Illegals get $100,000 in damage lawsuit

Sheriff: 'I don't believe criminals are entitled to compensation'
Posted: April 4, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

A damage lawsuit brought by two illegal aliens injured by shell fragments when Deputy Gilmer Hernandez shot at the tires of the van in which they escaped from a routine traffic stop has been settled for $100,000, but the sheriff is unhappy any payment was made.

Sheriff Don G. Letsinger of Rocksprings, Texas, has confirmed to WND that the lawsuit brought by Maricela Rodriquez-Garcia and Candio Garcia-Perez, the two illegal immigrants who were injured, has been settled.

The $100,000 figure had been recommended by the West Texas Rural Counties Association, an insurance pool that will pay the settlement, as a result of a mediation meeting held in Austin, Texas.

The plaintiffs had planned to sue Hernandez and Letsinger individually, as well as in their official positions, plus Edwards County, where both worked.

Letsinger told WND that the West Texas Rural Counties Association advice in the mediation meeting was to accept the $100,000 settlement because that amount would equal the cost of litigation. But it was far from the $1.5 million Rodriquez-Garcia and Garcia-Perez demanded initially.