Thread: Cornyn, Sutton hash out Border Patrol sentences

07/27/2007
Cornyn, Sutton hash out Border Patrol sentences
Bob Campbell
Staff Writer
Midland Reporter-Telegram

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn Thursday called the imprisonment of two border patrolmen for shooting a drug dealer "a miscarriage of justice" and called on President Bush to commute their sentences.

In an interview from San Antonio, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton said he never considered politics while prosecutors Debra Kanof and Jose Luis Gonzalez were preparing the case and he approved it because Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean had broken the law.


He said the Bush administration did not pressure him to try them to improve relations with Mexico.


Having questioned Sutton at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing July 17 in Washington, Cornyn said Kanof and Gonzalez suppressed evidence that would have exonerated the agents.


"I believe mistakes were made by the prosecutors Sutton supervised," Cornyn said in a news conference call. "I'm deeply concerned with some of the information that came to light at the committee hearing.


"Among other things, it appears the government allowed this drug dealer to violate the terms of his immunity agreement. Further, he was allowed to commit perjury and jurors have since come forward to state that evidence they were prevented from hearing would have changed their verdict."


The senator said Sutton gave drug dealer Osvaldo Aldrete a visa before the agents' February 2006 trial in El Paso and he may have used it to bring in another $1 million marijuana load. He was shot in the buttocks in February 2005 southeast of El Paso and the van he left held more 740 pounds of the drug.


Ramos and Compean said they did not file a report because Aldrete didn't look wounded when he leaped into a second vehicle and escaped into Mexico with a fellow drug cartel member.


Cornyn and other Judiciary Committee members are calling on Bush to commute the agents' 11- and 12-year terms.


Referring to an aide of Vice President Dick Cheney convicted of perjury after refusing to implicate his boss in the "outing" of CIA Agent Valerie Plame, Cornyn said, "If the Scooter Libby case is one the president believes was excessive, I have a hard time understanding why these two individuals don't warrant a similar review."


Bush commuted Libby's 30-month term on July 2 but not his $250,000 fine. A commutation does not expunge a conviction as does a pardon.


Sutton said he declined a request this week to testify before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee because the representatives were only interested in whether diplomacy with Mexico was considered in the case. "Neither I nor my prosecutors had any contact with the Mexican government, so that was an easy question to answer," he said.


"The punishments were harsh, but they were based on guidelines set by Congress," Sutton said. "The information referred to is the so-called 'October load' allegation -- that the smuggler ran another load of marijuana between the time he was shot and the trial.


"The defense attorneys (Mary Stillinger and Maria Ramirez of El Paso) tried to get it into evidence and wanted to question Aldrete about another shipment. But the judge ruled it inadmissible. It was a typical ruling. Nobody covered up a thing.


"Unfortunately, the case has been misrepresented. All you hear is that two American heroes were doing their jobs and a drug dealer was set free."


While border patrolmen in the Western District of Texas have used their weapons 14 times and killed three suspects since Sutton became U.S. attorney in 2001, he said, Ramos and Compean were the first prosecuted. He supervises 120 attorneys in the 93,000 square-mile district and prosecutes 6,000 defendants a year, he noted.


"When a federal agent breaks the law, we can't look the other way just because he is an agent," Sutton said. "Had they done their jobs, the smuggler would be sitting in prison."


Cornyn said the Justice Department and U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone of El Paso failed to consider the difficulty of the officers' jobs. "Agents Ramos and Compean were on the front lines," he said.


"The prosecutors had a duty to dispense equal justice under the law and it seems an open question whether the agents were treated differently because of their status as law enforcement officers."


Ramos is incarcerated at the Yazoo City, Miss., Federal Correctional Institute, where he was beaten by inmates after the case was on "America's Most Wanted," and Compean is in the Yankon, S.D., Prison Camp.


A 20-year friend of Sutton's, Midland attorney Brian Carney, said the criticism the one-time University of Texas baseball star is getting "is very unfair.


"The jury heard both officers testify and didn't believe their version," said Carney. "Is Johnny supposed to turn a blind eye to these guys shooting somebody running away?


"If he'd done that, you can bet the political people who are criticizing him would criticize him for that. He's an honest, straightforward, by the book guy and that's the job he's supposed to do."


Carney said laws mandating stricter punishment when firearms are used should apply to officers if they use their guns improperly. "Johnny did the same thing U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald did when he prosecuted Scooter Libby," he said.


"They're not supposed to be influenced by the political winds."

http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cf ... 5626&rfi=6

"Sutton said he never considered politics while prosecutors Debra Kanof and Jose Luis Gonzalez were preparing the case"

This makes things a little plainer!!!!

Newt Gingrich described his fellow Republicans Monday as trained seals for the Bush administration. That's not all bad. Alberto Gonzales got a standing ovation Tuesday after he balanced a beach ball on his nose in front of the Judiciary Committee.

You know I am beginning to wonder if there isn't something way more to this story than just wanting to persecute two agents to keep other agents frightened.

Do these two agents know something that could be harmful to someone?

There seems to be some strange activities by the agent Sanchez, friend of the drug dealer, such as checking on drug activity in that sector, etc.

I always look for the 'rest of the story.'.

Originally Posted by nntrixie

You know I am beginning to wonder if there isn't something way more to this story than just wanting to persecute two agents to keep other agents frightened.

Do these two agents know something that could be harmful to someone?

There seems to be some strange activities by the agent Sanchez, friend of the drug dealer, such as checking on drug activity in that sector, etc.

I always look for the 'rest of the story.'.

.
look at this and check out the reply i posted. i think its the 3rd or 4th post down http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=75181

it says who davila might be based on statements from a BP agent in texas