Thread: Border Justice

Border Justice
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 6/21/2007

Illegal Immigration: One wrongly convicted Border Patrol agent has been exonerated and reinstated, and Congress may soon put two more on the path to restored freedom. Is the reign of rogue prosecutors over?


Border Patrol agent David Sipe was convicted in 2001 of using excessive force and causing bodily injury in the 2000 arrest of a Mexican national, Jose Guevara, after Guevara and a dozen other illegal aliens were caught sneaking into the U.S.

Sipe was charged with hitting Guevara on the head with a flashlight after he resisted apprehension in a struggle.

Now agent Sipe is free. And he has been reinstated to his former position by Anna Love, an administrative judge with the Dallas region of the Merit Systems Protection Board.

Love ordered that Sipe be given his old job back and receive full back pay to April 21, 2001, the date the Border Patrol removed him and suspended his pay.

Sipe paid dearly for the government's vendetta against him. He exhausted his life savings in defending himself and went bankrupt. His wife divorced him, and he now finds himself living with his defense attorney.

On April 18, 2003, a federal appeals court in Texas overturned Sipe's conviction and ordered a new trial, saying federal prosecutors gave the illegal alien and two others undisclosed inducements for their testimony. These included Social Security cards, witness fees, permits allowing travel to and from Mexico, living expenses and free use of government phones. Sipe was acquitted at the second trial, which took the jury less than a hour to decide.

As the appeals court noted, the government failed to disclose that after Sipe's arrest and before his trial, Guevara was caught again shepherding illegal aliens into this country. He was released when he produced a card given to him by prosecutors.

That seemed to vindicate the argument of defense attorney Jack Wolfe that Guevara's testimony was "bought and paid for," one of the many facts hidden from the original jury. But this isn't the first time the government has granted special favors in exchange for the testimony of an illegal alien against the Border Patrol.

Former Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos are serving 12 and 11 years, respectively, for the nonfatal 2005 shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete Davila. The agents shot Davila in the buttocks as he was transporting more than 700 pounds of marijuana into the U.S. through Fabens, Texas. Davila was given immunity to testify against the two agents.

Davila was caught smuggling more drugs into the U.S. in October 2005 while under immunity for the first offense.

As Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R.-Calif., has pointed out, "The prime witness against these two Border Patrol agents was involved in another major load of drugs, and the prosecution (U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton) made a conscious decision to keep these facts from the jury."

At the request of Rohrabacher, Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., who chairs the House foreign affairs subcommittee, is organizing hearings into whether the prosecution and incarceration of Compean and Ramos were the result of interference and pressure from the Mexican government.

On the Senate side, Sen. Diane Feinstein, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate subcommittee on the judiciary, terrorism, technology and homeland security, is also looking into how and why Compean and Ramos were prosecuted.

CNN judicial expert Jeffrey Toobin described the case "as one of the most unusual prosecutions I've ever seen. . . . I'm baffled why this case was brought."

So are we. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., has sponsored a resolution calling for a congressional pardon for Ramos and Compean, and it already has attracted 82 co-sponsors.

We hope Compean and Ramos will soon be pardoned, if not exonerated. And we hope that as part of any "comprehensive" immigration package, we treat our border agents with as much justice and fairness as the illegal aliens they were trying to apprehend enjoyed.

http://www.investors.com/editorial/edit ... 8125207836

On April 18, 2003, a federal appeals court in Texas overturned Sipe's conviction and ordered a new trial, saying federal prosecutors gave the illegal alien and two others undisclosed inducements for their testimony. These included Social Security cards, witness fees, permits allowing travel to and from Mexico, living expenses and free use of government phones. Sipe was acquitted at the second trial, which took the jury less than a hour to decide.

Looks like we have a corrupt set of federal prosecutors who like to bribe and lie their way into pleasing Bush. Or, we have a corrupt President who will lie and cheat to get his way.

Probably both.