Thread: Man dies during struggle with border agents at San Ysidro

Judy, I'm going to leave you with one final parting shot on this issue ........ you're wrong.

FBI investigating death at border crossing

By Lyndsay Winkley4:47 P.M.JUNE 11, 2015

SAN DIEGO — The FBI is investigating the death of Francisco Cesena, who died of cardiac arrest caused in part by multiple Taser shots he suffered in a fight with federal agents at a San Ysidro border crossing, a federal official confirmed Thursday.

Cesena, 40, of El Cajon, was detained while trying to walk into the U.S. on Christmas Eve. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents determined he was wanted on a warrant, and when they went to arrest him, Cesena attacked them, authorities said.

Agents spent nearly 10 minutes trying to restrain Cesena, who was shot multiple times with a Taser during the struggle, according to the autopsy report. Seven pairs of puncture marks consistent with Taser use were found on Cesena's back, the report read.

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's use of force policy, "a subject should not receive more than three (Electronic Control Weapon) cycles." A Taser is considered an electronic control weapon.

Cesena's cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest that was caused by multiple factors, including being restrained face-down, being shot multiple times with Tasers and methamphetamine and heroin intoxication.

Spokeswoman Jackie Wasiluk said the agency couldn't comment on the death due to the FBI's investigation, but once that's concluded, Customs and Border Protection will "conduct a complete review of the matter."

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/...ncisco-cesena/

Originally Posted by MW

Judy, I'm going to leave you with one final parting shot on this issue ........ you're wrong.

Lol! Feel better?!

Law enforcement officers who use Tasers to kill or harm unarmed civilians are wrong to do so, whether they intend to do it or not. The information about the lethal nature of Tasers is very well-known throughout our country and the world, so law enforcement officers who don't know the risk these weapons pose need to get informed. For those who know the risk and use them anyway, they should be charged with the crime they committed and prosecuted for it.

Agents spent nearly 10 minutes trying to restrain Cesena, who was shot multiple times with a Taser during the struggle, according to the autopsy report.

Seven pairs of puncture marks consistent with Taser use were found on Cesena's back, the report read.

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's use of force policy, "a subject should not receive more than three (Electronic Control Weapon) cycles." A Taser is considered an electronic control weapon.

Cesena's cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest that was caused by multiple factors, including being restrained face-down, being shot multiple times with Tasers and methamphetamine and heroin intoxication.

Taxpayers, get your check book out.

7/11/15

http://www.alipac.us/f19/man-dies-af...police-321156/

From an Amazon.com customer review of the resurgent title, now sitting at #1 on the site's Parenting/Child Safety book category: "Too often, children's books sugarcoat harsh realities by what is known as transference. Instead of telling little ones about people who will lure them into vans with promises of candy, kidnap them, and sell them as sex slaves, we make up a story about an old lady who lives in the woods in a house made out of gingerbread and other sweets, but who turns out to be a witch who wants to eat Hansel and Gretel. Happily, this Little Golden Book wisely dispenses with the sugar and keeps it real. Kids are clearly never too young to be tased, and so they're never too young to learn about the dangers of psychotic police officers with tasers. "

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2015/dec/30/cover-rip-2015/

Border Patrol To Review San Ysidro Taser Death Of Mexican Immigrant

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

By Nicholas McVicker

A photo album shows Anastasio Hernandez Rojas with two of his children at Coronado beach, his favorite place, May 15, 2015.


On Thursday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will begin reviewing the death of a Mexican immigrant shot repeatedly with a Taser by border patrol agents. The 2010 incident went viral after bystanders leaked cell phone videos.

The agency's new use-of-force board will determine if the use of force that led to Anastasio Hernandez Rojas's death was in line with policy, or if there was misconduct.

The board will make recommendations to Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske regarding what lessons can be learned from the incident, including potential changes in policy, training or equipment. In an emailed statement, the agency said it would make the findings public but did not say when.

Hernandez’s widow, Maria Puga, said she wants the agency to admit wrongdoing because she believes it will help her children move on.

