Thread: America's Most Wanted Airs Story On BP Agents!

AMW had the guts to air the piece tonight after all!

http://www.amw.com/features/feature_...il.cfm?id=1369

Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos- Miscarriage Of Justice At The Border
1/4/2007


For Border Patrol Agents Joe Compean and Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos, February 7, 2005 was just another day of endless watching and waiting for illegal immigrants to cross the Rio Grande into the U.S. But catching illegals was a piece of cake compared to their battle against the drug cartels who are better-armed and whose foot soldiers outnumber them.

Over the last ten years or so, agents have been involved in a growing number of gun battles with drug runners on this side of the border. To say the least, the bad guys are getting more brazen and trigger-happy. So far, at least four smugglers have been killed. Our guardians of the Border have suffered no casualties. But the thought is always there: "Is this gonna be my day? Will I make it home tonight?"

Compean and Ramos may have been wondering that very thing as the events of February 7 began to unfold. The following is what occurred, according to TJ Bonner, President of the National Border Patrol Council:

Checking on a tripped sensor near the river, Agent Compean discovers footprints and drag marks -- a tip off that a load of drugs has just been smuggled across the river. Spotting a vehicle leaving the scene, Compean radios its description to agents covering the road ahead. Realizing he's been spotted, the smuggler turns around and heads back toward Compean.

According to Bonner, when the smuggler bails out of his van to make a run for the river, he fails to obey Compean's numerous commands to stop. After a brief physical struggle, the smuggler begins running toward the river again.

When he turns and points something shiny at Compean, the agent, believing his life is in danger, opens fire. Agent Ramos, hearing gunshots, comes to Compean's aide. He too shouts for the smuggler to stop, but this man once again turns around and points at Ramos. Ramos fires one shot. He appears to miss as his target turns and dissapears into the bank of the Rio Grande.

Border Patrol agents return to the suspicious van and look wide-eyed at almost 800 pounds of marijuana, worth about a million bucks on the street. Agents seize the payload and it seems like they've done their jobs. But a bizarre turn of events and an apparent miscarriage of justice would soon find Ramos and Compean on the wrong side of the courtroom.


Two Border Patrol Agents seize a van full of marijuana as the smuggler flees across the border. So how did that seemingly common scenario result in the agents facing long prison terms?
A Different Story

At the center of this baffling miscarriage of justice is this man, illegal alien Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila. For some reason, the US Attorney's Office believed his story over two experienced Border Patrol Agents.
View LargerAccording to the U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, Ramos and Compean are not heroes. In fact, charges filed against the two suggest they are in fact criminals. Thanks to an odd partnership and a series of curious decisions, Compean and Ramos face long prison sentences.

The man behind the wheel of the marijuana-packed van was Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, an illegal alien and according to The New American, an admitted felon and drug smuggler. After this encounter, according to court testimony, Aldrete-Davila's family contacted a friend of the family, Rene Sanchez, a naturalized U.S. citizen and Border Patrol Agent, for advice. Sanchez now had to choose between his brothers-in-arms and a boyhood friend.

According to court testimony, Sanchez tutored Aldrete-Davila on getting back at Ramos and Compean, helping him get counsel and working out the best immunity deal he could.

It now fell to the U.S. Attorney, who was forced to decide which story he believed. He opted to believe Aldrete-Davila's account of that day, not the stories of Ramos and Compean. According to his version of events, Aldrete-Davila did not have a gun and was shot while trying to escape two Border Patrol Agents whom he feared.

But according to TJ Bonner, the Army doctor who treated Aldrete-Davila (on the taxpayer's dime), that story doesn't hold water. According to Bonner, Aldrete-Davila's entrance wound was on the left side of his left buttock and the bullet was found in his right side.

That entry wound is not consistent with someone fleeing. Rather, it looks like someone taking the "bladed stance," i.e., pointing a gun at someone. The stance would come from somenone firing a gun in his left hand. Bonner says Aldrete-Davila is, in fact, left-handed.

Still, the prosecutor, described by Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), as overzealous, continued to believe Aldrete-Davila's scenario.

On March 8, 2006, a Federal Jury convicted the two agents of assault with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and civil rights violations. But that verdict is in question as well.

According to the National Border Patrol Council, "three of the twelve jurors later submitted sworn affidavits alleging that they had been misled into believing that there could be no dissent in the decision of the jury, and that the minority would have to accede to the will of the majority. Despite this cloud over the propriety of the process, the judge refused to overturn the verdict."

