http://www.dallasnews.com

Taking sides in border agents' conviction

Officers seen as criminals or victims of bureaucracy


11:50 PM CDT on Sunday, September 10, 2006

By DAVID McLEMORE / The Dallas Morning News

Since their conviction last March in the wounding of a drug dealer near El Paso, former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean have become a focus in the national debate over border security.

Conservative radio hosts call them scapegoats of the government's enforcement failures. Web sites buzz with righteous indignation and gather petitions to overturn their convictions. Such unlikely allies as U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo have taken up the ex-agents' cause. The House Judiciary Committee will hold hearings later this year on the case.

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas welcomes the congressional interest. And he thinks such inquiries will find what a federal jury in El Paso decided in March: that law enforcement officers aren't above the law.

"These guys shot an unarmed suspect as he was running away. Then they lied about it and destroyed evidence," Mr. Sutton said. "I can't imagine there are many people in Congress or anywhere who believe it's OK for cops to shoot an unarmed suspect. Juries are very aware of the tough job Border Patrol agents have and give them a certain deference. But the jurors heard the facts and convicted them."

Mr. Ramos, 37, who served the patrol for nine years, and Mr. Compean, 28, who had five years' experience, were convicted on 11 counts, including assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with serious bodily injury and violation of a suspect's constitutional rights. The charges stemmed from the pursuit of Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila on Feb. 17, 2005, at the border at Fabens, near El Paso. Both men face up to 20 years in prison at sentencing in October.

Not everyone accepts the government's facts, however. For many, the former officers are victims of a national security bureaucracy that favors policy over stricter border law enforcement.

"The agents testified they thought the suspect had a gun and fired in self-defense, and the government took the word of a drug dealer against them," said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents 12,000 agents. "There is something to the whole mess that offends anyone's sense of justice."

Mr. Bonner acknowledges the two former agents conceded that they failed to report firing their weapons according to Border Patrol rules and that they violated departmental ground rules for pursuit of a suspect.

"But those are matters routinely handled by administrative suspensions," he said. "How did it become a felony prosecution? We need a special counsel investigation to get to the bottom of this."



Thursday, some of the strongest congressional proponents of tougher border enforcement, including Mr. Tancredo, R-Colo., and Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., held a news conference in Washington to demand the Justice Department set aside the convictions of Mr. Ramos and Mr. Compean and reopen the investigation.

"For the congressman, the biggest issue is that the government doesn't give Border Patrol agents sufficient tools to do the job, and when they do it and they have an opportunity to prosecute a drug dealer, they go after the agents," said Carlos Espinosa, press spokesman for Mr. Tancredo.

Last month, Ms. Feinstein, D-Calif., asked Attorney General Al Gonzales to review the case against the two former agents, arguing that the circumstances do not justify the verdict and that these convictions are already having an adverse effect on the Border Patrol.

She also requested a full hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee because of "significant concerns that there may have been a serious miscarriage of justice."

The House Judiciary Committee, under Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., will hold an open hearing on the Ramos-Compean case sometime before the end of the year.

That's fine with Mr. Sutton. "Congress can certainly look into any matter they wish, and we'll gladly cooperate," he said. "But once they see the facts, they'll find these were not two agents doing their job, but two people who violated the law."

No one should be surprised at the contradictory views of what happened that night along the border, said Nestor Rodriguez, director of the Center for Immigration Research at the University of Houston. Contradictions are a reflection of the reality of the border itself, he said.

"While it can be a dangerous place of high-volume smuggling and violence, the border is also the backdrop politicians use to enlarge whatever point they wish to make," he said. "Sociologists call it social reconstruction of reality. But really, the politicians are simply creating their own private reality. It is no longer a matter of who ran and who shot, but who says how these things happened."



In an unusual move, Mr. Sutton publicly released a three-page letter to correct what he called "misstatements and misinformation" about the case.

"Agent Compean attempted to hit the man with the butt of his shotgun. In fear ... the man ran away from the agents, who then fired at least 15 rounds at him, although they had seen his open hands and knew that he was not holding a weapon and had no reason to think that he had a weapon, hitting him once causing serious bodily injury," Mr. Sutton wrote.

The two agents saw Mr. Aldrete-Davila driving through a small town and thought he was acting peculiarly, according to court testimony. They followed him as he drove toward the Rio Grande. Finally, he jumped out of the car and ran toward the river.

He came out of a ditch with his hands up, according to testimony, and scuffled with the officers. He was running toward the river when he was shot.

Mr. Aldrete-Davila, tracked down by a Homeland Security official, testified during the two-week trial under immunity from prosecution. Evidence presented in the trial showed that the two agents weren't aware that Mr. Aldrete-Davila's vehicle contained nearly 800 pounds of marijuana until after the shooting and the suspect had fled into Mexico.

Afterward, both Mr. Compean and Mr. Ramos failed to report firing their weapons and refused to have supervisors report the incident as an assault on agents. They also retrieved and hid their shell casings from supervisors.

"If they believed the shootings were justified, then they had no reason to conceal it," Mr. Sutton said. "They both testified at trial they believed the suspect had a gun. The jury didn't buy it."

Mr. Sutton stressed that the great majority of Border Patrol agents perform their work each day without breaking the law.

"These guys have a terribly difficult job, and they're true American heroes the way they go about it," he said. "But my job and that of the prosecutors in this office is to enforce the laws the best we can. And that means if law enforcement officers break the law, they have to stand the consequences."

E-mail dmclemore@dallasnews.com