JOSE ALONSO COMPEAN
Posted on 02/01/2007 5:44:17 AM PST by GulfBreeze
WASHINGTON -- Are they mistreated heroes or rogue lawmen?
That question is at the heart of a nationwide uproar over Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, who are beginning decade-long sentences in federal prison for the nonfatal shooting of a suspected drug smuggler given immunity to testify against them.
Scores of Republican lawmakers and thousands of grassroots petitioners have besieged President Bush with demands that the agents be granted immediate pardons.
But to federal prosecutor Johnny Sutton and his defenders, the two Texas-based agents abridged the public trust by attempting to cover up an unauthorized shooting and must face the consequences.
"Prosecutors take cases as they come. We don't get to choose the facts, and we don't get to choose the witnesses," the San Antonio-based U.S. attorney said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "We hate the thought of having to prosecute law enforcement because those are the people we work with every day. But nobody is above the law."
In an interview on the Fox television network Wednesday, Bush again said he is bound by strict federal guidelines on pardons and cannot immediately grant a pardon to the two agents.
Bush explained that "there is a series of steps that are analyzed in order for the Justice Department to make a recommendation as to whether or not a president grants a pardon."
And, Bush added, "We're not at that stage yet."
'So many questions'
Bush's position is likely to further agitate a growing circle of mostly Republican lawmakers who have repeatedly pressed the White House to aggressively step into the case.
Many also blame the Bush administration for the agents' imprisonment, pointing that it was Bush who appointed Sutton as federal prosecutor in 2001.
"There are so many questions," said Rep. Walter Jones Jr., R-N.C., who has written four letters to the president requesting a pardon. "The White House should intervene, and the president should pardon these men immediately."
Other leading House members in the campaign include Republicans Ted Poe, Michael McCaul and Sam Johnson, all of Texas, and Dana Rohrabacher and Duncan Hunter of California.
"On the face of it, the administration is taking the side of the bad guys," Rohrabacher said.
The union that represents most nonsupervisory Border Patrol agents is also waging a vigorous campaign to obtain pardons for the two agents. "The front-line agents, the ones who actually do the work, are extremely upset," said T. J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council. "They're very concerned that the same thing could happen to them."
The fate of the two agents has inflamed the wider debate over border security and illegal immigration.
And although the outcry on behalf of Ramos and Compean has buzzed on the Internet and conservative talk shows, a less vocal circle believes that justice may have been done.
"If we take all the political patina from it, the pure issue is, 'What do we want here on the border as far as accountability [in the use] of deadly force?'" said Kathleen Walker of El Paso, the incoming president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "We've had a clear violation of procedure, and that's not something we want to promote as the status quo."
Ramos and Compean were convicted by a federal jury in El Paso for a Feb. 17, 2005, shooting involving Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, who was fleeing to Mexico after abandoning a van containing 743 pounds of marijuana near Fabens.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone of El Paso sentenced the men in October -- Ramos to 11 years and Compean to 12.
They began serving their sentences two weeks ago, further igniting the emotion surrounding their case.
"He's taking it real hard," said Joe Loya, an El Paso insurance agent and Ramos' father-in-law. "These guys were scapegoats. He's not a criminal who belongs behind bars."
The two agents and their families have repeatedly asserted that they are guilty only of procedural violations that would normally result in a suspension, at most.
But Sutton and his prosecution team say the agents engaged in abusive behavior and overstepped their authority.
Convictions on 11 charges
In an account of the case released by Sutton's office, neither agent knew the van contained marijuana.
"The evidence was uncontroverted that, at the time the victim was shot, neither agent knew the driver was illegally in the United States or whether a crime had been committed," the statement said. "The only information they had was that the driver had failed to pull over to be identified."
Aldrete-Davila leaped out of the vehicle and started to flee but stopped and raised his hands to surrender after jumping into a ditch.
According to testimony, Compean tried to hit the man with the butt of his shotgun but slipped and fell.
Aldrete-Davila began running, and Compean fired 14 shots with his pistol.
Ramos fired once, striking Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks.
He fled to Mexico and sought medical help.
In an ironic twist, according to Sutton, Aldrete-Davila's mother mentioned the incident to a friend whose son-in-law was a Border Patrol officer.
The agent passed the information to superiors, resulting in an investigation by the Homeland Security Department, which oversees the Border Patrol.
The investigation, as presented by prosecutors, found that Ramos and Compean tried to dispose of empty casings and filed a false report.
They were convicted of 11 of the 12 charges in the indictment, including assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with serious bodily injury, discharge of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime and willfully violating Aldrete-Davila's constitutional right to be free from illegal seizure.
Other violations included intentionally defacing the crime scene, lying about the incident and failing to report the truth.
Lawmakers defend agents
The agents' defenders have attacked Sutton's account as a collection of distortions and said the two lawmen were lawfully performing their duties and believed that Aldrete-Davila was armed.