By Kris Arciaga

Maria Puga discusses the death of her husband, Anastasio Hernandez-Rojas, March 9, 2016.


“It’s a way of lightening their load. I’ve always said, maybe nobody’s going to jail, but maybe I can say, ‘this change was made because of this fight, and your father’s death was not in vain,'" Puga said.

The U.S. Department of Justice declined to prosecute last year, saying it lacked sufficient evidence to pursue federal criminal charges against the agents involved in Hernandez’s death.

The use-of-force review board was established in 2014 to increase accountability and transparency for the agency, in response to allegations of excessive use of force. Puga said she thinks this is the agency's last chance to provide her family with justice.

"We have to trust in them a little bit and just hope they don't fail us again," Puga said.

"Because imagine if they review again, and once more say their agents are not guilty, when we know they're guilty."

She said other immigrant families who have lost relatives in violent incidents with border patrol agents look to her case with hope, because it's one of the few with video evidence.

Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee, said the board's reaction to Hernandez's case will be revealing.

"We'll be able to decide whether it's an effective review board or of it's just rubber-stamping the other decisions that have been made in other departments and investigations," he said.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2016/mar/09...-death-mexica/

Board clears CBP officers in taser death at San Ysidro


Sandra Dibble Contact Reporter


The actions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers that resulted in the death of a 40-year-old El Cajon man at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in December 2014 were a justified use of force, a federal panel has concluded.

The incident at the port’s pedestrian entrance involved the use of a taser to subdue 40-year-old Francisco Manuel Cesena, a U.S. citizen who assaulted a CBP officer while in custody, according to the report by a use-of-force review board, whose results were released on Wednesday.

Cesena’s family filed a wrongful lawsuit in federal court in October 2015 seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages. It alleged that Cesena was excessively stunned and beaten by CBP officers.

An autopsy concluded that Cesena died of cardiac arrest caused by several factors, including being struck repeatedly with tasers, being restrained face down and methamphetamine and heroin intoxication.

The case was one of four incidents examined by a special panel appointed to review cases involving use of force by Border Patrolagents and CBP officers. In all four, panel members concluded that the force were justified.

The three other cases involved incidents in different parts of the country. One took place on March 29, 2015 in Washington state on the Canadian border and involved the firing of a service-issued handgun by a U.S. Border Patrol agent that resulted in a man’s death. Another occurred when a U.S. Border Patrol agent fired his service rifle on April 11, 2014 Pima County, Arizona, but there was no with no evidence of injury. A third took place at a border checkpoint near Waddington, New York, when a Border Patrol agent activated “an electronic control weapon dart mode” against a woman who struck an agent and defied orders to get into her car.

The San Ysidro incident occurred Dec. 24, 2014 after Cesena presented himself at the port’s pedestrian entrance without U.S. entry documents. They found that Cesena was wanted on a felony warrant for violation the conditions of his probation and release, and was considered dangerous, the report stated.

In a pat-down, CBP officers discovered a package wrapped in black electrical tape around Cesena’s groin area that turned out to be heroin, as well as two syringes, according to the report.

Later, Cesena was unrestrained as he waited in a security area while officers processed the paperwork, the report stated.

“Suddenly and without provocation the subject stood up, ran toward an officer on duty behind a processing counter, jumped over the counter, and assaulted that officer by using his fists to strike the officer on the head,” it said.

Officers initially used their fists to subdue Cesena, and ordered him to stop fighting and resisting, “but he did not comply,” according to the report. One officer “activated his electronic control weapon without engaging probes” against Cesena’s right shoulder, but it had little effect, according to the review panel’s account. The officer then “activated his electronic control weapon without engaging probes twice on the subject’s buttocks,” it stated.

Cesena continued to resist, “until officers succeeded in restraining him,” the report said. “Shortly thereafter, the subject appeared to stop breathing.” He was transported to Sharp Chula Vista, and pronounced dead at 7:57 p.m.

