Thread: FL- Former ICE agent gets 7 years for forcing detainee ,sex

Former customs official gets 7 years for forcing detainee to have sex
By Vanessa Blum | Sun-Sentinel.com
1:47 PM EDT, July 10, 2008
A Fort Lauderdale federal judge sentenced a former agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to seven years in prison on Thursday for forcing a female detainee in his custody to have sex with him at his Tamarac home.

Wilfredo Vazquez, 35, pleaded guilty in April to two counts of sexual abuse in April, admitting he brought the woman to his home in Sept. 2007 as he was transporting her to a Broward County holding facility for deportation to Jamaica.

U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas called the incident a "horrific crime" that sent a terrible message to people in U.S. custody.

The woman, identified in court records as M.C., did not attend the hearing. In a letter to U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas she said the experience caused her "lingering shame, emotional distress, pain, [and] guilt."



"Whatever sentence this Court imposes will be far lighter than the nightmarish existence that I must endure for the rest of my life," she wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas.

Vazquez volunteered to transport the detainee from the Krome Service and Processing Center in southwest Miami-Dade County to the Broward Transition Center on Sept. 21, according to court records. During the trip, Vazquez removed the woman's handcuffs and instructed her to ride in the front passenger seat. He allowed her to use his cellular phone for personal calls, the records state.

Vazquez then began requesting sexual favors, the records state. Though the woman protested, Vazquez drove her to his house and demanded sex. During the incident, Vazquez kept his firearm attached to his waist.

The woman later told authorities she was afraid to resist. But that night confided what had happened to another detainee, who informed a guard.

Vazquez initially denied having sexual contact with the woman, according to court records. However, her story convinced authorities because she was able to describe the route to Vazquez's residence and the home's interior. A review of SunPass records for the vehicle Vazquez drove while transporting the woman confirmed that he exited the Florida Turnpike en route to his home.

Before being sentenced, Vazquez apologized to the woman, and to his wife and relatives.

"I was clouded. I was weak. I don't know what I was thinking," said Vazquez, a Marine Corps veteran and former Army reservist in Iraq. "I have failed my country, my family and my friends."

Dimitrouleas sentenced Vazquez to 87 months, the prison term agreed on by both sides in a plea agreement. Had the case gone to trial, the judge said Vazquez would almost certainly have been convicted based on "overwhelming" evidence and faced a far more severe punishment.

Prosecutor Daniel Rashbaum said the government entered the agreement to spare the victim from testifying at trial. Rashbaum said she approved the agreement knowing Vazquez's likely sentence.

Defense lawyer Joel DeFabio said he was happy with the outcome, noting his client will never again wear the uniform of law enforcement or the military.

"He's totally embarrassed and ashamed," DeFabio said. "This is somebody whose whole life is service and now he can't do that. That's the biggest punishment."

In her letter, the woman asked Dimitrouleaus to impose the "maximum sentence," which would have been life in prison. "By doing so, maybe, just maybe, another woman's life will not be destroyed the way Wilfredo Vazquez has single-handedly destroyed mine."

Vanessa Blum can be reached at vbblum@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4605

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... 8270.story

I don't know...I know the victim agreed to this plea deal in which she will avoid testifying. But 7 years for a scum bag who raped a woman detainee under the color of authority just doesn't seem right to me. He completely used his position of authority with the government to perpetrate this violent crime against this woman! It doesn't get much worse than that.

Don't we have two border patrol agents right now rotting away in prision for shooting at a drug runner and missing because they feared their life to be in danger? They get 10 years and a convicted rapist gets 7? I know it's difficult to compare cases as each one is unique on its own merits. However, something seems to me amiss here. Maybe it's the perceived lack of justice in which this case reeks of.

And who cares if he will not be able to ever wear the "uniform" again! That's the price you pay for raping a woman while wearing the uniform...