Thread: Attention U.S. Citizen, Do Not Defend Yourself

From: "The Battalion", "the independent student voice of Texas A&M (University) since 1893":

Attention U.S. citizen, do not defend yourself

Rancher pays damages to illegal immigrants captured on his land. That's wrong.

By: Travis Holland
Posted: 3/3/09 Section: Opinion

Imagine you live in a small border town in southern Arizona. Every day on the news, you hear reports of murders and drug violence in the area, and the body count is alarmingly high.

Now imagine that one day, you come across a group of Mexican nationals who are squatting on your property.

This happened to Roger Barnett, an Arizona rancher. He detained the group at gunpoint for his own safety and called the U.S. Border Patrol.

As a gesture of gratitude, the jury ordered him to pay the illegal aliens $77,800 in damages.

This has to be one of the most idiotic cases ever tried in an American court. It makes a complete mockery of the judicial system, punishing a man who made a citizen's arrest and contacted the proper authorities.

And Barnett was, indeed, punished.

Of the $77,800 he was forced to pay, $60,000 of it was for punitive damages. Punitive damages are charged to punish a defendant for wrongdoing in a civil court case.

This case poses many problems and sets a very dangerous precedent.

First of all, these people were illegal aliens who don't even have a right to enter this country. How could they possibly have the right to damages in an American court? I'm not arguing the decision was flawed; unfortunately, that's how the system works. I'm arguing the system needs to change.

Also, the fact that Barnett had a shotgun played an important role in the accusation that he violated the illegal immigrants' rights. This violates so many legal precedents and personal rights it's insane. The Washington Post said Barnett's property "has become a major corridor for armed drug and immigrant smugglers." That should be enough reason for Barnett to fear for his safety, absolving him of any liability for having a firearm.

Additionally, Barnett has a legal right to make a citizen's arrest in Arizona. A judge affirmed that right in court, yet the jury awarded the criminals thousands.

This should be a valuable lesson to Americans for two reasons. It shows that the federal government has no intention of securing the border with Mexico, and is in no way concerned about Americans' rights there. If the government really wanted to make the border safe, it would protect people like Barnett in court. He didn't participate in any vigilante justice; he told the criminals to stay put while he contacted the authorities.

Secondly, this ought to ruin the romantic view many have of the justice system in this country. It's no secret that Border Patrol personnel, and law enforcement in general, are stretched thin in the U.S. But until now, most Americans have been confident in the fact that they can at least defend themselves or uphold the law until the authorities can get there. Unfortunately, those days appear to be numbered.

The blatant disregard for American citizens' rights in this case is nauseating. At a time when the federal government needs its people to be on the lookout for crime more than ever, it has taken away that right.

As icing on the cake, five of the plaintiffs in this case are living in this country illegally. Instead of being deported, they were awarded thousands of dollars from an American rancher trying to uphold the law. This travesty of a court case is disgusting, and the American people ought to take a serious look at the loyalties of their elected officials.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2009 The Battalion

http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/stor ... 6662.shtml

Arrgghhh......oh, this so angers me.

I cannot understand WHY these lame brained jurors would EVEN give these people ANYTHING but a quick pass, back to their country.

So many words to say, so inappropriate in this forum.

Why isn't he sueing the US for damages?

It sounds like this jury has studied at Johnny Sutton's knee. Besides suing the US government, he should also sue Mexico for letting its citizens violate his property, and sue the illegals for carrying out the act of property violation, sue the jury for punitive damages by allowing the violation of his quiet and peaceful enjoyment of his property, sue the judge and plaintiffs' attorneys, as well as .....

Why isn't he sueing the US for damages?

From what I heard about the story, he did everything he could to try and be nice about the situation.....installing water where they could drink without having to come on the property, the tons of trash left...busted fences.....they do owe him for all the damages. In all honesty, I wonder how many would try so hard and do everything so right, for so long, when in all seriousness, a less honerable person probably could have done alot worse and no-one would report them missing. Guess it's either don't defend yourself or shoot to kill, coz anything in the middle is just room for outrageous things like this.

BUT who was sitting in the jurors box? Since the attorneys go through people and pick the jury. And supposedly of their own peers. And the suit was brought on mainly by pro-immigrant groups and an attorney on their side

Rancher ordered to pay illegals $77,000
But damages over 'emotional distress' to be appealed



Posted: February 19, 2009



The federal lawsuit against Douglas, Ariz., rancher Roger Barnett, his wife, Barbara, and his brother, Donald, took place before Judge John Roll in U.S. District Court. A verdict was declared Tuesday. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF, represented the five female and 11 male illegal aliens.

Barnett's attorney, David Hardy, said the judge completely dismissed the cases against Barbara and Donald after the illegals claimed conspiracy.

"There was no evidence," he told WND. "The most they could show about Barbara was that she showed up after the incident, and Donald wasn't even there. He did sometimes cooperate with Roger in turning over illegals, but he wasn't there that day. And there was no proof of conspiracy, so the judge chucked it out."

