The American People Deserve An Investigation of U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton
Dave Gibson

June 7, 2008

Though he is sworn to protect the American people, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton has been operating more as an agent for George Bush and the corrupt Mexican government, than as an advocate for the American people. Since taking office, Sutton has been persecuting American law enforcement officers when they dare to defend our border or block the path of drug smugglers. It could be easily argued that Sutton´s actions through his position as a U.S. Attorney, are contributing to the growing violence being perpetrated by drug gangs on both sides of the border.

Johnny Sutton first caught the eye of George W. Bush in the early 1980's. At the time, Sutton was playing baseball for the NCAA National Champion Texas Longhorns and Bush was enjoying his role as a shareholder in the Texas Rangers organization, after his father had purchased him a share of the team. The two became fast friends and began a relationship that has benefited both men ever since.

Before being nominated by President Bush as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas in 2001, Sutton Served as a Policy Coordinator for the Bush-Cheney Transition Team, as well as the Criminal Justice Policy Director for Gov. Bush from 1995-2000.

Since becoming U.S. Attorney, Sutton has ruined the lives of several diligent and dedicated law enforcement officers who were working to defend our country from terrorists, illegal aliens, and drug smugglers. The following is a list of those brave men:

Border Patrol Agent Gary Brugman was charged by Sutton with violating the rights of an illegal alien in January 2001. The following year he was convicted and spent two years in federal prison.

Agent Brugman was working in the very tough border region of Eagle Pass, Texas. He responded to a scene where another agent was having trouble with a group of 10-12 apprehended people caught crossing our border illegally. Two of them would not comply, so Agent Brugman pushed one of the men onto the ground. This minor incident was enough for Sutton to charge Brugman with violating the illegal alien's constitutional rights "under the color of law." During Brugman's trial, Sutton actually brought a convicted drug smuggler whom Agent Brugman had arrested from his prison cell to testify against him.

Incredibly, Johnny Sutton did an interview on the Spanish language network Univision in which he stated he was making an example out of Agent Brugman.

In addition to his service as a Border Patrol agent, Brugman is a Coast Guard veteran. He spent 16 years of his life defending this nation. He is now free and actively telling his story in hopes that justice will soon come to Johnny Sutton.

U.S. Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean are now serving 11 and 12 year federal prison sentences respectively. Sutton charged these two men with assault with a deadly weapon, various firearms charges, and with violating a drug smuggler's civil rights.

In February 2005, Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean spotted a van headed across the border into the United States. The agents gave chase and one of them ended up in a scuffle with a Mexican drug smuggler known as Osbaldo Aldrete-Davilla. One of the agents saw a gun in the smuggler's hand and fired at him, before Aldrete-Davilla fled back across the border into Mexico. The smuggler was shot in the buttocks and was observed jumping into an awaiting vehicle on the Mexican side of the border.

The van driven by the smuggler was left behind along with 743 pounds of marijuana. A few months later, he was caught once again smuggling drugs into this country. While in custody, he was given immunity from prosecution in both cases in exchange for his testimony against Agents Ramos and Compean. In addition to immunity, the taxpayers assisted him with travel expenses and provided him with medical treatment at a U.S. Army facility in Texas. Once Aldrete-Davilla testified and completed his medical treatments, he promptly filed a $5 million lawsuit against the U.S. Border Patrol for violating his rights.

Sutton's office has received a great deal of criticism for his treatment and unfair prosecution of these two agents, and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) has led a movement in Congress to pardon these two men. Though President Bush promised a review of this case, Ramos and Compean still languish in prison and Bush has never mentioned the case again.


Deputy Gilmer Hernandez made a routine traffic stop in April 2005, little did he know that this incident would lead to the loss of his freedom. It turned out that the driver was a human smuggler with several Mexican nationals hiding in the vehicle. After being approached, the driver hit the gas and tried to run over Dep. Hernandez. The deputy fired his weapon at the tires of the van at which time a bullet fragment hit a woman who was hiding in the back of the vehicle, her injuries were limited to a scratch on the cheek. Another person in the van received a similar injury.

The shooting was investigated by the Edwards County Sheriff's Department, The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, as well as the Texas Department of Public Safety. All of the agencies deemed the action taken by Deputy Hernandez as justifiable. However, more than a year later, Sutton reopened the case and prosecuted Deputy Hernandez for violating the civil rights of the two injured illegal aliens. Hernandez served a one year sentence in a federal prison.

Border Patrol Agent Noe Aleman and his wife adopted his wife's nieces from Mexico, after the girls' father died. The couple paid $40,000 in legal fees to adopt the girls ages 12, 13, and 15. Despite the steep fees, the attorney they hired was apparently incompetent and made several errors on the adoption and immigration forms. Agent Aleman himself pointed out these errors to immigration authorities and attempted to correct them. For his honesty, Agent Aleman was arrested and prosecuted by Sutton's office for alien smuggling. He received a one year sentence and was incarcerated in the same prison where Agent Ramos is being held.

Noe Aleman served with the Border Patrol for 12 years and is highly respected for his aggressive pursuits of illegal aliens and drug smugglers alike. However, in an effort to defame Agent Aleman, Johnny Sutton even suggested that the real purpose for the adoption was so that Aleman could molest the little girls, who during the grand jury hearing were referred to by Sutton's assistant as "little whores!"

In 2007, Aleman told Jerome Coursi of WorldNetDaily: "I'm just another victim in George Bush, Alberto Gonzalez, and Johnny Sutton's was against Border Patrol agents."

The three girls were sent to an orphanage in Mexico, after being deported.

There is evidence in two of these cases that the Mexican government became directly involved and influenced Sutton's office to prosecute the officers.

On March 4, 2005, the U.S. Consulate in Mexico contacted Sutton's office with information given by the Mexican government that they had a drug smuggler who had been shot by a Border Patrol Agent. The Department of Homeland Security began their investigation of Agents Ramos and Compean the very same day!

On April 18, 2005, Mexican Consul Jorge Ernesto Espejel Montes sent a letter to Sutton's office demanding that Deputy Gilmer Hernandez be prosecuted for injuring Maricela Rodriguez Garcia (the woman whose cheek was scratched while hiding in the smuggler's van). It was not until Sutton received this letter that his investigation of Dep. Hernandez began.

It would appear that U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton receives his orders from the corrupt government of Mexico, as does President Bush. The pair have not only punished several law enforcement officers for their efforts to protect this nation, but they have betrayed the American people as well.

Johnny Sutton's Western Texas District comprises over 660 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border. You can rest assured that every Mexican drug cartel knows that stretch of border to be the safest way to bring their drugs into the U.S.

Mexico has been steadily devolving into a narco-state, where even the highest levels of government are controlled by the drug cartels. Those same cartels have a powerful ally in U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton. Unfortunately, this most unholy alliance leaves both the good people of Mexico as well as the United States vulnerable to crime and unimaginable violence.

If the next administration to occupy the White House is truly about stamping-out government corruption and changing the culture of Washington, they will direct the Justice Department to open an investigation of U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/64089