Phoenix Pastor Details Border Patrol Beating

This video is stunning:

Pastor Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Phoenix details his encounter with Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint near Yuma off Interstate 8, which is a main route between the San Diego area and Arizona. After telling agents he was a citizen and claiming 4th Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure, Border Patrol informed him that their dogs indicated that there were either drugs or a human being stored in his vehicle…

His window was smashed, he was tased repeatedly, was forcefully detained by agents, and thrown in jail. Pastor Anderson is doing a great service by telling his story.

The father of four says he exercised his consecution [sic] right not to be searched without a warrant. He says that’s when he claims agents broke out his passenger and driver side windows.

“Both windows shattered in the same instant,” says Anderson.

In excoriating pain, the pastor claims an agents smashed his head into the door and then another threw him on the ground, stepped on his head and tased him once again.

“I felt like his full body weight was just driving my face into more broken glass and asphalt,” Anderson explains.

It took 11 stitches to close the cuts on the pastor’s face.

CBS 13

More coverage:

• Phoenix New Times
• AZFamily.com

 

Corbett Trial: Closing Arguments

In yesterday’s testimony, Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Corbett took the witness stand to testify about the shooting on January 12, 2007.

Agent Nicholas Corbett told jurors that he shot 22-year-old Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera of Puebla because he was about to hit the agent in the head with a rock. He said he was facing Dominguez, holding him off with his left arm outstretched and handgun in his right hand pointed downward when he fired.

Corbett is more than a foot taller than Dominguez was.

Prosecutors contend that Dominguez was on his knees surrendering when he was shot.

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Here is more information from observers with the Border Action Network:

Woods finished his cross-examination by thoroughly going through all the officers testimonies, previously heard earlier in the week, that were the first ones to hear Corbett’s account of what happened that afternoon. Woods pointed out that each testimony varied drastically—where one involved Corbett telling them that he saw Francisco “throw” the rock, another agent testified that it was his impression after talking to Corbett that there was a “stand-off” for which the vehicle was used as cover. All 3 accounts by these agents varied from one another, including the account that Agent Corbett himself gave on the stand. Woods effectively ended by pointing out that there seemed to be 4 different accounts made by Corbett of what happened that afternoon—and only one consistent account from all 3 of the family members. Chapman’s redirect was brief, but nonetheless revealed another inarticulate answer from Corbett. When asked by Chapman why he shot in a downward direction, Corbett responded yet again with “uh, uh…really wasn’t looking, I uh, uh, I had center mass.” Corbett was then excused from the stand.

linkage to full report

 

Corbett Trial Updates

This is ongoing information sharing about the murder trial of Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Corbett. The defense is now working to accuse the Mexican Consulate of interfering with the judicial process.

To make their point Monday, defense attorneys called a Border Patrol spokeswoman, who said she saw the Mexican consulate official give the three witnesses “blatant” hand cues while they testified last summer at a hearing in Bisbee.

But during an intense cross-examination, prosecutors challenged how blatant those signals were, noting no one else, not even the judge at the hearing, saw them.

[snip]

“You are saying this went on for hours . . . and the judge missed the whole thing?” he said.

[Border Patrol spokeswoman Dove] Haber said yes, and after she was aware of it she told her superiors, who in turn told the judge.

An admonition was read to the courtroom, restricting any hand signals. But Haber said they continued.

However, when Woods read testimony from René Domínguez Rivera, a younger brother who testified after the admonishment, Haber said she couldn’t remember any hand signals being used.

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Observers with the Border Action Network filed this report on a different portion of the proceedings:

The following witness to be called to the stand for the defense was Agent Peter Hermansen, the current Patrol Officer in charge at the Casa Grande station. Part of his resume included being an integral part to the formation of the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) use of force policy in D.C. Defense council Chapman displayed for him the CBP use of force continuum that revealed a rainbow colored chart that showed the proper escalation of use of force by an agent. While the chart first appeared rather complex, Agent Hermansen basically boiled it down to a rather catchy mantra of “means, opportunity, and intent”, and that if each one of those are present—that is if the officer perceives that each of those are present, deadly force is authorized.

