Prosecutor accused of hiding smuggler's 2nd drug bust [Compean and Ramos]

The judge in the high-profile case of two U.S. Border Patrol officers imprisoned after shooting and wounding a Mexican drug smuggler allegedly sealed key testimony and issued gag orders preventing the defendants, their families and trial participants from discussing the smuggler's involvement in a second drug bust – for which he again was granted immunity in order to testify against the agents.

According to Andy Ramirez, chairman of Friends of the Border Patrol, and reliable sources close to the case, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila was apprehended in an October 2005 drug bust with 1,000 pounds of marijuana. That incident followed the Feb. 17, 2005, confrontation with Ramos and Compean in which Aldrete-Davila drove a van illegally across the Texas border into Mexico with 743 pounds of marijuana. Ramos and Compean were convicted for their actions surrounding the shooting of drug smuggler and sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison respectively.

Ramirez told WND that Aldrete-Davila had been positively identified in a drug bust just prior to the Ramos-Compean trial, which began Oct. 17, 2005.

"When Johnny Sutton learned that Aldrete-Davila was involved in this second bust, he panicked," Ramirez said. "If the public learned that Aldrete-Davila came back to the United States a second time with another load of marijuana, Sutton was sure that would blow his case against Ramos and Compean."

The prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, previously has denied there was a second arrest. But sources say Aldrete-Davila technically was apprehended for the second incident, and not arrested, on condition he testify against Ramos and Compean.

Yesterday, Sutton's spokeswoman, Shana Jones, declined to answer specifically whether there was a second border incident of any kind involving Aldrete-Davila. She told WND the attorney's office is standing on its original statement that there was no arrest, no indictment and no prosecutable evidence.

According to reliable sources close to the case, Sutton asked Judge Kathleen Cardone to seal the records involving Aldrete-Davila's participation in the second drug bust. Subsequently, Aldrete-Davila's name was expunged from the law enforcement records concerning the October 2005 incident at the request of Sutton's office.

Cordone's gag order in the trial covered any discussion by the attorneys or the families of the officers concerning Aldrete-Davila's second drug bust.

WND was told that Sutton withdrew a Resident Alien Card, commonly known as a "green card," from Aldrete-Davila after the October 2005 drug bust. The green card originally had been given to Aldrete-Davila as an inducement to return to the U.S. and testify as a star witness against Ramos and Compean under a grant of immunity from prosecution.

WND has learned the witness who identified Aldrete-Davila in the second drug incident was identified as "Toquinto."

Toquinto is the surname of Border Patrol agent Rene Sanchez's mother-in-law, as noted in the Department of Homeland Security Memorandum of Activity report filed by DHS Special Agent Christopher Sanchez, dated March 14, 2005.

As previously reported by WND, Renez Sanchez and Aldrete-Davila grew up together in Mexico. The information that Aldrete-Davila was the Mexican drug smuggler involved in the Feb. 17, 2005, incident with Ramos and Compean originated in a phone call between Sanchez's mother-in-law, Gregoria Toquinto, and Aldrete-Davila's mother, Marcadia Aldrete-Davila.

Prosecutor Debra Kanof of Sutton's El Paso office told the defense counsel and the court at the Ramos-Compean trial, without the jury present, Aldrete-Davila was pleading a Fifth Amendment privilege not to testify against himself in "any other criminal activities."

The indictment against Aldrete-Davila for the October 2005 drug incident reportedly was sealed at Sutton's request in order to preserve Aldrete-Davila's credibility as the government's star witness against Ramos and Compean.

Sanchez testified at the Ramos-Compean trial as a character witness for the drug smuggler, with whom he had grown up in Mexico.

WND has asked several Ramos and Compean family members to verify this account, but all declined, expressing fear that Cardone would then have reason to prosecute them for violating the gag order.

Both wives told WND that Sutton would prosecute them for contempt of court and would not hesitate to put them in prison if they talked about any information covered by the gag order.

Ramirez said that after Sutton learned about Aldrete-Davila's second drug bust, he "made sure nobody would ever be able to prove anything about it."

"Sutton took back the green card he gave Aldrete-Davila as an inducement to testify against Ramos and Compean under immunity, and he refused to give Aldrete-Davila any more medical care at government expense at the Army hospital in El Paso."

Ramirez asserted that on the day the jury was being picked, the prosecution asked for postponement of the trial – not because Aldrete-Davila needed additional medical surgery in El Paso as the prosecution claimed, but because the prosecution needed time to cover up the second drug bust.

