Posted on 05/20/2008 10:42:14 AM PDT by Snickering Hound
The widow of slain Houston police officer Rodney Johnson filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday against the landscaper who employed Johnson's killer, as jurors continued deliberating Juan Leonardo Quintero's fate.
Quintero was convicted earlier this month of shooting Johnson seven times after he was arrested during a traffic stop.
Johnson's widow, Joslyn, said Robert Lane Camp was negligent in hiring Quintero, an illegal immigrant from Mexico.
"He needs to pay for his actions," Johnson said.
Her attorney, Ben Dominguez, said the negligence theory is based on testimony that Camp shouldn't have let Quintero drive a company truck illegally. Quintero did not have a driver's license.
Testimony also showed that Quintero drank about 24 beers every day and sometimes used cocaine, which Dominguez cited in his petition alleging Camp should have known Quintero was dangerous.
Jurors weighing whether Quintero should receive the death penalty for the shooting were sequestered late Monday and will resume deliberations Tuesday morning.
A note from the jury late Monday seemed to indicate that the jurors had decided Quintero would be a future threat to society — one of two questions any jury must decide before doling out the death penalty. According to the note, which was read in open court, jurors said they are moving on to the second question: whether there are any mitigating factors showing that Quintero should be spared.
Defense attorneys on Monday pleaded for the life of Quintero, while Harris County prosecutors said he should pay "the ultimate price" for shooting Rodney Johnson.
"It wasn't planned; it wasn't deliberate," said Danalynn Recer, Quintero's attorney. "He fell off the edge."
Recer told jurors there are many reasons to show mercy and spare Quintero's life, including his wife and two stepchildren.
Recer has conceded that Quintero shot Johnson as the officer filled out a booking sheet in the front seat of his patrol car on Sept. 21, 2006.
She said the shooting was a "freak circumstance" in which Quintero exploded, but that he would not pose a future threat to society if given life in prison without parole.
Prosecutors worked to show that Quintero should be executed for the shooting.
"If you're a threat in the back seat of a patrol car, you're a threat anywhere," said Denise Bradley, an assistant district attorney.
"If you follow the law," she told jurors, "there may not be mercy, but there will be justice."
To show a past criminal history, prosecutors pointed out that Quintero had several DWI convictions and was deported after pleading guilty to indecency with a 12-year-old girl in 1999.
The jury has not heard any details of that crime.
"You know he should pay the ultimate price," prosecutor John Jordan said. "You know he deserves it."
The arguments capped the trial in state District Judge Joan Campbell's court.
The jury convicted Quintero of capital murder on May 8. He had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Jurors began deliberating on Quintero's sentence at noon Monday. They will be sequestered until they reach their verdict.
Johnson was killed after stopping Quintero for speeding and arresting the 34-year-old for not having a driver's license. Investigators said Johnson patted down Quintero, but missed a 9mm semiautomatic pistol tucked in Quintero's waistband.
In a videotaped statement, Quintero said he shot Johnson while he was locked in the back seat of the patrol car, his hands cuffed behind his back.
Joslyn Johnson's attorney, Ben Dominguez, said she is seeking "not less than $10 million in damages," from Camp and his landscaping company for hiring Quintero, housing him and allowing him to drive a company truck even though he didn't have a license.
Camp is under federal indictment and faces up to 10 years in prison, accused of harboring Quintero. Neither Camp nor his criminal defense lawyer could be reached late Monday.
Joslyn Johnson also said she is contemplating suing the City of Houston to force HPD to staff each patrol car with two officers.
"If there were two officers at that scene, my husband would still be alive," Johnson said. A police officer herself, Johnson wrote a letter to Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt after her husband's death asking him to change the policy, she said.
Well, that will keep Mexico happy. That’s what’s important afterall.
You are dead wrong on this case.
The employer has been brought Quintero back to the USA after he was deported. There was a lot more than your usual boss-employee relationship
When Quintero-Perez was pulled over by Johnson, he was driving a company truck owned by Camp, authorities said.
According to a criminal complaint, Quintero-Perez was charged with the state felony offense of indecency with a child in 1998.
Camp allegedly posted his $10,000 bond and hired a defense attorney for him.
Quintero-Perez was deported in 1999 after being convicted. But later that year, he returned to the county illegally, with Camp buying him a plane ticket from Phoenix to Houston, according to the criminal complaint.
Authorities, in the complaint, also allege that Quintero-Perez returned to work for Camp, who bought him a home that the illegal immigrant and his wife, Theresa Quintero, rented.
Theresa Quintero told authorities that Camp falsely listed her and not her husband as an employee of his landscaping company, according to the complaint.
After the shooting, Camp told Houston police that Quintero-Perez was one of his employees, but when questioned later by immigration authorities he denied the illegal immigrant ever worked for him, according to the complaint.
"Officer Rodney Johnson's terrible murder illustrates that hiring and harboring of illegal aliens is not a victimless crime," said Robert Rutt, special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Investigations in Houston.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5440651.html
The landlord where he lived should also be sued.
The landlord where he lived should also be sued.
I don’t doubt the specifics of this case at all. I just don’t like the starting premise that an employer has committed a more serious violation of the law than the illegal who invaded our country in the first place. Especially when the illegal isn’t even deported. That’s the quarter on a string analogy.
Not one American in Houston, not one legal resident, is capable of handling a landscaping job? I think this bears a deeper look. Camp is probably smuggling drugs.
Are any charges being brought against him?
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