You all remember Ramos and Compean, the Border Patrol agents who were the victims of a political trial and political imprisonment by the Bush Administration and a corrupt US Attorney in Texas, the notorious Sutton. (More information here.)

Briefly, Ramos and Compean shot a Mexican drug smuggler in the rear end during an attempt to stop his drug smuggling. The US Government, incredibly, brought the full weight of the government against its Border Patrol Agents and for the convicted drug smuggler and illegal alien. Ramos and Compean are now political prisoners in jail for trying to close our open borders to drug smugglers.

There is another political trial underway for a US Border patrol Agent, Nicholas Corbett. Please read Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Corbett Prelimary Hearing.

Not Merely a Disagreement -– Maintaining an Open Border Policy is at Stake

Corbett was an official agent of the US Border Patrol doing his duty. Dominguez , his two brothers, and the girlfriend were apprehended criminals, in US territory illegally.

Here is where the story takes a turn from enforcement of the law to political persecution, government malfeasance in malicious prosecution, and big US, Mexican, and local government “piling on” to make it a political trial.

1) Officials of Mexico were able to isolate the two brothers and the girlfriend and help them get a common and consistent story to tell. The US did not isolate them and keep them from the press, the Mexican consulate, or anyone else who might want to influence their subsequent testimony. Step 1 in railroading Mr. Corbett.

2) Cochise County, AZ where the incident took place, recruited Grant Woods, a former Arizona State Attorney General, to prosecute the case. Their local prosecutors were not deemed experienced or tough enough to ensure a conviction. Step 2 in railroading Mr. Corbett.

3) Taking the word of criminals over the word of a US Border Patrol Agent and relying on sloppy police work and innuendo and rumors. Step 3 is deliberate withholding and misinterpretation of evidence to railroad Mr. Corbett. Here is a report from a local paper.

Defense attorneys for a U.S. Border Patrol agent accused of murder blistered the lead investigator in the case Thursday for forgetting what they say is crucial evidence while also mishandling other evidence collected at the scene.
SNIP

They advanced that claim when cross-examining Ursula Ritchie, a detective with the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office, who was the lead investigator on the case.

Most crucially to the defense, Ritchie acknowledged that she left a pair of gloves worn by Domínguez Rivera at the scene. This was significant, defense attorney Jim Calle said, because if Domínguez Rivera had threatened Corbett with a rock, there might have been evidence on the wool gloves.

Moreover, Ritchie wasn’t aware that Domínguez Rivera had worn gloves until a hearing in August, even though photos show the gloves inches from Domínguez Rivera’s body. And on a statement of probable cause, which led to charges being filed, she cited Domínguez Rivera’s “clean hands.”

“This observance made it onto a probable-cause statement that ultimately resulted in murder charges against my client,” Calle said.

“I did not know he was wearing gloves,” Ritchie said, adding that she didn’t know why they weren’t collected.

Also, Ritchie said she collected a number of articles of clothing at the scene and put them inside several backpacks that belonged to Domínguez Rivera and his two brothers and a girlfriend.

But rather than check all items in the bags as evidence, Ritchie said she only checked the backpacks themselves.

Ritchie also said she did not immediately speak with the detective who interviewed Domínguez Rivera’s two brothers and the girlfriend the night of the shooting.

If she had, Calle said, she would have learned of their claims that Corbett had hit Domínguez Rivera in the head with the gun, and then the gun could have been sent out for DNA testing. And Ritchie agreed that would have been possible.

How significant the gloves are is debatable, however. During opening statements, Grant Woods, a former state attorney general who has been hired by the Cochise County attorney to handle the case, noted that Domínguez Rivera and his family members had been hiking through the desert for hours that day, and that his gloved hands almost certainly touched the ground. ( Source.)

This statement by Woods sounds stretched. He can’t have it both ways. One of the major reasons Corbett was indicted was that the incompetent detective, Ursula Ritchie, inferred that because Dominguez’s hands were clean he didn’t attack Corbett with a rock. Yet, because she did not enter the dirty gloves (sounds like OJ’s bloody glove doesn’t it?) into evidence, it is quite possible he could have used them to hold the rock during an attempted murder. But, Woods says Dominguez wore them all day and got them dirty touching the ground as he illegally entered the United States.

