Thread: Rocksprings residents seek to 'Free Gilmer

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Rocksprings residents seek to 'Free Gilmer'

Web Posted: 12/15/2006 11:39 PM CST

John MacCormack
Express-News

ROCKSPRINGS — "Free Gilmer" signs are sprouting all over town, the local Baptists are paying his family's mortgage, and others are covering the truck payments and the propane and water bills.

Although Gilmer Hernandez, 25, a former Edwards County sheriff's deputy, is locked up 80 miles away, the home folks in this old wool-shipping town are rallying behind him.

Hernandez claims he acted in self-defense, but federal prosecutors say he shot recklessly at a carload of people.

"I think the overwhelming majority of the community just can't believe it. Of all people! If he were some raunchy deputy, but he's not. He's very well respected," said Carolyn Anderson, editor of the local Texas Mohair Weekly. "It's both compassion and outrage. They want him released and pardoned."

On Dec. 1, after a weeklong trial, Hernandez was convicted in federal court in Del Rio of violating the civil rights of a Mexican woman who suffered a minor gunshot wound while being smuggled to Austin.

Hernandez fired that shot in a confrontation that occurred when he stopped a car full of undocumented immigrants that ran a red light while passing through Rocksprings.

The jury acquitted him of a similar count involving a second person in the car. Since the conviction, Hernandez has been held without bond in Val Verde Correction Facility in Del Rio.

When he's sentenced in March, he could face up to 10 years in federal prison.

"The law says you cannot use deadly force to stop a car unless it poses an imminent threat to the officer or another person. If the car is going away from you, it's not even a close call," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Baumann, who prosecuted the case.

Hernandez's lawyer, Jimmy Parks Jr., says the shooting was justified.

"Our defense was two-fold," Parks said. "First, that everything Gilmer did was appropriate and what he had been instructed to do, and second, that he had come into a situation in which he truly was in fear for his life."

Most folks in Rocksprings, population 1,250, think Hernandez did nothing wrong.

"Our deputy is in jail, basically for doing his job. That's the perception of the community," said Albert Green, the local Baptist preacher

"These people were in the country illegally. They were fleeing the law. What is law enforcement supposed to do?" he asked.

Roy Cottle, 26, a part-time sheriff's dispatcher in Edwards County and Hernandez's best friend, said: "We're right on the border, and when you stop a loaded vehicle, you don't know if it's illegals, drug smugglers or even terrorists."

He added, "People have to understand, when an officer makes a stop, especially at night, he has a split second decision to make. It's either they kill me or I defend myself."

The fateful encounter occurred on April 14, 2005. When the driver of the Suburban tried to flee after the late-night traffic stop, Hernandez fired several shots, puncturing a tire.

According to his incident report, written the next day, he began shooting after the driver tried to run him over as he fled.

"Hernandez was in fear of his life and fired his weapon one time to the back left rear tire," he wrote in his report, going on to describe two more shots. Investigators later found a fourth shell casing at the scene.

Three of the rounds penetrated the back of the Suburban.

When the car stopped, all but one of the eight or nine people inside fled into the brush. Only the wounded woman, Maricela Rodriguez Garcia, remained behind.

At the trial, however, prosecutors sought to prove Hernandez had fired as many as six times at a fleeing car that posed no danger to him, and also may have manipulated evidence.

His police unit's video recorder, which should have automatically captured the entire encounter, held nothing useful, possibly because the tape already was full.

"If that tape had been running, we'd know what happened," said Edwards County Sheriff Don Letsinger, who said Hernandez had been a deputy about a year, earning $21,000 without overtime.

"As far as I know, this was the first time he fired his weapon," Letsinger said.

Baumann said at least six occupants of the car were being smuggled from the border to Austin. Several of them testified for the government at trial.

"We didn't make a big thing about how illegal aliens are good," the prosecutor said. "They are people, and the Constitution protects people."

He said the group members have been allowed to stay in the country to be available as trial witnesses, and will remain here legally until Hernandez is sentenced.

"When you do wrong as a policeman, we think we need to tell you it's wrong, so other policemen will not shoot into cars. It's not an OK way to stop them," Bauman said.

On Wednesday afternoon, more than 80 Rocksprings residents, including high school students and civic leaders, gathered outside the county seat's 115-year-old stone courthouse to decorate a "Hope Tree" dedicated to Hernandez.

"First of all, we want him transported to Rocksprings," said County Judge Nick Gallegos, a member of a committee formed to help Hernandez.

"Then we'll be looking into a presidential pardon. It may be a long shot, but we'll give it every effort," he said.

After other speeches and a hand-holding circle prayer by the Rev. Green, the crowd milled about, placing ribbons and ornaments on the tree and signing "Free Gilmer" posters.

Affixed to a star at the very top of the tree was a brass sheriff's deputy badge — identical to the one that until recently Hernandez proudly wore.

On hand were Hernandez's wife Ashley and their 4-month-old daughter Alektra, as well as his mother Rosa Hernandez, who said her son had always wanted to be a lawman.

"Since he was a little boy, he used to wear his plastic guns and badge. That was his dream come true, to help people," she recalled.

"He's a wonderful kid. Never drank or did drugs. Compared to his brothers, he was the best one. That's why people here love him."

Hmmm........another situation where right is wrong and wrong is right. In my values book a fleeing criminal is to be stopped at all cost. I don't think it is right for law enforcement to just throw up their arms in disgust and allow a criminal to escape. Yes, anyone fleeing questioning or apprehension is a criminal in my eyes. What if one of those folks in the van would have been a serial killer or rapist? You can just let them go in the hopes they were only out for a Sunday drive. Besides that, the act of fleeing should be an admission of guilt, shouldn't it? I think so.

Personally, I would never consider fleeing as an option, most innocent people wouldn't.

http://www.ksat.com/news/10699758/detai ... t&psp=news

Town Rallies Behind Jailed Deputy

POSTED: 10:53 pm CST January 8, 2007
UPDATED: 8:10 am CST January 9, 2007

ROCKSPRINGS, Texas -- The town of Rocksprings is rallying behind a deputy sheriff convicted of violating the civil rights of an undocumented immigrant Monday.

Deputy Gilmer Hernandez, a Hill Country deputy sheriff, faces up to 10 years in federal prison after being convicted of violating the civil rights of a woman he shot while she sped away from a routine traffic stop.

Hernandez has been in custody since his December conviction for the shooting.

The community said Hernandez should be freed, and they said so at a rally in the town square adjacent to the courthouse.

Ashley Hernandez, the deputy’s wife, said the incident is "something that I just want to put behind our past. It’s almost been two years and we've been living with it and we're ready just to put it in our past and go on with our lives.”

She said Hernandez was just doing his job, those who know him said the same.

“I know that he did what he thought was right. He never intended to hurt anybody. He was never that kind of person,” said Roy Cottle, a friend to Hernandez.

Though he said he respects the jury's verdict, the sheriff also backs Hernandez.

"We just don't believe that our deputy sheriff committed the wrong that he's accused of," said Sheriff Don Letsinger, of the Edwards County Sheriff’s Department.

Support for Hernandez went beyond rallies -- business leaders, church leaders and county employees are getting together to help make the car payment and the house payment to help his family survive while he's in prison.

Formal sentencing for Hernandez is set for March. He’s facing a range of punishment from 10 years to probation.

here we go again.

another case of ramos/campeon where the law enforcement is in jail for doing their job. how much longer can americans take this? its an invasion and trying to stop a car full of people.