In the 1990s, the Border Patrol worked closely with Grupo Beta, an elite Mexican police unit. After a promising start, the unit faltered under allegations of wrongdoing and functions today as an unarmed humanitarian agency.
In a politically sensitive operation at the Arizona- Mexico border, U.S. Border Patrol agents and Mexican federal police officers are training together, sharing intelligence and coordinating patrols for the first time.
The goal of the historic partnership: a systematic joint attack on northbound flows of drugs and migrants, and southbound shipments of guns and cash. It is part of a major, unannounced crackdown started in recent months involving hundreds of U.S. and Mexican officers in the border’s busiest smuggling corridor.
The initiative appears likely to expand. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Mexican Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna will sign a declaration Thursday in Mexico City agreeing to replicate the experiment. Eventually, officials say, joint operations borderwide could lead to the creation of a Mexican force serving as a counterpart to the Border Patrol — an agency once regarded with nationalistic aversion in Mexico.
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Former Border Patrol Chief Deputy and pedophile Joseph W. Giuliano who now seeks leniency for his perverted crimes
BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Joseph Giuliano, the former high-ranking Border Patrol official accused of having sex with a 14-year-old girl, changed his plea to guilty of third-degree child rape Thursday in Whatcom County Superior Court.
Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Mac Setter said he’s recommending Giuliano serve one year in custody of the Whatcom County Jail on work release [, Back at the Border Patrol?!?] and three years of sexual deviancy treatment after that, the Bellingham Herald reported.
The paper also said the plea means Giuliano will have to register as a sex offender.
Giuliano was the No. 2 man in the local Border Patrol before he was arrested on suspicion of raping the high school girl, who was a friend of the family.
Police say Giuliano admits he had sex at least 24 times with the girl.
Setter alleged in court last October that Giuliano had sex with her for the last time on Oct. 13, after police had already visited the girl’s high school and had told Giuliano that he was under investigation, at which time he denied anything was happening. Setter says later, the girl told police they had sex later that same night.
The victim told detectives she had been involved with Giuliano. She said they arranged meeting times by communicating through text messages. The two met in his car, in her bed and at his house, she said.
When questioned by detectives, Giuliano admitted to having had sexual intercourse with the victim on at least 24 different occasions, according to the statement of probable cause. He said their relationship began in April 2008 and continued until October.
At times, he told the girl it was wrong and feared he would get caught, the statement said.
The victim is not related to Giuliano, who is married. Setter says Giuliano’s wife was not aware of the alleged abuse.
Giuliano had been a Border Patrol agent for more than 20 years and as deputy chief has overseen operations in Western Washington, Oregon and Alaska.
WE FIRST REPORTED THIS STORY HERE
The lenient sentencing recommendations from the prosecutor’s office (when they could say the maximum time for the counts, 15 years; Why do they ask a 14-year old girl that is still probably romantically involved in her mind, what do her parents think?). Sentencing is June 25th. Call and bring this up everywhere you can, the people that are hearing of it are livid.
Contact information for Judge Charles R. Snyder, who will determine sentencing for Giuliano on June 25th:
Judge Charles R. Snyder
Whatcom County: Superior Court
311 Grand Ave, Ste 301
Bellingham, WA 98225-4048
(360) 738-2457
Border Patrol agents chased a group of suspected illegal immigrants into a parking lot at the Golden Acorn Casino, and watched as the group got into a cargo trailer via a trap door under the truck
The Border Patrol says they found 25 illegal immigrants hiding inside a pair of semi trucks.
About 10:30 p.m. on Thursday night, Border Patrol agents chased a group of suspected illegal immigrants into a parking lot at the Golden Acorn Casino. Officials said the group got into a cargo trailer via a trap door under the truck. Eventually, 17 people were found inside the trailer, officials said.
While conducting surveillance of the parking lot, agents said, eight other illegal immigrants got into the cab a second truck.
Both vehicles were stopped just before midnight as they left the parking lot. Two male U.S. citizens driving the trucks were arrested. The are expected to face human smuggling charges.
Harlingen Texas – A U.S. Border Patrol agent was arrested by Cameron County Sheriff’s Department deputies after an investigation into allegations that he had a sexual relation with a 14-year-old girl.
Francisco Villanueva, 35, was charged Wednesday with soliciting sexual relations with a minor, which is a second-degree felony, and engaging in sexual acts with a minor, a third- degree felony, said Sheriff Omar Lucio.
Bond was set on Villanueva at $30,000 for soliciting a minor and $20,000 on the second charge.
“The investigation started on Feb. 1 when the mother . . . came in and spoke with our investigators,” Lucio said.
Villanueva, a Border Patrol agent for 8 years, had been a friend of the victim’s family for years and frequently would visit their home, the sheriff said.
According Lucio, the parents discovered the relationship when they found descriptive notes.
“Apparently the girl’s sisters had discovered a diary and some letters that described the type of relation and acts that were involved,” he said.