The review board’s report “determined that the application of force, including physical strikes and the use of the electronic control devices...was in compliance with the CBP’s Use of Force Policy.”

The board “also made three operational and policy recommendations that have been referred to appropriate operational and policy officials within CBP for consideration.”

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...116-story.html

$1M settlement reached in border death lawsuit

Kristina Davis Contact Reporter
Autopsy found that he would not have died if he hadn’t been under the influence of meth


The U.S. government has agreed to pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit that accuses federal border officers of beating and Tasering a handcuffed Mexican man at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in a confrontation that ended in his death.

The settlement would be split among the five children of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, and about a quarter of the amount would pay attorney costs and fees. The terms must be approved by a federal judge because there are minors involved. A hearing is set for March 2.

The lawsuit, filed in San Diego federal court, is in its seventh year and was being appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on an issue, meaning the case was unlikely to wrap up any time soon.

“I didn’t think denying relief to the family was worth it, especially in light of the possibility of protracted litigation,” said the family’s attorney, Eugene Iredale. “I think the world knows and the settlement amount attests that Anastasio was wrongfully killed … due to the conduct of the Border Patrol and CBP. It is really a badge of shame.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix, which is handling the case for the government to avoid a conflict of interest for San Diego attorneys, declined to discuss the settlement Thursday because it is pending.

The case became a flashpoint in the debate over law enforcement use of force, partly because the violent encounter was witnessed by so many people on both sides of the border and parts of it recorded on cellphone video.

Hernandez Rojas and his brother were caught on May 28, 2010, after having just entered the U.S. illegally near Otay Mesa.

Once taken by bus to the Border Patrol station, an agent told him to throw away a water jug, and Hernandez Rojas in an apparent misunderstanding began to pour out the water into a trash can, according to official reports. The agent then slapped the jug out of his hands, threw him against a wall and kicked his legs apart, striking metal pins in Hernandez Rojas’ ankle leftover from an old accident, according to the lawsuit.

Hernandez Rojas complained of pain but the agent ignored him and handcuffed him, the lawsuit claims. Inside the station, Hernandez Rojas complained that the agent had injured him and asked several people for medical treatment, but he was again ignored, the lawsuit claims. Authorities determined he was to be returned immediately to Mexico and was transported to the San Ysidro border crossing with that same agent and his partner.

Once outside the vehicle, the agents took his handcuffs off and a struggle ensued. According to the lawsuit, Hernandez Rojas was grabbed from behind when he put his hands down rather than behind his head. Authorities say Hernandez Rojas resisted their efforts to restrain him. Two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rushed over and hit Hernandez Rojas with batons. He was held face down on the ground and handcuffed again, and another agent came over and kneeled on his back, the lawsuit states.

Because of the struggle, Hernandez Rojas was going to be arrested rather than returned to Mexico, and a transport vehicle was requested. But he resisted and tried to kick the agents, according to authorities.

Several Customs and Border Protection officers arrived as backup, and one fired a Taser at him and then two different officers held him face down and secured his legs.

It was then that they discovered Hernandez Rojas had stopped breathing. He died about two days later in a hospital after being taken off a ventilation machine.

An autopsy found numerous factors contributed to a fatal heart attack, including methamphetamine intoxication, heart disease, the Taser shocks, the physical exertion and restraints. The autopsy further said he would not have died if he hadn’t been under the influence of meth, the Justice Department said.

The death was investigated by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, as well as a grand jury.

They concluded in November 2015 that no criminal charges would be brought against the officers involved.

The investigation found that the officers’ claims of reasonable force could not be disproved, nor was there evidence they acted with malice.

Human rights activists have filed a complaint to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights in Washington, D.C., an autonomous judicial body, that is pending.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...223-story.html

Tasers are wrong. Sorry, but they are lethal weapons that shouldn't be used except as lethal weapons. But in the US they are being used as non-lethal weapons. With all the information out there about them, police officers who use them are doing so as lethal weapons in situations that don't call for it.