Posted on 04/09/2007 10:25:31 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
More claims brought closer to witness in Ramos-Compean prosecution
An arrest in a drug case involving thousands of pounds of marijuana brought from Mexico into the U.S. is raising anew questions about the prosecution of former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who shot at a fleeing drug smuggler in a confrontation in 2005, then were convicted for that shooting and now are serving prison terms of 11 and 12 years.
According to authorities, Cipriano Ortiz-Hernandez, suspected of running a Texas "stash house" where multiple loads of marijuana from Mexico were delivered into the United States, has been arrested and is being held pending trial.
As WND has reported, Cipriano Ortiz-Hernandez already was under indictment on federal drug charges stemming from about 5,000 pounds of marijuana allegedly delivered to his home, mostly in 2005.
Ortiz-Hernandez also has identified Ramos-Compean case witness Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila as the man who delivered 750 pounds of marijuana to that location in October 2005 – while Aldrete-Davila was under a grant of immunity for an earlier drug smuggling operation when he encountered Ramos and Compean, and ended up with a bullet wound.
Those agents chased Aldrete-Davila while he was trying to smuggle a load of hundreds of pounds of drugs into the United States in February 2005, and Aldrete-Davila was injured when the officers fired at him.
He later was granted immunity for that episode by federal prosecutors, and returned to the United States to give testimony that helped convict the border agents, who now are in prison. However, during his testimony, he portrayed himself as someone who had tried to smuggle drugs only the one time because of his financial situation, and the jury never was told that he had been implicated in the second smuggling operation.
"What is the government going to do now?" Joe Loya, father-in-law of Ramos, asked WND. "According to the criminal complaints WND has already published, Ortiz-Hernandez has admitted being involved with Aldrete-Davila in the second drug incident."
"Now the government is in a dilemma,” Loya said. "Is the government going to give Aldrete-Davila immunity again? If the government indicts Aldrete-Davila, they are going to have to admit that prosecutor U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton allowed Aldrete-Davila to lie in the Ramos and Compean trial when Aldrete-Davila said he was not a professional drug smuggler."
"I'll bet you that Ortiz-Hernandez will put the finger on Aldrete-Davila, just like he did in October 2005 when DEA and Border Patrol first interviewed Ortiz-Hernandez at the Fabens, Texas, Border Patrol Station," Loya told WND.
Sutton's office said because of "ongoing investigations regarding this matter," officials couldn't comment.
"However, we have been clear and unambiguous, Aldrete received immunity only for offenses which occurred on Feb. 17, 2005, and has no immunity or protection for any other crimes that he may have committed. As we have said many times, this office will pursue criminal charges where there is prosecutable criminal activity and competent evidence to prove it," the statement said.
"This statement sounds like we're going to be told next that Sutton's office doesn't have enough information to prosecute Aldrete-Davila for the October 23, 2005, offense Ortiz-Hernandez is charged with committing," Loya said. "Why don't we just send Sutton copies of the Department of Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Agency, and U.S. District Court criminal complaints we have that substantiate Aldrete-Davila's involvement. How is Sutton going to explain those documents away?"
WND has reported that a Department of Homeland Security investigative report filed by Special Agent Christopher Sanchez on Nov. 21, 2005, documents that Ortiz-Hernandez identified Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila was the person who drove the 750 pounds of marijuana to Ortiz-Hernandez's safe house on October 23, 2005.
WND also has published criminal complaints filed in U.S. District Court on March 2 and March 6, 2007, that provide corroboration that Aldrete-Davila was the person who delivered 752.8 pounds of marijuana in a Ford Astro van to Ortiz-Hernandez's home in Clint, Texas, Oct. 23, 2005.
"Let's hope the government investigates the drug smugglers surrounding Ortiz-Hernandez more than they did in the Ramos-Compean case," Loya said. "In Ramos and Compean's case nobody ever investigated the cell phone Aldrete-Davila left in the drug van. We still don't know even today where that cell phone is."
WND has obtained a March 18, 2005, U.S. District Court order of detention issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge Norbert J. Garney mandating that Ortiz-Hernandez remain in custody pending trial because he is a flight risk.
The detention order reads that the preponderance of evidence establishes that "the defendant (Ortiz-Hernandez), a citizen of Mexico, without legal permission to remain in the United States, was arrested for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute over 1000 kilograms of marijuana."
The detention order noted that Ortiz-Hernandez "has strong familial ties to Mexico and has a criminal history which includes a history of failure to appear."
"Now that Ortiz-Hernandez has been arrested and indicted, Ramos and Compean should be released immediately," Loya added. "If Sutton had told the jury about this second October load, the government's case would have been thrown out the window. How would any jury convict Ramos and Compean if the jury knew that Aldrete-Davila, the government's chief witness, was a liar?"
"What the documents show is that Sutton's office let Ortiz-Hernandez operate his safe house for two years after he was first busted for drugs in March 2004," Loya said. "Now it's three years since March 2004 and Sutton is finally getting around to prosecuting him. How many years are we going to have to wait for Sutton to prosecute Aldrete-Davila? How many more loads of drugs does Aldrete-Davila have to bring across the border before Sutton does anything?"
"WND has reported that Ortiz-Hernandez was indicted on March 28, 2007, on three counts of federal criminal drug charges.