The teenager was taken to the Cameron County Children’s Advocacy Center where she underwent a forensic interview, which determined she had been involved in a sexual relationship with the agent, the sheriff said.
The agent was arrested at the Border Patrol station in Harlingen when he arrived for his shift, Lucio said.
“While sexual assaults are not unheard of, incidents like this tarnish all the men and women in law enforcement who are proud of their badge,” the sheriff said.
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BP Agents gets away with raping illegal immigrant
EDINBURG — Witnesses called U.S. Border Patrol agent Alberto Garcia everything from a rapist and cheater to a corrupt law enforcement official over the course of his four-day trial.
On Thursday, though, an Hidalgo County jury called him something else entirely – a free man.
After less than two hours of deliberations, the panel cleared Garcia, 34, of McAllen, of charges that he sexually assaulted an illegal immigrant in the back of his patrol vehicle more than two years ago.
The woman had alleged he stopped her and a friend on Oct. 24, 2007, and then suggested he would arrest her if she didn’t have sex with him.
Garcia denied those claims, saying that he had consensual sex with his accuser that night and that the two had previously dated.
After hearing Thursday’s verdict, Garcia hugged his wife and wiped tears away from his eyes.
“He’s thankful to the jury,” defense attorney Rey Merino said. “He’s just happy this is all over. It was all a bunch of lies.”
Merino cited conflicting stories among state’s witnesses and a lack of physical evidence of sexual assault as the primary factors that led the jury to acquit his client.
The accuser – whose name has been withheld because she is purportedly the victim of a sex crime – testified Wednesday that she had never met Garcia before he pulled her over as she and a friend left a Las Milpas bar and he ordered her into his truck.
Garcia drove the woman to a secluded area, forced himself on her and then asked for her phone number, she told jurors.
But defense witnesses questioned that version of events Thursday, saying the purported victim had bragged before the incident about dating a Border Patrol agent. Afterward, she said she was going to be receiving $50,000 and her “papers” to stay in the country legally, they said.
Graciela Saenz Reyna, an Hidalgo County assistant district attorney, declined to comment after Thursday’s verdict but balked during closing statements at the suggestion the accuser had made up her story expecting to get something out of it.
“She had everything to lose by coming forward,” she said. “When this is over, she’s going back to Mexico.”
Reyna also questioned several instances in which Garcia’s family allegedly sought to influence the outcome of the case.
Judge Israel Ramon Jr. barred Garcia’s mother from the courtroom Wednesday after she approached a juror in the bathroom during a break in the trial. And Garcia’s father began dating a key state’s witness shortly after the rape allegations surfaced.
He denied Thursday that he had ever tried to convince her to change her testimony.
When asked what effect Garcia’s family might have had on the trial’s outcome, Reyna remained reluctant to reply.
“It’s hard to say,” she said. “We don’t really know.”
Garcia has remained suspended without pay from his job since the accusations against him first arose in 2007. Merino said his client has not yet decided whether to seek a return to work.
FBI agents have arrested a U.S. Border Patrol agent accused of accepting $39,000 in bribes and using his personal vehicle while in uniform to drive narcotics across the U.S.-Mexico border in his patrol area.
Border Patrol Agent Eric Raymond Macias, who was stationed in Deming, turned himself in to FBI agents Friday at their Las Cruces offices, the FBI said.
Macias allegedly accepted $39,000 in bribes from a witness who was cooperating with investigators in exchange for helping the person smuggle what the agent believed was marijuana and cocaine through the border, according to records filed in U.S. District Court.
Macias is accused of telling a person he believed to be a drug smuggler what route to take to avoid Border Patrol agents in southern New Mexico, an affidavit said.
He also is accused of transporting cocaine in his personal vehicle while in uniform through a Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 10 west of Las Cruces, the affidavit said.
The incidents allegedly took place from September 2007 to February 2008, court records showed.
Macias’ arrest follows a two-year investigation by the FBI, the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Inspector General and the internal affairs office at the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. He was released on a $5,000 bond.
Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier says his agency is “cooperating fully” with the investigation.
Mosier says all Border Patrol agents go through rigorous training that ncludes integrity on the job. Background investigations are done on all agents.
“These are isolated cases. We don’t feel like it speaks for the reputation, track record and professionalism that the Border Patrol has maintained since 1924,” Mosier said. (In a rat’s ass they’re isolated!)
An FBI spokesman and Macias’ attorney did not return telephone messages left Wednesday seeking comment.
The questions that needs to be asked is why this “BP Hero” is not being charged with drug smuggling, and other Federal charges in relation to using his position to facilitate breaking the law?
SOURCE: El Paso Times & AP
It’s official: Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett won’t be tried again in an illegal immigrant’s shooting death.
U.S. District Court Judge David Bury has granted a prosecution motion to dismiss second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide charges, without prejudice, meaning hey can be refiled if new evidence is developed.
Two trials in 2008 ended with jurors deadlocked. The first, 10-2 for conviction, the second 11-1 for acquittal.
