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
28/10/2008
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How do you defend a Border Patrol Agent where the evidence suggests the person is guilty? In the case of Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Corbett, you call the witnesses LIARS! And why would you call the witnesses liars? Because they’re Mexican’s of course! Not proper courtroom procedure but that seems to be the case here. Last week, lead special prosecutor Grant Woods told the jury that Corbett’s story did not match the evidence from the scene. Meanwhile, he added, the eyewitnesses made statements that were consistent with the autopsy, ballistics and forensics. Keep in mind, it took Corbett several instances ….Read More
Oct 282008
28/10/2008
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It took Jerome Corsi long enough to come up with distorted “facts” concerning the Nicholas Corbett case, but in a piece erroneously titled Mexico accused of framing border agent, he seems prepared to put the case in the Court of Public opinion as he did for the case of convicted felons Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. Nicholas Corbett is on trial on second-degree murder charges in Cochise County Superior Court in Bisbee, Ariz., in connection with the shooting Jan. 12 of Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, a 22-year old illegal immigrant from Mexico. But in all fairness to Corsi, not that ….Read More
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.
20/10/2008
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Starr County commissioners this morning, accepted the resignation submitted by Starr County Texas Sheriff Reymundo Guerra over the weekend County Judge Eloy Vera said said the sheriff’s office would for now be under the command of Chief Deputy Rene Fuentes, who is next in the chain of command. Since Guerra was running unopposed in the Nov. 4 election, he effectively starts a new term as sheriff in January, Vera said. It is not yet known whether he plans to withdraw his candidacy. “At that time the topic will come up again,” Vera said. U.S. Magistrate Dorina Ramos had expressed concerns ….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
21/04/2008
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“We rely on the integrity of federal officers to enforce the laws and ensure the security of our borders,” U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton said after the sentencing Monday. “Agents who join forces with drug smugglers to subvert border inspections undermine border security in the most treacherous way. My office is committed to strengthening our border and will seek out, prosecute and punish those officers who betray their office and our trust.”
Apr 182008
18/04/2008
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Three men accused of allowing agricultural products infested with a plant pest to enter the U.S. from Mexico appeared in federal court Thursday.In an indictment unsealed Thursday, federal prosecutors allege that Rafael Edmundo Melo Jr., 40, Arturo Ramirez, 46, and Jose Homero Reyes, 48, all of Laredo, conspired to allow improperly fumigated floral greenery and broccoli to enter the U.S., allowing for the possible spread of plant pests. Melo and Reyes, both U.S. Department of Agriculture employees charged with overseeing agricultural product fumigation, falsely claimed overtime hours for fumigation they never conducted. Ramirez, the owner of Ambush Exterminators, accepted payment ….Read More