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Illegal immigrant recounts alleged rape by Border Patrol agent

February 26, 2009 - 9:10 AM
By JEREMY ROEBUCK/The Monitor

EDINBURG - An illegal immigrant woman told jurors Wednesday that she feared no one would believe her when she accused a U.S. Border Patrol agent of rape.

Clenching her jaw and shaking back tears, the 39-year-old mother recounted the night more than two years ago that Agent Alberto Garcia allegedly pulled over her car, ordered her into his patrol unit and sexually assaulted her.

She reluctantly took her story to police, she said, only after her friends convinced her to do so.

"I felt badly because I came over to this country to get my children a better life," she said. "It's true about what they say - the price you pay is steep."

Her testimony came during the third day of the agent's trial on sexual assault charges. Prosecutors allege Garcia, 34, of McAllen, abused his position during the October 2007 encounter. The woman's name has been withheld because it is The Monitor's policy not to identify those who may be victims of sex crimes.

Garcia's defense, however, has maintained throughout the trial that the agent and his accuser had a prior sexual relationship. The woman flagged him down on the night in question and threatened to "cause trouble in his marriage" if he refused to have sex with him again, the agent first told police.

But the alleged victim, a Mexican national, denied that story Wednesday. She first met Garcia on Oct. 24, 2007, when he stopped her vehicle as she and a friend left a Las Milpas bar, she said.

The woman told jurors that Garcia had asked her what she could offer him after he determined she was in the country illegally.

"He (asked) if I knew that he could take me," the woman said. "I understood that to (mean) deported - to be thrown over to the other side."

Her companion that night - Susana Villanueva - also testified Wednesday that Garcia had sexually propositioned her, too, but that she had refused. The agent ordered her to wait in the car and turn off her lights, while he took her companion and drove to a secluded area.

Once there, Garcia allegedly forced himself upon the woman. After the encounter, he asked for his purported victim's phone number and then left her to return to her vehicle, the woman testified.

The agent never placed either woman under arrest or threatened them physically, but both said Wednesday that they felt intimidated by his status as an agent.

"A person like me without papers against an authority like him?" his accuser testified Wednesday, speaking through an interpreter. "I didn't know anybody. I was scared."

Her testimony ended the state's case against the agent but came after a day of surprises from outside the courtroom.

Wednesday morning, state District Judge Israel Ramon Jr. barred Garcia's mother from attending further testimony after a prosecutor alleged she had tried to coerce a juror into discussing the case.

The mother approached the juror in the bathroom, held out a Bible and showed her a photo of Garcia's son, said Graciela Saenz Reyna, an Hidalgo County assistant district attorney.

Reyna also accused Garcia of making threatening gestures at a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent who had investigated the case against him.

Both Reyna and defense attorney Rey Merino said late Wednesday that they did not believe either issue would result in a mistrial.

Garcia's defense is expected to open its case this morning.

If convicted of sexual assault, he could face up to 20 years in prison and $10,000 in fines and would lose his job with the Border Patrol. He remains on suspension pending the outcome of the trial, agency officials said.