Bury’s action last month ends criminal proceedings stemming from the Jan. 12, 2007 murder of 22-year-old Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera of Puebla, Mexico, in Cochise County.
But Corbett also faces a $7.5 million dollarcivil suit Dominguez’s family filed last month.
Notice of intent has been filed with the US government to file a civil rights suit against Corbett and the USDOJ.
A Border Patrol spokesman in Washington said Corbett remains on administrative duties while an internal investigation continues.
UPDATE – Suit was filed Tuesday
A $7.5 million wrongful death and Civil Rights lawsuit will be filed againstU.S. Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Corbett .
A law firm representing the parents of a Mexican man killed by Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Corbett recently submitted a $7.5 million claim notice, which is a prelude to filing a lawsuit, against him and the government.
Meanwhile, a personal lawsuit against Corbett is expected to be filed separately today in federal court in Tucson.
The federal tort claim, dated Dec. 2, is brought against Corbett for causing wrongful death, and against the Homeland Security Department, Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Justice Department for negligently employing Corbett.
“Agent Corbett, while acting within the course and scope of his agency with the United States Border Patrol, negligently and/or wrongfully shot and killed decedent. At the time of the shooting, decedent showed no resistance to agent Corbett’s demands and was on his knees in a submissive position,” states the document.
The claim seeks a total of $7.5 million, including $2.75 million for the victim’s father Renato Ariza Dominguez, $2.75 million for the victim’s mother Maria Clara Leonor Rivera Cordero, and $2 million for the estate of the deceased.
The document alleges that witness statements as well as the autopsy and ballistic analysis contradict Corbett’s version of the story. It says the death could have been avoided if Corbett was not negligent or did not act wrongfully.
The document also states the government should have known Corbett was involved in numerous incidents of misconduct that made him an inappropriate person to be a Border Patrol agent, such as assaulting a man in Pennsylvania, committing domestic violence and voicing his hatred of Mexicans.The assault and domestic violence claims did not result in convictions.
Corbett went on trial twice this year in federal court in Tucson on criminal charges of negligent homicide, manslaughter and second-degree murder for the death of Dominguez-Rivera, an illegal immigrant, near Naco on Jan. 12, 2007.
Both trials resulted in mistrials due to hung juries. Prosecutors have not officially decided whether or not they will take the case to trial a third time.
During the trials, Corbett claimed he shot Dominguez-Rivera in an act of self-defense to prevent the victim from smashing his head with a rock.
On Monday, Sean Chapman, the lead defense attorney representing Corbett in the criminal case, said “I have no comment” regarding the federal tort claim.
Bud Tuffly, president of the Local 2544 National Border Patrol Council in Tucson, said he could not comment specifically on the document because he has not seen it, but he said the union will continue to support Corbett.
“We will stand behind him 100 percent and we will defend him through this civil action as well,” he said. “We are not going to back down.”
Federal government officials named in the tort claim could not be reached for comment on Monday, including Annmarie Highsmith, associate chief counsel for the Homeland Security Department’s Customs and Border Protection.
On Monday, attorney Federico Castelan Sayre, of the law firm in Santa Ana, Calif., that submitted the federal tort claim, said a lawsuit for negligent hiring and supervision eventually will be filed. For now, the parties involved are given a period of six months in which to respond to the claim, he added.
Also, Sayre said, a civil rights lawsuit will be filed against Corbett today in U.S. District Court in Tucson in a way that allows federal officers to be sued in the same fashion as state officers. He said that filing is “basically receiving the final touches.” Rick Gonzales, a Tuscon attorney, will be the local counsel, with assistance by Sayre.
Sayre, who was born and raised in Tucson and graduated from the University of Arizona, practices law in California. He represented Rodney King against the City of Los Angeles, which resulted in a $3.8 million verdict, and has worked with Gonzales in the past.
Remember OJ Simpson? The burden of proof murder is much less in a civil action than in a criminal trial. Although in the case of this murdering coward, testimony and forensic evidence suggested the lying bastard Corbett was guilty of murdering in cold blood, Javier Francisco Rivera. The breakdown in the system was the jurors in both instances who violated their oath as jurors to look at the evidence with fairness and impartiality. This time, the result will be different. Wonder how Corbett feels now at the prospect of working for the family of the man he murdered for the rest of his life? Oh wait a minute! This coward will probably seek reassignment to Florida or another state where he can protect his assets, just as OJ Simpson did!
Two South Texas Border Patrol agents appeared in federal court Thursday on charges alleging they helped drug traffickers move their product across the U.S.-Mexico border.
A grand jury in Houston returned sealed indictments Dec. 1 against Leonel Morales, 30, of the Border Patrol’s Laredo sector and Salomon Ruiz, 34, of the Rio Grande Valley sector.
Both men made their initial appearances in federal courthouses in McAllen and Laredo on Thursday after the FBI arrested them Wednesday. They will remain in custody until their respective detention hearings next week, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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