I could easily be said that former U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton operated more as a hit man for George Bush and the Mexican government than as an advocate for the American people.
During his tenure, Sutton persecuted American law enforcement officers when they dared to block the path of foreign invaders, thus making the country safe for drug smugglers.
Johnny Sutton first caught the eye of George W. Bush in the early 1980s. At the time, Sutton was playing baseball for the NCAA National Champion Texas Longhorns, and Bush was pretending to be a vital member of the Texas Rangers organization, after his daddy had purchased him a share of the team. The two became fast friends and began a relationship that has benefited both men ever since.1
Before being nominated by President Bush as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas in 2001, Sutton served as a Policy Coordinator for the Bush-Cheney Transition Team, as well as the Criminal Justice Policy Director for Gov. Bush from 1995 to 2000.
After becoming U.S. Attorney, Sutton began ruining the lives of several diligent and dedicated law enforcement officers who were working to defend our country from illegal aliens and drug smugglers.
The following is a list of those brave men:
• Border Patrol Agent Gary Brugman was charged by Sutton with violating the rights of an illegal alien in January 2001. The following year he was convicted and spent two years in federal prison.
Agent Brugman was working in the very tough border region of Eagle Pass, Texas. He responded to a scene where another agent was having trouble with a group of 10-12 apprehended illegal aliens. Two of them would not comply, so Agent Brugman pushed one of the men onto the ground. This minor incident was enough for Sutton to charge Brugman with violating the illegal alien’s constitutional rights “under the color of law.” During Brugman’s trial, Sutton brought a convicted Mexican drug smuggler whom Agent Brugman had arrested from his prison cell to testify against him.
Incredibly, Johnny Sutton did an interview on the Spanish language network Univision in which he stated he was making an example out of Agent Brugman.
In addition to his service as a Border Patrol agent, Brugman is a Coast Guard veteran. He spent 16 years of his life defending this nation. He is now free and actively telling his story in hopes that justice will one day come to Johnny Sutton.
• U.S. Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were sentenced to 11 and 12 year federal prison sentences, respectively. Sutton charged these two men with assault with a deadly weapon, various firearms charges, and violating a drug smuggler’s civil rights.
In February 2005, Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean spotted a van headed across the border into the United States. The agents gave chase and one of them ended up in a scuffle with a Mexican drug smuggler known as Osbaldo Aldrete-Davilla. One of the agents saw a gun in the smuggler’s hand and fired at him, before Aldrete-Davilla fled back across the border into Mexico. The smuggler was shot in the buttocks and was observed jumping into an awaiting vehicle on the Mexican side of the border.
The van driven by the smuggler was left behind along with 743 pounds of marijuana. A few months later, he was caught once again smuggling drugs into this country. While in custody, he was given immunity from prosecution in both cases in exchange for his testimony against Agents Ramos and Compean. In addition to immunity, the taxpayers assisted him with travel expenses and provided him with medical treatment at a U.S. Army facility in Texas. Once Aldrete-Davilla testified and completed his medical treatments, he promptly filed a $5 million lawsuit against the U.S. Border Patrol for violating his rights.
In February 2007, Agent Ramos was severely beaten by a group of imprisoned illegal aliens.
Though George Bush’s hit man, Johnny Sutton promised that Agent Ramos would not be placed into the general population, that is exactly what happened—leaving him vulnerable to brutal attacks from the very people he once locked up.
This columnist spoke with Agent Ramos’ father-in-law, Joe Loya, three days after the attack.
Joe said that while Ignacio was sleeping, he was dragged out of his bed in the middle of the night and beaten by five illegal alien inmates. Contrary to what Johnny Sutton told the press, Ignacio was placed in the general population of a federal prison in Yazoo City, Mississippi.
Joe reported that the only reason his family knew about the attack was that the following Monday was Ignacio’s birthday and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) obtained special permission for him to call his children to offer them some comfort. His two sons asked their mom (Monica Ramos) to buy a cake, so that they could sing Happy Birthday to their dad on the phone.
Once on the phone with Monica, Ignacio informed her: “Monica, I’m in isolation after I got beat up by five inmates. I had blood coming out of my left ear.” He was apparently kicked several times over his entire body as his attackers shouted in Spanish: “Kill the Border Agent!”
While the attack took place on a Saturday night, Ignacio had still not received any medical treatment by the following Monday evening. After an attack in which he could have sustained serious brain injury, prison officials should have offered immediate treatment.... An accommodation that is given to even the most vicious of criminals, but is not offered to a veteran Border Patrol Agent who is responsible for hundreds of drug busts along the border.