Chapman gave Agent Hermansen a few scenarios, including one that involved a person with a rock at a distance of 100 yards, and asked him whether the use of deadly force would be authorized, for which Agent Hermansen replied that no, deadly force would no be authorized. Chapman continued asking questions in the vein of clarifying the Border Patrol’s policy of use of force, which Hermansen summarized that warning shots in the air are not authorized, nor is aiming to disable their assailants authorized—meaning aiming to shoot in the leg or arm.

The questioning then turned over to the prosecution, where Woods began taking up questions in regards to the scenario of an assailant at a distance of 100 yards with a rock where Agent Hermansen testified that the use of deadly force would not be authorized. Woods rather helpfully reminded the witness that he himself was involved with another case where he testified that deadly use of force was acceptable—a case where an assailant holding a rock at a distance of 127 yards on the other side of a metal fence was shot. Additionally, the agent who fired the shot was himself fired by the Border Patrol, and the Border Patrol itself disagreed with this incident and the use of force—as Woods effectively relayed to the entire courtroom that the Border Patrol itself is not clear when the use of force is acceptable or unacceptable.

linkage to full report

 

Corbett Trial: Day 2

This is ongoing information-sharing about the murder trial of Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Corbett. On the first day of testimony, the brother of Javier Dominguez-Rivera recounted the events of January 12, 2007. Day two gave defense attorneys the opportunity for cross examination.

One of the key contradictions Chapman raised was a statement that the brother gave to Cochise County investigators last year, in which he told investigators he saw Corbett strike his brother Francisco Javier Domínguez Rivera in the head with the butt of his gun.

But there were no bruises on Francisco Javier Domínguez Rivera’s head, neck or shoulders, and the brother said he wasn’t sure if he was struck specifically with the gun.

“I don’t know if he hit him with the butt, this part of the gun, or the hand,” the brother said through an interpreter.

Chapman also sought to show that the Mexican Consulate had attempted to influence testimony.

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The defense is also trying to claim that the family is lying about their testimony in order to gain citizenship to the U.S.

Finally, Chapman raised a class-action lawsuit Jorge is part of that is pursuing visa and citizenship rights. But prosecutor Grant Woods, a former state attorney general who has been hired by the Cochise County attorney to handle the case, told the jury the class action lawsuit was filed by Catholic Charities and was specifically for illegal entrants who assisted law enforcement with criminal investigations.

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Motives are being questioned by the defense while hard facts look to be on the side of the prosecution. The brothers’ testimonies align with the video of the shooting that was aired in the courtroom as well as the medical examiner’s report. Contradictions are already being exposed in Corbett’s accounting of the shooting, with the location of the incident being one of them.

Ritchie also said that she was led to believe — again based on reports of Corbett’s initial story to other agents — that the shooting happened behind his vehicle at a distance of about 5 feet.

Forensics evidence has shown the shooting happened at the back right corner of the vehicle at a distance between 3 inches and a foot.

Here are some notes from Derechos Humanos on the day’s deliberations:

Interestingly, according to Rene after the shooting but before the arrival of the other agent, Corbett went to his car and began smoking, walking back to where they were with a cigarette in hand. Rene denied anyone, including Francisco Javier, threatening the agent in any form. He further denied talking about what their story would be, stating that the only thing they talked about was what they would tell their parents. He also denied that Francisco Javier ever had a rock in his hand. He stated emphatically that they were all surrendering to Corbett when it happened.

The defense attorney then began his cross-examination. He did not shake Rene, though he tried to highlight that they kept walking as Corbett was driving, that they did not just stop and surrender. He made Rene state several times that it was Francisco Javier who had made arrangements with the coyote, and that since he was the only one who had been to the US, they did not know much about how they would be picked up. (During the testimony of Det. Ritchie it was established that the airline tickets for all four of them were found in the backpacks.) The attorney made it a point to make him admit that they crossed illegally, and that they wanted to go back to México and come to cross illegally again. Cross-examination to continue tomorrow.

 

Murder Trial Begins for Border Patrol Agent

This incident has been covered extensively at this blog. Now, the trial is underway with opening remarks showing the stark difference of interpretation of what happened on January 12, 2007. It’s the word of the family of Javier Dominguez-Rivera against the Department of Homeland Security.

Sean Chapman told jurors that his client [Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Corbett] was justified when he fired the fatal shot because Dominguez was threatening to “crush his head with a rock,” and that Corbett had made a split-second decision to act in self-defense, as he had been trained to do.

