Dog tags urge pardon for Ramos, Compean
Also serving has fundraiser for agents' families

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Posted: September 8, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern



© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


Front of dog tag

A chief at a sportswear and emblem company has launched a website to urge pardons for former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were imprisoned in 2006 for firing their guns at a fleeing Mexican drug smuggler, and raise funds for their families.

Rich Soergel of Pacific Sportswear and Emblem Co. told WND that his goal over the coming six months is to raise at least $50,000 for the families of the agents serving prison terms of 11 and 12 years.

"I have created a grass roots fundraising campaign to raise money for the Ramos and Compean families by offering a special dog tag," he said. The product calls for freedom for the agents on the front side, and on the back, has the telephone number for the White House.

"Demand pardon. Call the White House at (202) 456-1414," it says.

The fundraiser is located at Free Our Border Agents.com, he said.

The dog tabs are brushed aluminum and coated with lacquer, he said.


Back of dog tag

"Best of all, you are supporting both Border Patrol agent's families through this tough time," he said.

Soergel told WND his plans are to forward 75 percent of any order payment to the families. He said he doesn't know the families; he just felt he had to do something.

"I do it because I care. I don't know why I get involved in some of this stuff," he said. "I just felt I needed to do something."

Although the agents are imprisoned, the smuggler is free, having been granted immunity by federal prosecutors for his smuggling operation.

"This really is a case of prosecutorial overreaction," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said at a Senate hearing on the issue. "This was a drug dealer who was shot fleeing. Shot in the rear end fleeing. He wasn't an innocent person."

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, a 26-year veteran of the Border Patrol, has pressed President Bush to commute the agents' sentences.

"This penalty levied on these agents is excessive and ... they deserve the immediate exercise of your executive clemency powers," Feinstein and other senators told Bush in a letter.

Soergel said letters to the president on their behalf have been a consolation to the family members, but there's been no results so far.

"The president has proven …. that he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants," said Patty Compean, whose husband is in a prison in Ohio. "There's no due process with him. My husband was doing his job."

Soergel said living within 15 miles of the Mexican border, he appreciates the efforts to protect its integrity.

"We decided to start a Dog Tag Fundraising campaign to help create awareness, help raise funds for the Ramos and Compean families and demand a pardon for the two border patrol agents that were wrongfully convicted," he said. "These two men (along with many others) defend and put their lives on the line to keep illegal aliens from entering our country every day.

"We feel that injustice was done when both of these agents were sentenced," he said.

"As one who truly cares about our country and wants to protect our borders, I feel (as millions do) that this is WRONG!," he said. "Demand a pardon … call the White House…"

The smuggler is Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, who was identified as the delivery man in a second drug load that came into the United States months after his confrontation with the two agents.

WND reported Prosecutor Debra Kanof argued at the Ramos-Compean trial that presiding U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone should seal any discussion of Aldrete-Davila's involvement in the second load from the jury.

Cardone ruled not only that defense attorneys were prohibited from revealing any information about Aldrete-Davila's second load to the jury but that defense attorneys and the family of Ramos and Compean would be prosecuted for violating the judicial seal should they reveal to the press any hint of Aldrete-Davila's involvement.

At the Ramos-Compean trial, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton and Kanof allowed Davila to present sworn testimony on the stand that he was an inexperienced drug smuggler who only committed the first offense because his commercial driver's license in Mexico had expired and he needed money, supposedly to buy medicine for his sick mother.

Aldrete-Davila's testimony at trial was critical to the prosecution, because Aldrete-Davila was the only person who could testify he was unarmed during the initial Feb. 17, 2005, incident with Ramos and Compean at the border.

Ramos and Compean testified they believe Aldrete-Davila reached back at them with what they thought was a gun as the smuggler fled across the Rio Grande back to Mexico after he abandoned the drug van.

Defense attorneys were prohibited by Judge Cardone's ruling from using any information about Davila's second drug load to impeach the credibility of Aldrete-Davila's testimony at trial.

Medical reports obtained by WND document that Aldrete-Davila was wounded in the left side of his left buttocks. The bullet traversed his groin and lodged in his right thigh.

At the trial, the U.S. Army doctor who removed the bullet testified Aldrete-Davila's wound was consistent with a "bladed movement," with Davila reaching his left hand back toward the officers as he was running away.

The doctor's testimony about the wound was consistent with Ramos' and Compean's belief Davila reached back with a gun while escaping.


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