Outgoing U.S. attorney eyes career as "conservative voice of reason"
Austinite Johnny Sutton was key Bush administration voice on border issues.
By Steven Kreytak

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF


Tuesday, April 14, 2009

During his more than seven years as top federal prosecutor for a wide swath of Texas, it wasn't the drug smugglers or the flood of undocumented immigrants that most overwhelmed and frustrated Johnny Sutton; it was the media.

Sutton, an Austinite appointed in 2001 by then-President George W. Bush, said the skewering he took on cable news shows and in other media for his office's 2006 prosecution of two border patrol agents who were convicted of shooting a Mexican drug smuggler and covering it up was based on bad information and incomplete facts.

Now, as Sutton prepares to leave his post as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas next week, one of the things he plans to do is jump into the fray of the 24-hour news cycle — he didn't say in what capacity.

"The ... case was an amazing tidal wave of misinformation," said Sutton, who noted that his critics were mostly right-leaning. "I want to be a conservative voice of reason in the media."

Sutton's office represents the federal government in criminal and civil cases across a district that includes 68 central, south and west Texas counties — including 650 miles of the border.

He announced his resignation last week after he secured a job in the private sector that he didn't want to reveal in an interview Monday.

Travis County Attorney David Escamilla, San Antonio City Attorney Michael Bernard and Michael McCrum, a private San Antonio lawyer, were recently suggested to the White House by the Texas congressional delegation as potential replacements for Sutton.

Sutton, 48, was a leading voice informing the U.S. Justice Department's policies on border-related issues, traveling frequently to Washington to testify before Congress or meet with past attorneys general.

He said he supported the buildup of federal law enforcement resources on the southwestern border, noting that there are about 20,000 border patrol agents now compared with about 9,000 when Bush took office.

And he said he pushed for more aggressive enforcement of immigration laws. For example, in the past, undocumented immigrants in Austin who had re-entered the country after being deported generally faced prosecution only if they had also committed a serious felony. Now, federal prosecutors are pursuing charges simply for illegal re-entry.

"Strong enforcement is important, and there ought to be a cost to coming into the country illegally," Sutton said.

He said he is proud of his office's prosecution of more than 400 prison gang members, including 19 members of the Texas Syndicate in Austin in 2004. Prosecutors said syndicate members murdered four people.

And he's proud of the prosecution of about 100 corrupt public officials, including former Texas Attorney General Dan Morales in 2003 on mail and tax fraud charges.

But Sutton is best known for the prosecution of former U.S. border patrol agents Jose Compean, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison, and Ignacio Ramos, sentenced to 11 years, in the 2006 shooting near Fabens, southeast of El Paso. Bush commuted the sentences, and the men are now free.

Talk radio and television hosts, including CNN's Lou Dobbs, lashed out at Sutton for the prosecution, saying that the men were defending the border from a drug dealer.

By the time Sutton mounted a defense of the prosecution — the smuggler was running, unarmed, from the agents, who destroyed evidence and did not report the shooting, for example — it was too late, he said.

Sutton said that he wants to use his experience to inform the public discourse and that he welcomes a chance for debate.

"I don't mind a good knife fight," he said.

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