Posted on 01/23/2007 2:15:57 AM PST by Man50D
Imprisoned former Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos not only is being held in prison for trying to halt a fleeing drug smuggler, he's being held in solitary confinement treated as if he were Charles Manson, a relative told WND in an exclusive interview.
Joe Loya, Ramos' father-in-law, told WND that Ramos is being held in conditions usually reserved for extraordinarily dangerous or trouble-making inmates.
"They have Ignacio in a 6 foot by 12 foot cell," Loya told WND in a telephone interview from El Paso. "There are no bars, just a steel door, and no window. He has no television and nothing to do. He is fed in his cell and let out only for one hour after 23 hours in the cell. He is then taken to a room with a television where he is allowed to watch the TV for an hour before he is returned to solitary confinement."
Loya said his daughter met with her husband for an hour on Friday.
"Ignacio was heavily shackled," Loya said, "and he could barely hold the telephone to speak."
Loya explained that his daughter met with her husband in the prison in a room where they were separated by a glass barrier.
"It was just like Ignacio was Charlie Manson," Loya explained. "My daughter couldn't believe how her husband was being treated."
Loya told WND that the family believes that the federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, introduced into the trial inaccurate or incomplete testimony provided by the drug dealer, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, as well as from other Border Patrol agents who the federal prosecutors had pressured prior to the trial.
"I can't believe how Ignacio is being treated," Loya told WND. "He has been a federal agent for years and he has been involved in many drug busts. I am convinced that the U.S. attorney has a grudge against my son-in-law and I cannot believe how mean and determined Johnny Sutton has been to see my son imprisoned for doing nothing more than trying to stop a drug smuggler he and Jose Compean believed was armed and dangerous."
Loya explained to WND that Aldrete-Davila had beaten and cut Compean in the struggle that occurred in the ditch as Aldrete-Davila was trying to escape.
"The prosecutors say that Compean was going to beat Aldrete-Davila with his shotgun. How could that be? Aldrete-Davila is over six feet tall and Compean is about five feet five inches. Compean would have been afraid that Aldrete-Davila would have taken the shotgun from him and beat him or shot him with it. The story at the trial that the prosecutors offered the jury didn’t make any sense."
Loya told WND that he had sat through the entire trial. A complete transcript of the trial is not yet available and Loya told WND that the U.S. attorney's office told him that the trial transcript would cost $3 per page. "At over 3,000 pages, that means we have to come up with $9,000 just to get a copy of the transcript. And besides, it isn't available yet and the prosecutors' office can’t tell us when it will be available."
Ramos and Compean are in federal prison today, after they were ordered to jail by U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cordone. Cordone dismissed the defense argument that the two Border Patrol were no "flight risk" while they were waiting appeal. Judge Compean also denied Ramos and Compean's request for a new trial after there were reports that three jurors said they were coerced to vote guilty.
The White House to date has declined to intervene, and the talking points continue to stress themes articulated by Sutton, who in an exclusive interview last week with WND claimed the two agents "shot 15 times at an unarmed, fleeing man," after which the agents "decided to lie about it, cover it up, destroy the evidence, pick up all the shell casings and throw them away where we couldn't find them, destroy the crime scene and then file a false report."
Your statement is insulting to say the least!!
Disgusting enough to make the maggots gag.
"Imprisoned former Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos not only is being held in prison for trying to halt a fleeing drug smuggler"
Good old WND. Start the article off with a lie.
All the cute pics and comics in the world don't change the fact that the agent shot an unarmed man in the backside as he was running away.
Correct. It's about the cover up and obstruction of justice.
You forgot to mention that they picked up the spent shells and forgot to report the shooting.
The President could issue a Pardon.
Not that it would matter to these folks.
Sutton was appointed the same President that will not grant a Pardon to the Border Patrol Agents.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.