Many of the aliens are residents of Michoacan, Mexico. Four live in Illinois, one resides in Georgia and another in Michigan. All of the plaintiffs currently living in the U.S. listed pseudonyms in the lawsuit due to "fear of adverse action based on immigration status."

Ten of the illegal alien plaintiffs didn't show up to the trial, but the remaining six said they were given permission to re-enter the United States and testify against Barnett.

"That was a shocker to me. All the ones who testified said that they were here legally and that their attorneys had done the paperwork," Hardy said. "There's nothing like your government backing you."



Illegal aliens trudge through Barnett's property





According to the complaint, Barnett, who owns 22,000 acres along the border in southeastern Arizona, approached the group of illegals on an all-terrain vehicle March 7, 2004. He allegedly began yelling at them in English and broken Spanish while aiming his gun at the group. While Barnett's dog barked at the intruders, the illegal aliens accused him of ordering the dog to attack. One of the women said the rancher kicked her because she refused to get up. The jury ruled in favor of Barnett on the battery charge as well.MALDEF claimed the family attacked, harassed, threatened and held the illegals against their will, because they were motivated by racial and class-based discrimination. The complaint said the Barnetts allegedly caused the group "severe emotional and mental distress," including fear, anxiety, humiliation, stress, frustration and sadness. Each illegal alien sued for $1 million in actual damages and $1 million for punitive or exemplary damages.

Barnett detained the trespassing illegals until Border Patrol agents arrived. The lawsuit claimed that the rancher never told the illegals they were trespassing and failed to post a sign notifying them that they were on private property.








Border Patrol confiscates drugs illegals attempt to transport into U.S.





The group also flew a psychologist to Arizona from Chicago to testify that the illegal aliens suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"We don't know where they're getting their money, but it's a lot," Hardy said. "They dropped $19,000 on the psychologist for his examination and $150 an hour to show up for trial."

He continued, "We tore him up pretty good, though. We tore up all of the other witnesses, too."

The rancher was held liable for limited damages involving assault and emotional distress. Two illegal aliens were given $1,000 plus $10,000 in punitive damages each. Two more received $7,500, plus $20,000 in punitive damages each.

"It's interesting since most of them don't speak English, but they claim that Roger, who has almost no command of Spanish, was able to use full sentences like, 'If you go, my dog is hungry, and he's hungry for your butt,'" Hardy said. "Roger couldn't put that sentence together."

He said the judge left out one part of instruction to the jury that should have been included, and it will be the basis of their appeal.

"The law is skeptical of infliction of emotional distress because everybody gets their feelings hurt at times," he said. "So one of the requirements was that whatever is done must be so severe that the average person would be physically disabled by the distress suffer a complete mental breakdown. The judge wouldn't put that in the instruction. That's straight Arizona law."

Also, two of the plaintiffs received $1,400, and two were awarded $1 each for assault. The term "assault" is legally applied when a person has simply put someone in fear of a harmful contact. According to the attorney, Barnett did carry a gun, but the judge did not include their self-defense argument in the instructions to the jury another basis for appeal.

All together, the illegals received only $77,804 of the $32 million they requested and Hardy believes that award will be thrown out in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

"It was 95 percent victory for us," he said. "What they really wanted were the first two civil rights claims because if they got those, they got attorney's fees. With nine attorneys working on the case, I'm sure their fees were $500,000 to $1 million."










Roger and Barbara Barnett with Border Patrol while they detain illegal aliens on the family's ranch
Meanwhile, Hardy said Barnett's ranch is still a hotspot for illegals who want to get into the U.S.

"They all testified that they were going to pay $1,800 per head to get in," he said. "It's right on the other side of the border, across from Douglas, Ariz.

"A guy was telling us that he had seen these dusty cars in Mexico, and they would offer to take you across to the U.S.," Hardy said. "One of them had written in the dust: 'Barnett's ranch.'"

MALDEF and its attorneys lost track of three of the plaintiffs entirely, Hardy said. The organization hired nine attorneys for the illegal aliens. Three were from big commercial firms in New York City.Sixteen illegal aliens who sued an Arizona rancher, claiming he violated their civil rights and falsely imprisoned them by holding them at gunpoint on his property along the border, have lost their case. WHAT ABOUT HIS EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL DESTRESS? WHO CAN HE SUE? MEXICO OR THE US FOR NOT CONTROLLING IMMIGRAITON. THE RANCHER SHOULD COUNTER SUE AND GET HIS MONEY BACK.

http://foros.aol.com/aol/es_us/articles ... Read=false

Call, fax, and email our government officials. Why are these illegals in the country at all?

This is a sickening case, right up there with the Ramos and Compean case.

This case, in my opinion, represents an extraordinarily dangerous tipping point in this country. This man was punished for protecting his life and property. If this doesn't scare you than you are living on another planet. People! You have to look out for yourselves because your traitorous, lame brained, despicable government won't do it! I might be a reasonable time to talk with Smith and Wesson. I know I have already. They can offer some heavy duty personal reassurance!

By the way, there is SOME goodness in this case:

All together, the illegals received only $77,804 of the $32 million they requested and Hardy believes that award will be thrown out in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.