Several lawmakers have likened the agents to U.S. service members in Iraq, saying they risked their lives daily to protect America's border.
Among the most explosive elements in the case is Sutton's decision to grant immunity to Aldrete-Davila to enable an apparent drug dealer to testify against two agents with respected records of service.
Ramos was nominated as agent of the year before the recommendation was withdrawn after his indictment.
The agents' supporters also complain that the trial transcript has not been completed and made public, compounding their efforts to review the case.
Sutton described Aldrete-Davila as "a typical dirtbag dope dealer" but said prosecutors had no usable evidence to link him to smuggling.
Further, he said, the agents' "bad behavior" at the scene destroyed any chance of making a drug case.
After the unreported shooting came to light, he said, prosecutors had no choice but to proceed with a case, using Aldrete-Davila as a key witness.
***But to federal prosecutor Johnny Sutton and his defenders, the two Texas-based agents abridged the public trust by attempting to cover up an unauthorized shooting and must face the consequences.*****
They needed firing ,not jailing.
What does the Prez care, he's not in jail with a bunch of guys he put there.
Assclown.
The administration is taking the side of the law. While I agree that these guys deserve a pardon review, they filed false reports and hid evidence.
Every LEO knows that if they get caught doing this stuff, they are going to be made an example of.
"In an interview on the Fox television network Wednesday, Bush again said he is bound by strict federal guidelines on pardons and cannot immediately grant a pardon to the two agents."
This is crap. The laws which set up the review boards specifically state that notwithstanding those laws, NOTHING
interferes with a president's power to issue pardons on his own initiative any time he wants.
The "I have to wait for the process to end" line is a cop-out. The buck stops at the President's desk, and he's
avoiding it.
These guys may or may not have overreacted; but the penalty for that should be a suspension without pay for a couple of months, not a prison term, which for LE is much worse
than an ordinary citizen to boot.
And while the pardon boards and federal attorneys and review boards sit on their fat behinds every day, these
guys will be in prison every day.
To borrow a slogan from a recent demonstration, "END IT NOW, MR. BUSH!"
Sorry, these guys abused their position of authority, covered up the scene, and shot an unarmed man ( they knew he was unarmed ) in the back, obstructed justice and failed to report any of it. If you or I did this we would be in jail. These two belong in jail.
Unfortunately, this incident will probably discourage qualified people from working for the border patrol. They will figure, "What the hell...we have to fight the bad guys AND our own government...forgetaboutit". Political correctness (weakness) has a price to be paid. Sad.
sw
Let the trial go through the appeals motion. If that doesn't work then pardon them.
'These guys' have arrest authority. The 'suspect' was fleeing arrest. Is there something wrong with those having arrest authority using it?
and shot an unarmed man ( they knew he was unarmed ) in the back
Where do you find this information? Even if true, what is wrong with those having arrest authority using that authority? Where is that so-called 'authority' if the enforcers have to jump through hoops to exercise it? The law should be there to protect society, not criminals.
Bush wants to be free to 'give a pass to Democrats' like Sandy
Burger, but for these guys he wants to make sure no border agent messes with his open border policy. Is he getting a cut of the drug traffic? This policy makes reason stare.
Since when does an illegal alien crossing the border illegally have any "constitutional" rights?
IMO, they should shoot all illegals in the butt as soon as they step onto American soil.
They should switch to rubber bullets and give em HE**
But then we would be required to air drop safety glasses into Mexico. /sarc
Will someone please explain how anyone can do dirty work without getting their hands dirty at times? I believe most right thinking people resent that these agents were prosecuted at all... while another certified criminal goes free on a 'technicality'.
If you had heard Rohrbacher's interview on Fox, you might be dialing the White House in outrage at this very moment.
The White House number is 202-456-1111.
If one of these agents is killed or stabbed while in prison, President Bush will lose another bunch of Representatives for whatever he wants to do with the rest of his Administration.
Oh please. Pardons aren't something that a president (unless he's x42) scribbles out like a grocery list. There's a process to the matter and that process is being followed. How hard is that to understand?
The union that represents most nonsupervisory Border Patrol agents is also waging a vigorous campaign to obtain pardons for the two agents. "The front-line agents, the ones who actually do the work, are extremely upset," said T. J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council. "They're very concerned that the same thing could happen to them."
Right. Well, if you follow procedure and don't try to cover-up a snafu out in the field, you won't run into any of the same problems.
It chaps my hide that these agents are acting like they're nothing but a couple of babes in the woods. If they'd followed procedure instead of trying to cover up a shooting, nothing would probably have ever come of the situation. No drug dealer is going to come back across the border to lodge a complaint when he has 750 lbs. of weed to own up to, and no D.A. is going to go after a couple of border patrol officers who did what they were supposed to do.
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