4) Statements by Border Patrol Agent were distorted, and those of illegal aliens taken as the truth. This is Step 4 to railroad Mr. Corbett. Here are some more excerpts.

Corbett’s attorneys, not hired guns from Phoenix, gave widely differing descriptions of what happened than those coming from the criminals he apprehended.

The trial of a U.S. Border Patrol agent accused of murder began Wednesday, with attorneys from both sides offering drastically different accounts of what prompted the shooting of an illegal entrant.

Nicholas Corbett is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide in the death of Francisco Javier Domínguez Rivera on Jan. 12, 2007, in the desert between Bisbee and Douglas near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Corbett’s attorneys said the Border Patrol agent made a split-second decision in defense of his life. Prosecutors said Corbett was reckless and killed Domínguez Rivera while he was surrendering.
SNIP
But prosecutor Grant Woods, a former state attorney general who has been hired by the Cochise County attorney to handle the case, called that story a “lie,” and said the 22-year-old Domínguez Rivera died while surrendering. The shooting was witnessed by Domínguez-Rivera’s two brothers and one brother’s girlfriend, and Woods said the witness testimony matches forensics evidence. ( Source.)

5) Key facts in prosecutor’s case denied by Border Patrol witnesses to the incident. This deliberate misrepresentation of witnesses’ statements is Step 5 in railroading Mr. Corbett.

This article published in the local paper is not available online. Curiously, it is one of the most damning to the prosecutor’s case. Here is the citation the old fashioned way. Arizona Daily Star, “Shooting distance scrutinized at agent’s trial,” page B4, Saturday, March 1, 2008.

“Prosecutors brought two new U.S. Border patrol agents to the stand Friday for the murder trial of Nicholas Corbett.

But their inability to clarify how far Corbett was from the victim when the shot was fired may have left a hole in the case.”
SNIP
One of the key questions in the case is the distance between the two men when the gun was fired.

Forensic evidence shows the shot was fired from a distance between three inches and a foot, and that Dominguez Rivera was shot from behind.

But prosecutors have said that Corbett told agents who responded to the scene they were 5 or 6 feet apart. They also say Corbett told other Border Patrol agents the shooting happened at the front of his Chevrolet Tahoe, when in fact it happened in the truck.

But when the state called Border Patrol Supervisor Murray Adams as well as Rick Carranza, the supervisor for the Border Patrol’s Naco sector, both denied Corbett ever told them the distance at which the shooting took place.
SNIP
Defense attorneys say Dominguez Rivera threatened Corbett with a rock, prompting a split-second decision in self defense.

Summary Comments and Interpretations

Clearly Nicholas Corbett was doing his duty and he shot an illegal alien he says was trying to kill him with a rock. The other criminals Corbett apprehended were coached by the Mexican consulate and tell a consistently different story of murder of their relative by a Border Patrol agent. The county government, the US Government, and the Mexican Government joined in dismissing the statements of Border Patrol agent Corbett as “lies” and took the coached and rehearsed statements of criminals related to the dead illegal alien as the truth.

The chief local detective for Cochise County missed evidence, conducted sloppy police work, didn’t maintain “chain of evidence,” and yet gave testimony largely responsible for Corbett’s initial indictment. Cochise County, wanting to convict a Border Patrol agent, brought in an outside hired gun, former State Attorney General Grant Woods (a RINO).

The hired gun and his assistants misrepresented statements by Border Patrol supervisors who arrived at the scene before Cochise County investigators. These same Border Patrol supervisors, while giving their sworn testimony in court, contradicted the hired gun’s account and refuted the testimony of the criminal aliens involved.

It appears this is another politically motivated prosecution of a Border Patrol agent. As in the Ramos and Compean case, prosecutors and politicians at high levels of the US Government and the Mexican Government may be trying to send another strong signal to the Border patrol –- Don’t interfere with the flow of drugs (Ramos and Compean) or illegal aliens (Corbett) across the US-Mexican border. If you do, we will crush you and destroy you and your families.

I hope all decent and patriotic Americans reject these political trials and persecutions of our Border Patrol agents. And I pray that the Border Patrol retains the courage to resist the evil residing high up in our government.

©LomaAlta

Cross-posted from LinknZona.