Earlier, special prosecutor Grant Woods said in his opening remarks that 22-year-old Francisco Dominguez “was surrendering, going down on his knees, was hit from behind, yanked and shot through the heart.”

Woods said that forensic and medical evidence, from ballistics information to the autopsy results, along with the witnesses’ testimony and a Border Patrol video would prove that the killing was not justifiable.

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The only reason this is being tried is because there is a videotape of the shooting. Otherwise, we would be seeing a repeat of the injustice surrounding the killing of Guillermo Martinez Rodriguez two years ago in southern California.

SAN DIEGO — The U.S. Department of Justice has cleared a Border Patrol agent of any wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a suspected smuggler whose death two years ago focused attention on increasing violence at the California-Mexico border.

The 18-year-old who died, Guillermo Martinez Rodriguez, was allegedly throwing rocks at the agent, who shot him in the upper back on a dangerous stretch of the San Diego-Tijuana border in December 2005.

Prosecutors in the Justice Department’s civil rights division, who investigated whether the shooting constituted an excessive use of force, said there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.

[snip]

Federal prosecutors did not disclose details of their investigation. But agents said the fact that Martinez was shot in the back didn’t necessarily mean he was running away. He could have just finished throwing the rock, or he could have been reaching for another, they said.

linkage (emphasis mine)

Will update information as it becomes available over the course of the proceedings.

[UPDATE] Here is a write-up by Isabel Garcia of Derechos Humanos. The very mention of her name makes nativist heads asplode, but she is a true champion of human rights. Hmm, perhaps that’s why they can’t stand her?

 

Border Patrol Officer Still on the Job

Note: This is a follow-up to previous entries here, here, and here.

The original post, entitled “Anatomy of an International Incident” was almost prophetic, because at the time the tension was building quite quickly along la frontera. I could sense that something tragic would happen. And, sure enough, the shooting of Javier Dominguez-Rivera occurred on cue.

The agent who shot him, meanwhile, goes on with his day-to-day life even though his gun is responsible for robbing Javier’s family of one of their loved ones.

Facing trial on a murder charge, Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett still reports for work each day behind a desk at the agency’s Naco station.

Rather than placing him on paid leave, the Border Patrol has had Corbett on administrative duty, handling desk chores, since shortly after he fatally shot an illegal immigrant on Jan. 12.

Last week, Corbett took a day off for a court hearing where a Cochise County judge found there was enough evidence for him to stand trial on charges of second-degree murder, negligent homicide and manslaughter. Then, he went back to work.

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Anytime an officer is involved in a shooting, they should be immediately put on leave – I don’t even give a steaming turd if they’re paid – as long as they are removed from duty to let the justice system do its thing.

But what should we expect? It’s not like he killed a full-fledged human being – he merely took out one of those border hoppers by shooting him in the back. [angry sarcasm alert]

 

Have they done ANYTHING without incompetence?

The absurdity of this is almost too much to bear

Part of a vehicle barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border was erected in the wrong country and soon will be removed and rebuilt on American soil, federal officials say.

“We respect our international boundary, and we want to be good neighbors,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Michael Friel told The Associated Press on Monday. “…We want to move quickly to ensure that we place the vehicle barrier where it should be, which is north of the border.”

The barrier, 17 miles west of Columbus, N.M. was built in 2000 by Joint Task Force North out of Fort Bliss, Texas. It encroaches into Mexico territory between one and six feet south of the border along a 1.5-mile stretch.

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To any “progressives” that are sympathetic to the hardliners, understand that any vile legislative initiative that comes out of the Hill is going to be carried out in the most incompetent manner that you can conceive.

Here’s a scenario: you may not be racist, but you support workplace raids. Do you think the government will carry out their kidnappings in a colorblinded way? I don’t think so.

Or maybe you support increased Border Patrol agents along the U.S./Mexico border. Do you think that they won’t abuse their power and murder innocents? Good luck with that.

And then there’s this, the latest “unintentional” act of imperialism. Never Mind that this portion of the Great Wall™ has been in place for seven years. Oops!

So what makes anyone – ANYONE – think that this government can be trusted to carry out immigration reform in a humane manner.

