WND seeks lawsuit settlement information

Case involves fleeing drug smuggler shot by border patrol

Posted: November 29, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

WorldNetDaily is seeking government information about a lawsuit reportedly filed against the United States by a fleeing drug smuggler who was shot by a U.S. Border Patrol agent, whether that case was settled, and if so how much was paid out.

WND staff writer Jerome Corsi is preparing documents to submit to the U.S. Department of Justice requesting, under the federal Freedom of Information Act, "e-mails, memoranda, letters, or other documents relating to Osvalda Aldrete-Davila's obtaining of legal counsel, suing the U.S. Government, and obtaining a settlement from the U.S. Government on his legal suit involving a Feb. 17, 2005, incident involving Border Patrol Agents Ignacia Ramos and Jose Compean…"

The two officers now are serving federal prison terms of 11 and 12 years after Aldrete-Davila, under protection from the U.S. government, testified against them at trial after he was shot in the thigh by the agents as he ended a high-speed pursuit by the agents by abandoning his van and fleeing on foot back into Mexico.

The abandoned van held 750 pounds of marijuana, authorities reported.

Appeal contends border agents used deadly force justifiably

Ramos, Compean feared for their lives
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Convicted Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are contending in an appeal of their prison sentences that their use of deadly force against a fleeing drug smuggler was justified because they believed he was armed and they feared for their lives.

WND already has reported the two allege they also were the victims of "overzealous" prosecution after their encounter with the drug smuggler in 2005.

The case revolved around the discharge of those shots, one of which injured Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, an illegal Mexican alien who was fleeing back into Mexico after smuggling 750 pounds of marijuana into the U.S, because without those shots on Feb. 17, 2005, there would have been no case.

The crux of the U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton's case, as presented by prosecutor Debra Kanof at trial, was to portray Aldrete-Davila as a victim, an innocent Mexican with no experience smuggling drugs who was pressed into this one incident because he lost his commercial driver's license in Mexico and needed money to buy medicine for his sick mother.

Aldrete-Davila's arrest and indictment for the Oct. 2005 "second load" strongly suggest this version of events is fanciful.

Mexican Drug Smuggler Shot by Border Agents Indicted on Drug Smuggling Charges

Fox News

Friday , November 16, 2007

EL PASO, Texas —

The arrest of an admitted Mexican drug smuggler shot by a pair of U.S. Border Patrol agents is prompting renewed calls for the former law-enforcement officials' release from prison.

Osvaldo Aldrete Davila was arrested Thursday at an international port of entry in El Paso; a sealed indictment issued in October charged him with drug smuggling offenses.

"These guys absolutely need to be pardoned," Rep. Tom Tancredo, R.-Colo., told FOX News on Friday.

The agents, Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos, were convicted last year of shooting Aldrete and lying about it. The agents were each sentenced to more than a decade in prison.

"This whole thing with Davila shows you how rotten the deal is they got," Tancredo said.

Arrested alien has long record, patrol says

November 26, 2007 - 10:39AM

Border Patrol agents on Sunday arrested three men who entered illegally from Mexico, one of whom has an extensive criminal record, according a Border Patrol news release.

One of the three arrested near Winterhaven was identified by the patrol as Pedro Alvarado-Suarez 41, who has record of 23 arrests in Arizona, California, Montana, and Washington dating back to 1986. Alvarado-Suarez's prior charges were of robbery, burglary, assault, possession and sale of a controlled substance, vehicle theft and unlawful use of firearm, the release said.

He served a total of eight years in prison and 13 years on probation, the release said.

A records check also disclosed Alvarado-Suarez was deported three times by immigration officials.

DUI illegal arrested, convicted 9 times since 2003

Authorities can't explain why alien who killed father of 5 still in U.S.

Posted: April 21, 2007 7:15 p.m. Eastern

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

When Isidro Pena Soto's SUV slammed into an oncoming pickup truck, after passing another car at 90 miles-per-hour, the illegal alien who had been arrested or convicted at least nine times since 2003 made Kent Boone the fifth fatality in two weeks along a dangerous stretch of Northern California highway.

The notorious two-lane roadway, known as "blood alley," runs through Napa, Solano, Sacramento and San Joaquin counties. It averaged more than 10 deaths a year during the five-year period ending in 2005.

Pena, 26, was driving without a license while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. California Highway Patrol officers found two pounds of methamphetamine in his vehicle and more at his home. It was not his first brush with U.S. law, and that's what Boone's survivors find so hard to understand.

"He needs to be in prison, there's no way they're going to be able to deport him and keep him out of our country," Boone's widow, Regina Sorisio, told the Oroville Mercury Register.

Boone, a 33-year-old pipe fitter and father of five, was killed on March 31 as he drove to work.

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.