Thread: Breaking News:BP Agents' report matched protocol

http://www.sbsun.com/ci_5166023



San Bernardino, CA, 2/6/2007







Agents' report matched protocol
DHS rules prohibit divulging shooting
Sara A. Carter, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 02/06/2007 12:00:00 AM PST


Two convicted former El Paso Border Patrol agents accused by the U.S. Attorney of not filing a report when they shot a Mexican drug smuggler were prohibited by their own agency's firearms policy from doing so, according to documents obtained by The Sun's sister newspaper in Ontario, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
Meanwhile, the government made public Monday its response to Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos' October motion to reduce his sentence.

The response contends that Ramos and fellow agent Jose Alonso Compean knowingly shot an unarmed suspect, filed a false report and that supervisors were not notified.

Attached to the motion were domestic-violence arrest reports regarding three disputes Ramos had with his wife, Monica. Those documents were not admissible during the agents' trial. Ramos was not charged with a crime stemming from the incidents.

Ramos and Compean were convicted last spring of shooting Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, a Mexican drug smuggler, in the buttocks on Feb. 17, 2005. The agents are now serving 11 and 12 years, respectively, in federal prison.

The agents were convicted partly due to the government's successful argument at trial that the two men failed to file a report
about the shooting.
But U.S. Border Patrol firearms policy specifically states that agents are prohibited from filing a report if a shooting takes place and that only an oral report to supervisors is required.

"Ensure that supervisory personnel or INS investigating officers are aware that employees involved in a shooting incident shall not be required or allowed to submit a written statement of the circumstances surrounding the incident," reads the firearms policy.

"All written statements regarding the incident shall be prepared by the local INS investigating officers and shall be based upon an interview of the INS employee."

INS refers to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which oversaw the Border Patrol before the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. The shooting policy has remained unchanged.

Documents from the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General show that all nine agents on the scene at the time of the shooting - including two supervisors - knew shots had been fired.

Oscar Garcia, El Paso Border Patrol Union representative with Local 1929 and a firearms instructor, said the Report of Apprehension or Seizure filed by Compean and Ramos on the day of the incident was accurate. Garcia stated that the agent's omission of the shooting in the drug-seizure report followed firearms policy.

"Our own policy prohibits them from filing any report on the shooting incident," Garcia said. "The U.S. attorney's assertion that they covered up the incident by not filing a report is ridiculous."

Johnny Sutton, the U.S. attorney for western Texas whose office prosecuted the case against the agents, contends the agents didn't report the shooting to supervisors who arrived on scene and knowingly lied about the incident.

"Ramos did not mention the shooting, and said nothing about the suspect having a weapon," Sutton said in an Aug.11 news release.

Sutton was not immediately available for comment on Monday.

Both agents, however, said the other agents and supervisors on the scene that day knew about the shooting. This assertion was echoed in an Office of Inspector General memorandum written March 12, 2005, by Christopher Sanchez, an investigator with the Office of Inspector General.

"Investigation disclosed that the following Border Patrol agents were at the location of the shooting incident, assisted in destroying evidence of the shooting, and or knew/heard about the shooting: Oscar Juarez, Arturo Vasquez, Jose Mendoza, David Jaquez, Lance Medrano, Lorenzo Yrigoyen, Rene Mendez, Robert Arnold, and Jonathan Richards," Sanchez wrote.

Arnold and Richards were the two supervisors on the scene that day.

Richards was given a promotion shortly after the incident and testified against the agents. Agents Vasquez, Juarez and Jaquez were given immunity from prosecution to testify against Ramos and Compean.

The prosecution's objection to Ramos' motion to reduce his sentence, which was released Monday, goes against what was reported by the Office of Inspector General and contends the two former agents covered up the shooting on their own.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof, who prosecuted the agents and wrote the motion, some of the least credible evidence was when Ramos and Compean walked away from the scene.

"Instead of (Ramos) fulfilling duties as an agent and as a member of the response team, he walked side by side with Compean, who according to Compean's own testimony, bent down at least nine times to pick up his own spent casings."

Kanof also states in her response that Ramos never mentioned until the trial that he thought his life or Compean's was in danger, or that the smuggler had a gun.

Ramos said he chose not to speak to investigators until his attorney was present. Compean, however, did waive his right to counsel and discussed the incident with investigators from the Office of Inspector General.

Contrary to Kanof's statement, several memorandums written by Sanchez, the investigating officer, attest that Compean believed his life was in danger.

"Compean said that he began to shoot at Aldrete-Davila because of the shiny object he thought he saw in Aldrete-Davila's left hand ... Compean explained that he thought that the shiny object might be a gun and that Aldrete-Davila was going to shoot him because he kept looking back at him as he ran away."

Thanks mk.

Gee, I just love that Sara Carter - she is always 'all over' any stories and updates regarding the Border Patrol - especially in SoCal.