"Aldrete-Davila never was taken to El Paso for another operation," Ramirez told WND. "It was all a lie. All Sutton wanted to do was to seal and then expunge the criminal records on the second drug bust, so nobody would ever be able to prove anything against his drug smuggler witness. If the second drug bust had come out to the jury, the jury would never have believed a word he said."

At Sutton's request, the Ramos-Compean trial was postponed from its originally scheduled October 2005 date to February 2006.

In his Jan. 19 interview with WND, Sutton claimed he would have been willing to prosecute Aldrete-Davila if he could prove a second offense.

"If I had a provable case that Aldrete-Davila had committed other crimes, I could prosecute him."

WND called Cordone's office but was told the judge would answer no questions from the press about the Ramos-Compean case.

Her office refused to tell WND when or if a trial transcript would be available, or how much a copy of the trial transcript would cost.

The judge's office also refused to explain why the court was taking nearly a year to prepare and release the transcript.

OK, since you can't seem to think for yourself, I'll rebut the first claim made in the linked post, to show that in fact it does NOT contain any evidence for "lies" by Sutton. If you disagree, you will have to pick one lie that you think Sutton told, and provide facts, not just someone else's opinion, to back up your claim.

Since you couldn't provide a cut-and-pastable" link, I'll paraphrase the information in the document you cited.

SUTTON:No credible evidence agents were in a life-threatening situation or that Aldrete had a weapon. Agent Juarez testified he did not believe there was a threat, and Aldrete did not have a weapon, and was almost to mexico when shot by Ramos

Document's "rebuttal"both agents testified smuggler turned and pointed a weapon at them.

Document is FALSE. Neither agent testified that he pointed a weapon. They both testified that they saw something shiny in his hand which they thought MIGHT be a weapon. Neither would swear under oath that the smuggler HAD a weapon.

Document's "rebuttal"Wound channel corroberates their version

Document is FALSE. At best, the wound channel does not refute their claim, as regards the position of the defendant. There are many scenarios which explain the wound, including the smuggler weaving back and forth to avoid getting hit by bullets being shot at him. And the wound obviously cannot show they were in any danger, OR that he had a weapon, which was Sutton's claim.

Document's "rebuttal"Juarez could not see what he saw. Juarez was granted immunity

Irrelevant. If you were trying to show JUAREZ was lying, this would at least be hearsay evidence of it. But Sutton's claim as to what Juarez testified to is true, regardless of the reason Juarez said it.

Also, probably false. The document claims that "he was not involved in the incident", and therefore wonders why he would need immunity. In fact, needing immunity is a good indication that he WAS involved. And in fact, he was involved from the beginning -- he was one of the two officers (the other being Ramos) who was pursuing the dealer's van. Since the pursuit was unauthorized, he could well have needed immunity from that. Or, if he saw the incident (and Juarez claimed he did, and the two BP agents I don't know if they testified he couldn't, or where the document got the "evidence" he couldn't), maybe he needed immunity for not reporting the incident.

But in any case, offering immunity from the events of the day is consistant with his involvement in the incident.

And, as I said previously, is useful for impeachment of the witness, but not of the prosecuter.

So their first "rebuttal" does not in any way support the concept that Sutton is lying. None of their claims supports that notion with facts.

If you disagree, put up the Sutton quote, and refutation, that you think makes him a liar. And we'll talk.

It is the AFL-CIO rebuttal. Go to the web site: National Border Patrol Council of the American Federation of Public Employees -- affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

The NBPC is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO. It says so right on the document that is referenced. Their web site says so as well.

The bigger question is why pro-BP people feel like it's so important to discount the affiliate relationship. I was just referencing the fact that this was the union representation for the agents, in it's broadest sense. Making a big deal out of it seems unnecessarily defensive, like you want to hide something.

Easier I guess than providing facts, you want to nit-pick over whether a poster shouldn't confuse "affiliate" with "is", as if that really was the point. I used AFL-CIO as a shorthand, because it's clearer that it's the union representation to newcomers than the "National Border Patrol Council" which sounds like some trade organization, not a union.

My statement DID reflect what Sutton said. In your comment, you specifically say that you think the arrangement allowed for MORE than what Sutton said it did. I know you think Sutton is lying, but I was saying what Sutton said. Sutton specifically said he was granted only limited access and only so he could give testimony. He was also escorted to a doctor -- now I suppose that was a "2nd time", but since he was escorted there and it was done already it didn't seem to be important to include, any more than any previous time in his life he might have been allowed to come into the country.