Since I, and I assume you, have never been the subject at a water boarding party, your assumption that it does not cause pain is unsubstantiated. Come talk to me after a Jack Bauer gets done with you, until then, I lend little credence to your declaration.
As to the specifics of water boarding you can go to wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding
What you’ll see there depends on what you want to see. There are plenty of caveats that cut both ways.
And you should actually take the trouble to read the entire page. Below that “plaintive plea on Mohr’s part” is an extensive listing of people who allege her dog mauled them.
You and Joe must be from the same part of the country, one where the back and the butt are the same thing.
these two belong in jail.........wearing a uniform does not excuse one from criminal activity....they are worse than common criminals, because they put on a uniform and willingly broke the law...and besides, I have not even commented on this thread, why are you bringing me into it? Are you stalking me? Perhaps you are just in love with me and are having a hard time admitting it.......
Don’t hurt your arm patting yourself on the butt - um, I mean, the back . . . I find you memorable because you can’t differentiate the back from the butt, which would make you less than helpful at watching my back or kicking someone’s butt for me.
Until today, you were the only person I know to suffer from this malady. Now you have company!
Let me guess.....you were engaged in a debate with another person on this subject, and they were out thinking you on a regular basis, and wasted your time with those pesky facts, so you siezed upon one item that does not make a hill of beans in this debate, and tried to use it as a hammer to try to make the person who outsmarted you look stupid. Sorry, does not work with intellegent people. See ya around
You assume too much, which somehow doesn’t surprise.
What I say is what I mean, which is that the only fact I know about you is that you are anatomically challenged.
And how did R&C know for certain OVD was an illegal when they shot to kill him?
You supporters that refer to OVD’s wound as “a shot in the butt” are a piece of work. First, both R&C testified they were aiming at his torso in an effort to kill him. Second, the bullet entered his left cheek, smashed his pelvis and severed his urethra before exiting and then lodging in his left thigh. He’ll be carrying a foley bag on his waist for the rest of his life because doctors cannot repair the urethra injury.
You refer to it as a “shot in the butt” as if it were some joke. LEO’s killing people are no joke and that injury caused lifelong damage.
All that strikes me as an excellent argument against smuggling drugs into our country.
But R&C didn’t shoot OVD because he was a drug dealer...they didn’t even know he was illegal at the time.
So, are you advocating the BP shoot drug smugglers?
>>And what bearing could someone have on a trial by saying things to congress after the trial has ended????<<
It would not affect the trial, but it could have affected Ramos’s treatment and safety in prison. As I understand it, Ramos is till in solitary confinement, is not allowed to read books, while the DHS liars have not been punished at all.
Lying to congress makes me think that there is something incredibly wrong at DHS, which you will recall, investigated R&C.
ping
Gee Bob, all the more reason not seek employment as a drug trafficker illegally smuggling drugs into foreign countries.
I have my own opinions about what happened and I think the biggest loser in this was Ramos. Compean got mad because the perp got away and shot 15 times...and missed, from a distance far shorter then Ramos (hello?).
Compean was never trying to hit OVD, but Ramos didn’t know that, saw and heard Compean shooting and erroneously believed there to be a firefight. He did what he was trained to do.
Ramos got screwed by Compean’s inability to control his anger. But they both screwed themselves with their unbelievable “black shiny object” story, their inconsistent and unpersuasive testimony, their attempts to cover it up and their defense attorneys horrible strategy.
So no, they don’t belong in prison but they also don’t deserve adulation and uncritical support of their actions.
Apparently you can’t win for losing with these guys. Either Ramos is let into general population and is therefore vulnerable to attacks by other inmates, or he is given protective housing in which he has no contact with the other inmates but is isolated. You can’t have it both ways. Should the warden have 3 or 4 guards follow him around all day and sleep with him at night so that he can be let out of protective housing???
>>Should the warden have 3 or 4 guards follow him around all day and sleep with him at night so that he can be let out of protective housing???<<
Ramos should not be in that particular prison in the first place. He is not a danger to anyone, so a minimum security prison would have been appropriate. But since they did put him there, they should transfer him or make some changes. What in the hell is wrong with letting him read books? Would it make you happy if he were killed?
No, but he is being treated just like any other person in prison, no better, no worse. Sounds like maybe you should get involved with a prison reform group if you disagree with the treatment that convicted felons receive.
>> Ramos got screwed by Compean’s inability to control his anger. But they both screwed themselves with their unbelievable “black shiny object” story, their inconsistent and unpersuasive testimony, their attempts to cover it up and their defense attorneys horrible strategy.
So no, they don’t belong in prison but they also don’t deserve adulation and uncritical support of their actions.
Ramos got screwed by Compean’s inability to control his anger. But they both screwed themselves with their unbelievable “black shiny object” story, their inconsistent and unpersuasive testimony, their attempts to cover it up and their defense attorneys horrible strategy.
So no, they don’t belong in prison but they also don’t deserve adulation and uncritical support of their actions.<<
Thanks Bob.
I think it is likely that Ramos, hearing those shots, thought what I would have thought: Compean was in a real firefight.
I also think it is unlikely that Compean was really trying to shoot OAD. Compean had a shotgun and would not have missed if he really wanted to hit him.
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