Illegals get $100,000 in damage lawsuit

Gilmer Hernandez in Del Rio, Texas, prison (Photo: SWTexasLive.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.

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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.

As part of the settlement, Rodriquez-Garcia and Garcia-Perez agreed to pursue no further litigation against Hernandez, Letsinger, or Edwards County.

"The settlement was fair," Letsinger told WND. "I'm happy about the settlement in that we would have had to spend $100,000 to litigate the case anyway."

Still, Letsinger expressed his unhappiness that the settlement had to be paid at all.

"As far as these people getting any money at all, I'm not happy about that," Letsinger commented. "I don't think they deserve anything. I don't believe that people who participate in a criminal conspiracy to rob a bank and then get shot trying to escape should be entitled to compensation."

Letsinger explained to WND that Rodriquez-Garcia and Garcia-Perez were involved in a conspiracy to import illegal immigrants into the United States when they were injured.

"These people were involved in a conspiracy to break the law," Letsinger said. "They assaulted an officer of the law and these two women got wounded as a result. I'm not happy they got compensated."

"Still, I'm happy the case is over," Letsinger concluded, "and the main thing is that they signed an agreement that they wouldn't sue Gilmer. That gets Gilmer and his wife out from under any kind of judgment from them."

Hernandez has been sentenced to one year plus one day in federal prison for criminally violating the civil rights of the illegal aliens who were in a van that attempted to run over Hernandez after a traffic stop April 14, 2005, in Rocksprings, Texas. As WND reported, the federal government had recommended a seven-year prison term.

Rodriguez-Garcia was injured in the face and Garcia-Perez on the arm by shell fragments from Hernandez's weapon.

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