A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a former Border Patrol agent convicted of violating the civil rights of two undocumented immigrants to one year in prison. Santiago Perez, 28, of Edinburg, Texas, admitted as part of a guilty plea in August that he assaulted a Guatemalan and a Mexican man on separate occasions. Perez admitted to authorities that he pistol-whipped a Guatemalan man in December 2006. Perez also admitted to taking a Mexican man out to a remote South Texas ranch and holding a gun to his head, and trying to force him to admit he was a smuggler. In ….Read More
04/11/2008
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Despite overwhelming evidence pointing to the guilt of Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Corbet in the murder of Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, U.S. District Judge David C. Bury declared a mistrial at 1345 today. More on this breaking story as it becomes available. The prosecution has not indicated whether it will try a third time. In the meantime, this embarrassment to Federal law enforcement is free to take the law into his own hands as he sees fit!
03/11/2008
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DAY 9 (11/03) UPDATE – The Jury has recessed for the day. 13 hours total time in deliberations. The jury got the case at about 1430 on November 30. Deliberations began for about two hours, adjourned, resumed on Friday and adjourned once again until this morning. the jurors sent a note to Judge David Bury with two requests. They asked for access to “a scale to weigh something 30 pounds.” The judge denied their request. The 30-pound figure is significant because that was the weight of the backpack worn by Dominguez-Rivera when he was shot. The jurors also requested permission ….Read More
01/11/2008
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The fate of a U.S. Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett charged with murdering Javier Dominguez Rivera is now in the hands of the jury. U.S. District Judge David C. Bury handed over the case to a 12-person jury about 2:30 p.m. Thursday, after they sat through a morning of closing arguments that demonstrated contrasting accounts of what happened in the Jan. 12, 2007, shooting near the U.S.-Mexican border between Bisbee and Douglas that left Javier Dominguez Rivera dead. Prosecutors say Corbett shot and killed Domínguez Rivera while the 22-year-old was trying to surrender. They brought his two brothers and ….Read More
29/10/2008
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The defense in the murder trial of Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett opened yesterday with testimony from a California pathologist hired by the defense. Richard Mason, forensic pathologist from Santa Cruz County, California, is the same M.E. that was used in the first trial, Mason is short, likely close to eighty years old, and wears very thick Mr. Magoo like glasses.
21/10/2008
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More than seven months after the first trial ended with a hung jury, the retrial of a U.S. Border Patrol agent facing murder charges begins today at the U.S. District Court in Tucson. Here’s the playbook The case: U.S. Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide in the Jan. 12, 2007, shooting of Francisco Javier Domínguez Rivera, a 22-year-old illegal immigrant from Puebla, Mexico.
20/10/2008
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Two former Border Patrol agents were arrested in Mexico after more than two years on the run and were charged in the U.S. with taking bribes to help illegal immigrants cross the border, authorities said Monday. A federal indictment unsealed Monday in San Diego accuses brothers Raul and Fidel Villarreal of taking bribes, smuggling illegal immigrants, tampering with witnesses and conspiring to launder money.
19/10/2008
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Add the name Nicholas Corbett to the rogues gallery of Border Patril agents who think because they were a badge, the are above the law. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are two others who come to mind. This week federal prosecutors will open a murder trial against an Arizona border agent. But for many people, the case also will put on trial the nation’s border security strategy. The retrial of U.S. Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett in Tucson is inflaming the divided passions about immigration and border security. Corbett’s defenders say the case is about a man defending himself against ….Read More
17/10/2008
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BELLINGHAM, Wash. — One of the top U.S. Border Patrol officials responsible for Alaska has been arrested at his home in Washington on child rape charges. The Whatcom County sheriff’s office said deputies arrested Joseph W. Giuliano, the deputy chief patrol agent at the agency’s Blaine sector, on Thursday at his home. Blaine sector covers Alaska, Oregon and Western Washington. The 55-year-old man had been charged Wednesday in Whatcom County Superior Court with raping a 14-year-old girl who was staying in his home. Prosecutors charged him with three counts of third-degree child rape. Giuliano made an initial court appearance Thursday ….Read More