Thread: TX- Former Border Patrol agent pleads guilty

Former Border Patrol agent pleads guilty
By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press Writer © 2008 The Associated Press
Aug. 19, 2008, 2:23PM
McALLEN, Texas — A former Border Patrol agent pleaded guilty Tuesday to hitting an illegal Guatemalan immigrant in the face with his pistol and to putting the barrel of his pistol against the head of another illegal immigrant while interrogating him.

Santiago Perez, of Edinburg, admitted Tuesday in federal court in Houston to both cases of violating the civil rights of the two immigrants while working as a South Texas Border Patrol agent in 2006 and 2007.

"Those who are sworn to uphold the laws are equally bound to follow them," U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle said in a statement Tuesday. "An injustice has been recognized and accepted by this former agent's admission today."

Special agents from the Department of Homeland Security interviewed Perez a week after the 2007 incident where after picking up an illegal immigrant from Premont Police, north of the Falfurrias checkpoint, Perez drove him to a secluded area for interrogation.

Perez, 28, took the handcuffed immigrant from his vehicle, made him kneel on the ground and asked where he was going to pick up immigrants that he was smuggling. When the immigrant denied that he was a smuggler, Perez put his pistol to the man's head and asked again. When that didn't work, Perez threatened him with his baton and said he would put him "in a hole."

For that incident, Perez was charged with violating the immigrant's Fifth Amendment right to not be deprived of liberty without due process of law, including his "right to be free of harm while in official custody," according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

In the 2006 incident, Perez used excessive force to catch a Guatemalan immigrant near Falcon Heights, northwest of Roma.

When the immigrant and others who had waded across the Rio Grande tried to flee, Perez caught one, and even after the man did not resist, Perez hit him above the left eyebrow with his pistol.

For both incidents, prosecutors charged that Perez had denied each immigrant their "Fourth Amendment right to be free from excessive and unreasonable force while in the process of being seized by (Customs and Border Protection)," according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

Perez could get as many as 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of the two counts. Sentencing was scheduled for Nov. 5. Perez is free on bond.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5953556.html

here we go again. another BP agent to fight for, even if this is true, these people entered illegally.
sorry i dont have pity for anyone entering wrongfully