Border Patrol agent vindicated

Border Patrol Agent David Sipe has been vindicated by an administrative law decision, six years after his felony conviction for an April 5, 2000, incident involving an illegal alien coyote at the Mexican border.

Sipe was convicted in 2001 of criminal felony charges for striking illegal alien coyote Jose Guevara on the back of his head after Guevara struggled and resisted arrest.

On June 13, Anna Love, an administrative judge with the Dallas Region of the Merit Systems Protection Board, ordered Sipe reinstated to his former Border Patrol position, with full back-salary to April 21, 2001, the date the Border Patrol removed him and suspended his pay.

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Jack Lamar Wolfe, Sipe's attorney in McAllen, Texas, said in a telephone interview that Sipe has finally received justice.

"Too bad it took seven years," Wolfe argued. "The government destroyed Sipe's family and ruined his career. All Sipe ever wanted to be was a Border Patrol agent."

Wolfe said that in the process, Sipe spent his entire life savings and went bankrupt. Sipe's wife divorced him, and, now nearly destitute, he has been forced to move in with Wolfe.

Sipe's case demonstrates the extent to which the Department of Justice will go to protect and reward a criminal illegal alien whose testimony is necessary to prosecute a Border Patrol agent.

Sipe, it turns out, was unfairly accused by the government of abusing the civil rights of the coyote in an incident in which the government took the side of defending the coyote's civil rights.

On April 18, 2003, the federal district court agreed with Sipe's appeal and granted him a new trial, based on assertions that federal prosecutors made misrepresentations and failed to disclose exculpatory evidence.

On Oct. 15, 2005, a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judge overruled the government's appeal and affirmed the trial judge's decision to grant the new trial.

On Jan. 26, at his retrial, Sipe was acquitted after a jury took less than one hour to reach a verdict.

At the new trial, Wolfe was allowed to tell the jury the criminal background of the witness. He also was permitted to introduce a co-worker's testimony favorable to Sipe.

Wolfe also presented the jury at the retrial with photographs of the coyote re-enacting for prosecutors the arrest incident in which Guevara claimed Sipe had hit him with unnecessary force.

Another difference was that Wolfe was allowed at the retrial to present evidence about the benefits and reimbursements the prosecutors had extended to Guevara and the other illegal alien witnesses who gave testimony at Sipe's first trial.

In Sipe's case, the government made a "sweetheart" deal with Guevara, giving him travel expenses, witness fees, free telephone use and a border crossing permit. Guevara also received a Social Security card and a driver's license, all in return for his testimony against Sipe.

WND previously has reported Wolfe's claim that there are similarities between Sipe's case and the allegations against the "Texas 3," former border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, and Deputy Sheriff Gil Hernandez.

"The federal prosecutors in the Sipe case refused to prosecute Guevara when he was apprehended a second time, caught for transporting illegal aliens by automobile," Wolfe told WND, just as Department of Homeland Security and Drug Enforcement Agency investigative reports suggest prosecutors failed to prosecute a second offense by Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, the drug smuggler shot at by Ramos and Compean.

In Sipe's case, Wolfe maintained that government prosecutors lied about evidence and withheld important documents from the defense. WND has reported that Mary Stillinger, defense counsel for Ramos, never saw a Feb. 15, 2005, DHS investigative report which identified there were seven other Border Patrol agents plus two supervisors on the scene of the Ramos and Compean incident.

The DHS document said that everyone on the scene, including the supervisors, were "as guilty as those who committed the offense" because of their failure to report the misconduct.

As reported by television and radio talk show host Glen Beck, Guevara ended up with an $80,000 government settlement, and he reportedly used the proceeds to buy a ranch in Mexico.

WND also has reported Davila, the drug smuggler in the Ramos-Compean case, has retained a U.S. attorney and sued the Border Patrol for $5 million, alleging his civil rights were violated.

In the Hernandez case, WND reported a damage suit brought by two illegal aliens injured by shell fragments when Hernandez shot at the tires of the van in which they escaped from a routine traffic stop. The suit was settled for $100,000.

As WND reported, Ramos and Compean remain in federal prison in solitary confinement after a federal appeals judge refused their request to be released on bond while their appeals were pending.

Hernandez has decided to serve a sentence of one year plus one day in federal prison and not risk appealing for a new trial. He is concerned that if he were to be convicted at a new trial, he could receive a much more severe sentence.

Hernandez expects to be released into a less onerous form of protective custody for good behavior after serving possibly as little as six months of his sentence in federal prison.

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Previous columns:

The politics of prosecuting Border Patrol agents

Johnny Sutton's unequal justice