Touchbacks? Right – the people in the shadows are supposed to trust them to keep their end of the bargain if they return to their home countries before eligibility for a visa that does nothing to solve the economic plate of shit they’re served regularly by the corporate world.

Get. Real.

 

Border Patrol Agent to be Charged with Murder

An excerpt from from the statement issued by Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer:

With respect to the January 12, 2007 shooting of Francisco Dominguez-Rivera, by agent Nicholas Corbett, however, based on the extensive investigation presented to this office by the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department, as well as the physical evidence itself, we must come to the unfortunate but inescapable conclusion that this shooting was not legally justified. We have concluded that the evidence shows that at the time he was shot, Mr. Dominguez-Rivera presented no threat to agent Corbett and agent Corbett did not act in reasonable apprehension of imminent death or serious physical injury.

Our conclusion is that the physical evidence does not support the explanation of the shooting offered by agent Corbett. To the contrary, the physical evidence does corroborate the description of the circumstances of the shooting given by the three witnesses who were traveling with Mr. Dominguez-Rivera at the time of his death.

more info from the AZ Daily Star

I’m sure this will make all of the Tancredo-bots heads explode in unison – screeching and howling about political witch hunts – but this is not a decision that is being made blindly. There is forensic evidence, along with an incriminating video, that does not jive with the story the Border Patrol agent told his superiors.

With this next step, our justice system kicks in, rather than bureaucratic cover-ups of wrongdoing. That should be something we all applaud.

[Ed. Note] This is a follow-up to a follow-up of a previous post.

 

Follow-up on Border Patrol Shooting Incident

From the Arizona Daily Star:

A U.S. Border Patrol agent who fatally shot an illegal entrant in January near Douglas could find out whether he’ll face criminal charges within two weeks.

Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer said he won’t wait much longer to review an enhanced version of a distant video of the incident from a Border Patrol surveillance camera that was sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

[snip]

More than 300 pages of documents released March 26 by the Cochise County Attorney’s Office revealed that Corbett’s account of what led him to shoot and kill the unarmed Domínguez-Rivera didn’t match witness testimony or forensic evidence.

linkage (emphasis mine)

Will keep you posted on this. In a previous entry, Anatomy of an International Incident, I described how the pressure along the U.S./Mexico border builds to a crescendo and eventually pops like a bloody zit. This shooting was one of those ruptures and, thankfully, there is plenty of video and forensic evidence available to move it beyond a “He Said, They Said” type situation.

That is the only reason that justice is being done; otherwise the Dominguez-Rivera family would have been dismissed to the bureaucratic shadow that perpetually engulfs the way border policy is carried out by the Department of Homeland (in)Security. Take this late 2005 incident, for example:

Sometimes, border crossers die at the hands of the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “We’ve had at least five officer-involved shootings here in recent months,” said Rios. “In one case in December, a migrant climbed the fence and was shot. He made it to a hospital in Tijuana, where he died. The Border Patrol said he was trying to throw a rock at the agent, but the autopsy showed he was shot in the back.“

linkage (emphasis mine)

 

Nativist Head Asplosion Watch

SmokeyMonkey lays down the scene:

The USA Today reported yesterday that former border patrol agent Ignacio Ramos was attacked Saturday night in prison.

Prison officials on Tuesday confirmed assertions by a congressman and relatives of Ignacio Ramos. He was attacked Saturday night after his case was described on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted,” the officials said.

If you are not familiar with the story, it is not because of a lack of effort on the part of the anti-immigration cabal, including Lou Dobbs, the Minuteman Project, Free Republic, Liberty Post, and WorldNet Daily, among others. I provide no links to these fanatic militant sites because they are too incredibly easy to google. There is little legitimate reporting on the subject (as with many these days), but I thought I would give it a shot because when I heard of the story, I found only bunk to lead my research.

Using the article linked above, this initial description is a good introduction to the story:

Ramos and Compean, who reported to prison in January, were each sentenced to more than a decade behind bars… The agents were convicted last year of shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in 2005 near El Paso and then trying to cover up the incident. Davila was shot once in the buttocks.

If you go check out the DKos version, you can already see people on “our side” defending the Border Patrol hooligans for shooting an unarmed man in the nalgas. And I wonder why I don’t crosspost over there on a regular basis…

It’s alright Democrats, keep selling out human rights. Your big tent will be meaningless when there’s no one left underneath it.