Posted on 08/21/2006 10:58:38 AM PDT by beaversmom
EL PASO, Texas - The union representing U.S. Border Patrol agents has set up a legal defense fund for two agents convicted earlier this year of wounding a suspected drug smuggler and then trying to cover up the shooting.
The National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents nearly all Border Patrol agents, launched the fund this week to help former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean pay for an appeal and provide some money for their families. The men were suspended without pay after their 2005 arrests and fired after a federal jury convicted them in March.
Union chief T.J. Bonner, a Border Patrol agent, said the fund is a way for fellow agents and other friends of the Border Patrol to show their support for the agents who Bonner believes were wrongly prosecuted. The union contributed $10,000 in "seed money."
Compean and Ramos, who were both agents in the Fabens area, were accused of shooting admitted drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, a Mexican national, in the buttocks, and then trying to cover it up.
Ramos and Compean were convicted in March of assault with a deadly weapon, obstruction of justice, a civil rights violation and other felonies. They were both acquitted of assault with attempt to commit murder. They are to be sentenced later this year and could face more than 20 years in prison.
Bonner said he hopes authorities will also study how the original investigation was conducted.
Border Patrol officials first learned of the shooting after Davila's mother contacted the mother-in-law of an Arizona-based Border Patrol agent. The Border Patrol's Office of the Inspector General later launched an investigation.
Bonner said he has spoken with several members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who have said they would look into the case.
U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a former Border Patrol sector chief from El Paso, said he Tuesday has not been contacted and will not take up the case.
"A jury found them guilty," Reyes said. "I will refer to (U.S. Attorney) Johnny Sutton."
Robert Boatright, a Border Patrol assistant chief patrol agent in El Paso, said Tuesday that the case is in the hands of a "judicial system that we work in on a daily basis."
"We have faith in the system," Boatright said. "We respect the appeals process and any other review process."
http://grassfire.org/
Grassfire has a petition for these 2 border agents. Please go sign it. they are forwarding the petition to the President and asking for a pardon.
A real life demonstration of the truth of that old maxim: "No good deed goes unpunished".
It appears we finally have gotten the federal government some of us deserve.
It's almost as bad as the guy in Az that was sent to prison for 5 yrs and the illegals got his land to boot. Pretty sad when a man can't defend his own property and the tresspassers win his land.
And there were FrOBLs giving each other cyber high-fives over it.
Thanks for that link. Signed the petition.
Thanks for that letter from the AZ BP. The U.S. Govt. has gone mad. The policies are insane.
Thank you for the list of Congressmen on the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman Franks is not my Congressman, however I know him, I will be contacting his office.
The events for the agents start on Aug 11 and go to Dec 25-it can be extended. On Aug 22 "Nation to mourn the loss of FREEDOM for, Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean" is posted-I encourage anyone going to the calendar to click requests for any updates to be posted. The press is watching the calendar,
http://anti-illegalimmigrationevents.com/
I am not an agent, I do all I can to help them get the word out to the country so everyone can understand just what the he!! is going on.
local2544 is one of the best sites to go to for messages from BP ground agents.
bttt
I would strongly suspect that the Mexican tendency to have law enforcement involved in drug activity, has been brought into the US melting pot, and is not melting.
It just takes a judge to lay down the rules in advantageous ways for the prosecution. The jury may never hear what they need to make a sound decision.
( No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo!)
This is beyond outrageous.
Bush should just pardon them and end this nonsense now.
BUMP
The Willcox Connection
Agent Tied to Drug Cartel Blabbed on Buddies
http://americanpatrol.com/
Lou Dobbs tonight - CNN - August 21
Wian:... Davila did have a bullet wound in the buttocks. And the smuggler had a childhood acquaintance, a Mexican-born U.S. Border Patrol agent named Rene Sanchez from Willcox, Arizona.
Bonner: As to why this Border Patrol agent, who was in cahoots with his childhood friend drug smuggler, why he's not being investigated, you would have to ask the Department of Justice and the Office of Inspector General.
Wian: The smuggler received immunity from prosecution, as did several other Border Patrol agents on the scene. But Agents Compean and Ramos now face 20 years in prison.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0608/21/ldt.01.html
Word's out now...
God bless Lou Dobbs.
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