Joe’s voice broke as he described the devastation that his family had been experiencing. Ignacio and Monica lost everything during the nearly two year legal battle with the federal government. He said: “We just don’t understand why these people are being so vicious. We are all just worn out after 23 months of this.”
Joe spent his retirement savings on the legal defense of his son-in-law. The family spent well over $250,000 defending this brave agent against the lies of a Mexican drug smuggler as well as those of the Bush administration.
The placement of a former law enforcement officer in the general population of a prison is often a death sentence. By placing such a high profile officer in that population, President Bush effectively signed Agent Ramos’ death warrant.
Fortunately, Ignacio Ramos proved much tougher than the corrupt administration, which imprisoned him, and survived.
Sutton’s office received a great deal of criticism for his treatment and unfair prosecution of these two agents, and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) led a movement in Congress to pardon them. Though President Bush commuted their sentences during his last week in office, thus releasing them from prison, both Ramos and Compean remain convicted felons and can never work in law enforcement again.
It should be noted, that Bush only took this action after the Senate Judiciary Committee reviewed the agents’ prosecutions in July 2007, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) actually asked Bush for the commutations.2
• Deputy Gilmer Hernandez made a routine traffic stop in April 2005; little did he know that this incident would lead to the loss of his freedom. It turned out that the driver was a human smuggler with several illegal aliens hiding in the vehicle. After being approached, the driver hit the gas and tried to run over Dep. Hernandez. The deputy fired his weapon at the tires of the van at which time a bullet fragment hit a female illegal who was hiding in the back of the vehicle, her injuries were limited to a scratch on the cheek. Another illegal received a similar injury.
The shooting was investigated by the Edwards County Sheriff’s Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) as well as by the Texas Department of Public Safety. All of the agencies deemed the action taken by Deputy Hernandez as justifiable. However, more than a year later, Sutton reopened the case and prosecuted Deputy Hernandez for violating the civil rights of the two injured illegal aliens. Hernandez was sentenced to one year in a federal prison.
• Border Patrol Agent Noe Aleman and his wife adopted his wife’s nieces from Mexico, after the girls’ father died. The couple paid $40,000 in legal fees to adopt the girls ages 12, 13, and 15. Despite the steep fees, the attorney they hired was apparently incompetent and made several errors on the adoption and immigration forms. Agent Aleman himself pointed out these errors to immigration authorities and attempted to correct them. For his honesty, Agent Aleman was arrested and prosecuted by Sutton’s office for alien smuggling. He received a one year sentence and was also incarcerated at the federal prison in Yazoo City, Mississippi.
Noe Aleman served with the Border Patrol for 12 years and is highly respected for his aggressive pursuits of illegal aliens and drug smugglers alike. However, in an effort to defame Agent Aleman, the soul-less Johnny Sutton even suggested that the real purpose for the adoption was so that Aleman could molest the little girls, who during the grand jury hearing were referred to by Sutton’s assistant as “little whores”!
Aleman told re-porter Jerome Corsi of WorldNetDaily: “I’m just another victim in George Bush, Alberto Gonzalez, and Johnny Sutton’s war against Border Patrol agents.”3
The three girls were sent to an orphanage in Mexico, after being deported.
There is evidence in the two aforementioned cases that the Mexican government became involved and influenced Sutton’s office to prosecute the officers.
On March 4, 2005, the U.S. Consulate in Mexico contacted Sutton’s office with information given by the Mexican government that they had a drug smuggler who had been shot by a Border Patrol Agent. The Department of Homeland Security began their investigation of Agents Ramos and Compean the very same day!
On April 18, 2005, Mexican Consul Jorge Ernesto Espejel Montes sent a letter to Sutton’s office demanding that Deputy Gilmer Hernandez be prosecuted for injuring Maricela Rodriguez Garcia (the illegal alien whose cheek was scratched while hiding in the smuggler’s van). It was not until Sutton received this letter that his investigation of Dep. Hernandez began.4
It is more than obvious that U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton received his orders from Mexico City, as did President Bush. The pair not only punished several law enforcement officers for their efforts to protect this nation, but they betrayed the American people as well.
The Western Texas District comprises over 660 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border. You can rest assured that every Mexican drug cartel knew (and still does) that stretch of border to be the safest way to bring their drugs into the U.S.
If President Trump wants to
restore “law and order” to the land, he should give all of the aforementioned
officers, who were simply pawns in Bush’s open-border policy, full and
unconditional pardons.
Endnotes
1. http://www.johnnysutton.com/
2. McKenna, Brendan (2008-04-23). “Clemency sought for agents who shot smuggler.” Dallas Morning News.
3. http://www.wnd.com/2007/06/42017/
4. https://rohrabacher.house.gov/mexico-demanded-us-prosecute-sheriff