question as to why Sutton would change procedure. Typically, for Federal prosecutions, the investigations and tests are done by Federal agencies, not state agencies.


Ballistics data don't support charge against border agents
  Posted by Man50D
On News/Activism 01/29/2007 4:14:21 AM CST · 71 replies · 1,320+ views


WorldNetDaily.com ^ | January 28, 2007 | Jerome R. Corsi
Ballistics reports, used in the trial of Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos, one of two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting fleeing drug dealer Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, do not support the prosecution's claim the bullet was fired from Ramos' gun, according to documents provided to WND from Andy Ramirez, Chairman of the Friends of the Border Patrol. Despite the conclusion of a laboratory criminalist that he could not conclusively link the bullet removed from Aldrete-Davila with Ramos' service weapon, a Department of Homeland Security agent swore, in an affidavit of complaint filed against Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, that Aldrete-Davila was hit by...

52 posted on 02/07/2007 4:18:59 AM PST by TomGuy
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To: TomGuy

I guess my joke didn't go over too well. I did say..."I can speculate..."


53 posted on 02/07/2007 4:19:19 AM PST by philman_36
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To: happinesswithoutpeace
Try this on for size ... the difference between a righteous shoot and attempted murder, etc., is intent. The alleged bad intent of these agents was thought to be in a cover up and that's how the US Attorney played it. But if there WAS NO COVER UP, was there bad intent??? This wasn't two guys who were interrupted in a shoot-shovel-shutup operation; it sounds like the whole damn station was there, supervisors and all.

Is this is the "oh, by the way, your client's DNA was not found on or in the person of the complainant?" Don't know. But the doubt meter sure pegged on high. Why pardon if you can obtain a "not guilty?"

54 posted on 02/07/2007 4:20:22 AM PST by NonValueAdded (Pelosi, the call was for Comity, not Comedy. But thanks for the laughs. StarKisses, NVA.)
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To: Man50D

Alberto Gonzales must resign, or be impeached--NOW.


55 posted on 02/07/2007 4:25:23 AM PST by montag813
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To: NonValueAdded

"the difference between a righteous shoot and attempted murder, etc., is intent."

In this case was the "cover up" the only bad intent that Sutton put forth?

I am asking that honestly, I don't know the answer.


56 posted on 02/07/2007 4:29:05 AM PST by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream)
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To: TomGuy

I saw that report too, only he wasn't a border agent he was a Deputy Sheriff. Followed all protocol, other LEO's arrived at the scene as well as the Texas Rangers, once the Feds showed up, he was charged and was convicted and is facing 10 yrs.

I am not a conspiracy, tin foil hat person but I'm not stupid either. Something is going on right in front of our faces regarding Mexico and illegals. Quite frankly it is downright scary.


57 posted on 02/07/2007 4:29:13 AM PST by panthermom (Duncan Hunter 2008!)
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To: TomGuy

Seems like a crossing butt shot would be a through and through and not be recoverable/found. It was moving at a pretty slow velocity to lodge in his butt cheeks.


58 posted on 02/07/2007 4:34:03 AM PST by philman_36
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bookmark for later


59 posted on 02/07/2007 4:35:47 AM PST by pdunkin
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To: TomGuy

Here is a link to the video, about the deputy sheriff.

http://www.foxnews.com/foxfriends/index.html#


60 posted on 02/07/2007 4:35:54 AM PST by panthermom (Duncan Hunter 2008!)
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