On January 17, 2007, both former agents walked into the U.S. Marshals Service office in El Paso, Texas to begin serving their time. Aldrete-Davila, on the other hand, is now suing the U.S. government for $5 million.


Questions Still Remain

US Attorney Johnny Sutton requested to tell his side of the story to America's Most Wanted producers. Despite the interview, questions still remain.
View LargerThis is an obvious case of he said/they said. On the one hand, there is an illegal alien, on American soil, driving a van full of about $1 million in drugs. On the other side are two experienced law enforcement officers.

The U.S. Attorney's Office contacted an AMW producer, offering to give their side of this story. While the U.S. Attorney reiterated his stance on the issue, he never answered the question of why he sided with Aldrete-Davila instead of Compean and Ramos.

The interview also contained conflicting information. At one point, when asked why Aldrete-Davila wasn't charged with any crime, Sutton says that because of Ramos' and Compean's actions, there was no evidence to charge the alleged drug smuggler. Yet, moments earlier, Sutton admitted that Aldrete-Davila's van was found with a large quantity of marijuana.

Did Ramos and Compean make mistakes? Yes, no one can disagree on that. Should they have been punished and reprimanded for their transgressions? Again, everyone agrees that they should. But the 11 and 12 year sentences are forcing Border Patrol agents and law enforcement in general to question everything they do, at the detriment of our safety.

Thank you, John Walsh!!

(Excuse me, President Bush.....the American people think it's time for you to do something. Something for these agents. Something for our country.)

Johnny Boy didn't look quite as arrogant and cocky as he has during other interviews. In fact, he looked a little sick

Originally Posted by ladyofshallot

Johnny Boy didn't look quite as arrogant and cocky as he has during other interviews. In fact, he looked a little sick

Yeah, it's hard to look healthy when you have egg on your face and you just know you are going to have to eat a lot of crow. Visions of having your nuts in the fire doesn't help much either.

Prior to his service in the Governor’s office, Mr. Sutton worked as a
criminal trial prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney’s
Office (Houston, Texas) for eight years. As a prosecutor, he was lead
trial counsel in over sixty felony cases, including numerous capital
murder, aggravated robbery, and sexual assault cases. He is fluent in
Spanish, having appeared as a television commentator for the Spanish
language network Univision during the Selena homicide trial.

Did they actually show it? I'm waiting for it to come on in 20 minutes but they keep showing previews of an episode about domestic violence.

Originally Posted by cvangel

Did they actually show it? I'm waiting for it to come on in 20 minutes but they keep showing previews of an episode about domestic violence.

Yes, in the latter half of the show. It was grrrreeaat!

Thanx Jaded........I'm awaiting!

Written By
Greg A Great American
6- 21-04

We all have seen drug traffickers doing absolutely anything, from hiding drugs inside innocent children and women, to creating diversions just to sneak past the cops, all the way up to using animals and babies from planting drugs in cop cars to bribing boarder guards to murdering witnesses.
Sit back and think a minute. If your where in the shoes of a boarder patrol agent today, what would you have done.
Now illegal migration across the boarder is up, drug crime, smuggling is up, murder of the Law enforcement is up.
You just have been handed a memo before your shift that states, specifically in regard to drugs, from the office of the chief: officials say, an estimated 75% of all cocaine and 40% of all heroin that reaches the streets of America was smuggled through Mexico. DEA agents say that Mexican drug lords have become as powerful as or more powerful than those leading the Colombian cartels.
Now all day yesterday you been hit, spit on, cursed at, smacked in the face and even your chief is up you rear about getting a shave and a hair cut , you’ve been putting in over 80 hours a week , and now it happens , its midnight the coffee is cold and the sandwich you’ve brought is wet,
Your worse night mare, three guys you’ve never seen up till about three seconds ago shows up out of nowhere one puts a gun in your face, the other has a bat and the third looks like a guy right out of deliverance, all this while your partner is taking a leak…. ……now what do you do, what does any one do, what does any cop do at this point.
Is it training or is it natural human ability? You tell me, because I’ve been there. You tell me what happens next … and after it’s all over who wins.

http://www.fugitivehunter.org/usmostwanted.html

Well, now all the Americans who don't watch Lou Dobbs (their loss) knows about this story,it was good, it was great, Sutton came off looking like a fool.I think before this story is over, big heads are going to roll, I couldn't be happier about it, now something needs to be done for this poor deputy who may be going to jail next for daring to defend himself in the line of duty. Our Gov. more and more are looking like a bunch of incompetent idiots, bungling fools, and most definitely on the side of the Illegals, this is not going to sit well with the American people!