Life isn't fair, I tell my boys. They're beginning to believe ol' Dad ain't as dumb as they once thought.
Posted on 07/06/2005 11:09:26 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Cleared in immigrants’ deaths
EDINBURG — A jury on Tuesday took four hours to find the Rio Grande Sugar Growers Inc. not guilty in a case that left six illegal immigrants dead during a routine harvest.
Relatives of three of the six people from Mexico and Guatemala killed in the field near Raymondville on March 24, 2003, were suing the sugar growers for $20 million in damages. They claimed the co-op was negligent in their harvesting methods, knowing immigrants used the tall sugar stalks to hide. The Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers Inc. is a co-op of about 130 farmers with Texas’ only sugar mill.
No damages were awarded in the trial that began June 16 in Judge Juan Partida’s 275th state District Court.
"The selling point would have been that they believed our position that the sugar mill did everything they could to keep people out of that field and warn people," said Charles Willette, the co-op’s attorney. "We may never know why they didn’t come out, but they should have."
Attorneys for the relatives of Mauricio Perez Guzman, Rosa Perez Guzman and Angel Gabriel Pineda, the three people killed, claimed the co-op’s warning system and burning technique were flawed.
Burning all four sides of a field leaves no escape, family attorney Juan Gonzalez said. He suggested the side that borders a water canal should not be lit, offering a last chance for individuals caught in the fields to flee.
The co-op’s attorneys, Willette and Joe Hernandez, said burning all four sides of the field controlled the fire. Willette reminded jurors of a case in 1996 when two individuals were injured running out of a field before all four sides of the field were lit. Hernandez said it was more profitable for the sugar mill to burn less than four sides, but safety and environmental concerns kept management from changing their procedure.
The sugar mill should not be held responsible for choices made by the illegal immigrants, who were voluntarily hiding in the fields to avoid immigration officials, according to the co-op’s attorneys.
"There is no doubt that this was a tragedy. No one at the sugar mill… no one… wanted these people to lose their lives," Willette said. "There is no doubt in our mind that the warnings were played, and that they were clear."
Hernandez went through a detailed timeline of the events the day of the harvesting, from the minute sugar mill employees began warnings from their trucks to the minute the fire was out.
Willette said the sound of the fire, which he compared to a "freight train, tornado, or hurricane," was enough to urge the illegal immigrants to get out of the field. Their bodies were found only four or five rows into the field.
The family’s attorneys – Gonzalez, Glenn Romero, Steven Hastings and Ricardo Benavides – claimed that the reason the people stayed in the field was simple: Either they did not hear the warning messages, or the messages were not persuasive enough.
Romero said the 1996 case was evidence to show that the warnings caused confusion and that management at the sugar mill failed to make further changes to prevent more deaths. He said employees who worked the fields lacked sufficient safety training and credibility as witnesses.
The sugar mill first began using its current warning system after a 1988 incident, when one man was killed and another injured during harvesting. Staff began posting orange flags on all four corners of the fields before harvesting that warned trespassers to keep out and get out.
Audio warnings in both English and Spanish are now broadcast at two different times from trucks that canvass the fields, looking for signs of trespassers. A sack and what appeared to be water bottles were found after the 2003 fire was out, which both sides said may or may not have belonged to the six illegal immigrants killed.
The warnings the mill began using were purely voluntary, Willette said. After the 1996 incident, management decided they couldn’t make the warnings any clearer than they already were.
"They believed our warnings were reasonable and were adequate," Willette said of the jury’s decision.
Despite the verdict, action against the sugar mill is not over. A separate lawsuit was filed by the families of the other three people killed and will be heard in Willacy County in September.
Hastings, who will represent families of two of the people killed, said the verdict Tuesday should not make trying the case any harder, but will force the families’ attorneys to evaluate this jury’s decision to see what they need to do at the next trial.
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Agnes Jasinski covers general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4410.
Sue their lawyers for the legal costs of the trials!
Burning Deaths Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
By the time we are adults we are all aware that fire is dangerous!
They were ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, people! Stopped in the act of breaking the law. I'm sorry for their families, but you make your choices and take your chances.
That's what I call a warm welcome!
Why were they scared to come out? They had nothing but free food, free healthcare, free housing, free legal aide, free schooling and Lord knows what else on my dime awaiting them if they came out.
And this is costing the sugar company how much? I'm glad they didn't settle and hope they can recover their cost. No one wants anyone hurt but we really need a law where you have no right to sue if involved in a crime at the time of an accident. From being here illegally, no insurance while driving to injury while in a burglary. This should have been thrown out.
"A jury on Tuesday took four hours to find the Rio Grande Sugar Growers Inc. not guilty in a case that left six"
4 hours? What happened? Did the jury have an extended lunch break?
Life isn't fair, I tell my boys. They're beginning to believe ol' Dad ain't as dumb as they once thought.
so are the families illegally here as well?
Funny. Sick and twisted, but funny!
The other day a federal judge dismissed a case brought by citizens of the United States, in a legitimate complaint about monetary damages caused by a Kansas law.
That one gets thrown out, while this dizzying stupidity goes forward?
Why am I NOT sorry for anyone?
The illegals sued the wrong people.
They should sue the U.S. and Mexican Federal Government and Attorney General Gonzales for failing to enforce the border laws which would have kept their sorry butts out of here in the first place.
If our government enforced the border laws and immigration laws, these people would still be alive today - in South and Central America where they belonged unless they were willing and able to follow our immigration laws to get here.
(I WONDER if they were hiding in that field because the sugar mill was knowlingly hiring illeglas themselves???
HMMMM?????).
Attorneys for the relatives of Mauricio Perez Guzman, Rosa Perez Guzman and Angel Gabriel Pineda, the three people killed, claimed the co-op’s warning system and burning technique were flawed.<<<<
Hell! They probably started the fire..smokin' that funny weed on a break.
Over loud-speaker: "This field will be set on fire in 1 hour. Leave immediately or risk burning to death."
Crimaliens: "Nah, I'm staying."
How "persuasive" does the message have to be? If someone tells me: "Where you are right now is about to be engulfed in flames." I'm leaving!
Mexico needs to add a few more warnings to their "How to invade the US" comic book. Like, "Do not hide in sugar cane fields during harvest time!" and, "Do not attempt to cross the desert during the hot summer months!"
I'm sure our government will give grieving family members a temporary visa to sue US companies or citizens!
Their deaths are really the fault of the Mexican and US governments.
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
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