YOu said:

In fact, there are other ways that Aldrete-Davila could have been allowed in the United States, such as the DHS granting "Humanitarian Parole" or assistance and admission into the U.S. under the "Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (VTVPA)", to name two. Those are not Visas "solely for the purpose of giving testimony" but something much different and can involve much, much more than testimony or those instances that Sutton cited. That is what I was interested in and would still like to know what arrangement was actually made with Aldrete.

You mention two types of arrangements, both of which you say "involve much much more than testimony or those instances that Sutton cited".

Which means you understand that what Sutton cited would be in line with what I said he said.

But now I see you are in fact off on another tangent, which wasn't what I said but is whether Sutton's comments were less than the entire truth.

Anyway, we've beaten this to death for no purpose, so I guess we can move on now.

I quoted what you said in my comment. I then explained why what you said led me to say what I said.

Feel free to explain why my interpretation of what you said was incorrect. But don't just say you didn't say it, or that I'm making up or twisting your words.

You said:

In fact, there are other ways that Aldrete-Davila could have been allowed in the United States, such as the DHS granting "Humanitarian Parole" or assistance and admission into the U.S. under the "Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (VTVPA)", to name two. Those are not Visas "solely for the purpose of giving testimony" but something much different and can involve much, much more than testimony or those instances that Sutton cited. That is what I was interested in and would still like to know what arrangement was actually made with Aldrete.

You mention two types of arrangements, both of which you say "involve much much more than testimony or those instances that Sutton cited".

It sounds to me like you are saying that there are ways other than a "temporary visa" that he could have been left into the country (you name two), and that those ways would involve giving him a lot more access than Sutton said in his statement, thus your saying "involve much more than testimony or those instances that Sutton cited.

So, what do you mean when you say that the immunity could involve a lot more than "those instances that Sutton cited" if you are NOT saying that Sutton's list of things isn't the entire truth, and that you believe there is an immunity that is bigger than what Sutton claimed?

In other words, what is your point, if not to claim Sutton was not telling the whole truth when he said the ONLY access given to the mexican was access for the purpose of giving evidence and testimony for the trial?

And if you are NOT claiming Sutton wasn't giving the entire truth, and instead are claiming Sutton DID give the entire truth, what could that possibly have to do with your saying I was giving an OPINION of Sutton, when my statement about "temporary visa for purposes of giving testimony" is the same as Suttons statement of "In order to have the bullet removed, meet with federal investigators and to testify in court in El Paso, he was entitled to come into the United States on a limited basis within a limited geographical area and only for those purposes." -- a list of giving evidence and testimony for the trial.

Now, I suppose as a practical matter, my comments were an "opinion" of what he said, in the sense that anybody who reads somebody else's words will have their own interpretation of them, if they don't quote them. And since I gave no quote, if that's all you are stating you are just stating the obvious, which is that anything that isn't a quote is an interpretation.

Which still gets me back to, what was your point? Just that you thought I was saying I had seen the secret agreements and read the term "temporary visa" and was trying to impart that knowledge as a throwaway line?

Or that you, having a wealth of conjectures about differing ways that Sutton could have allowed an illegal into our country that would give him a lot more access than the access that Sutton CLAIMED, you were upset that I suggested that Sutton was telling the truth?

Or is it reall just that Sutton's statement was not precisely identical to my statement, and you somehow felt that my short version didn't do him justice?

Some poster claimed the drug smuggler was living in someone's neighborhood terrorising their kids. I told him the illegal was NOT allowed to be here, because his access to our country was only temporary, and was only so he could testify in the case.

I defy anybody to explain to me the substantive difference between my short "temporary visa" comment and the comment Sutton gave, given the context of a poster claiming the illegal was still living in this country.

I have read the BP union talking points. It appears most of it was presented at trial. Are the agents claiming that there was insufficient evidence to convict? Or that the jury did not believe their testimony? As to other points , what evidence was withheld from the defendants to deprive them of a fair Trial? This is an area I think could be very important for the appeal. I think everyone needs to remember that just because one side feels that a witness' testimony may be suspect or untrustworthy is not unusual and then it up to the jury to weigh the credibility of the witness and choose to believe all, some or none of the testimony. Most jury trials have contradicting evidence and testimony and the jury is the judge of the facts. I am sorry that they did not put much credibility in the the BP agents testimony, but that is not grounds to set aside the verdict. I believe that the agents cover up probably damaged their credibility with the jury.

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