Attorney makes many enemies

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, a longtime ally of President Bush, is being targeted by lawmakers and others across the country because of his successful prosecution of three U.S. Border Patrol agents and a deputy sheriff on charges of violating the civil rights of illegal aliens.

One congressman accused Mr. Sutton of being “on the wrong side of the border war”; another called the prosecutions “the worst betrayal of American defenders I have ever seen”; one said the cases were a “grotesque misdirection of our judicial system”; and another introduced a bill, now co-sponsored by 90 House members, calling for congressional pardons.

Although some have demanded his resignation and others have criticized the cases as examples of the government targeting its own agents, the White House has vigorously supported Mr. Sutton — saying that although authorities should go after drug dealers and make sure the border is secure, “we also believe the people who are working to secure that border themselves obey the law.”

In his only public comments on the matter, Mr. Bush in January told KFOX-TV in Texas that the “Border Patrol and law enforcement have no stronger supporter than me,” but that there are standards that need to be met in law enforcement “and, according to a jury of their peers, these officers violated some standards.”

Mr. Sutton’s ties to the president run deep, reaching back to 1995 when Mr. Bush was the governor of Texas. Mr. Sutton served as his criminal justice policy director under Alberto R. Gonzales, who was Mr. Bush’s general counsel in Texas and is now his attorney general.

During the 2000 election, Mr. Sutton became coordinator for the Bush-Cheney transition team, assigned to the Justice Department, and he served as an associate deputy attorney general. Mr. Bush nominated him as the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas in October 2001, and the Senate confirmed his nomination a month later.

In March 2006, Mr. Gonzales named Mr. Sutton chairman of the Justice Department’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys, saying he had served with “distinction.” The committee gives U.S. attorneys a voice in Justice Department policies.

However, the prosecutions and convictions have made Mr. Sutton the target of politicians in both parties, law-enforcement officials, immigration reform groups and bloggers, with several calling for his resignation. Some members of Congress are promising hearings to look into the conviction of two of the Border Patrol agents.

The conservative political Web site Townhall.com last week posted a letter to Mr. Bush from Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative political analyst who founded Eagle Forum, saying, “I am glad to see that you fired some U.S. attorneys. But you missed one: U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton.”

Petitions with more than 325,000 signatures have been presented to Mr. Bush calling for pardons of Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, who were convicted for shooting a drug-smuggling suspect in the buttocks. They were sentenced to 11- and 12-year prison terms, respectively.

National Border Patrol Council President T.J. Bonner, whose organization represents the agency’s 10,000 nonsupervisory personnel, said Mr. Sutton “violated the public’s trust, and must be removed from office immediately.”

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican and member of the House Judiciary Committee, suggested hearings on the matter and has asked the Justice Department to review the Ramos-Compean case. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, has asked for a Senate hearing, saying, “The facts do not add up or justify the length of the sentences for these agents, let alone their conviction on multiple counts.”

And Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican, took to the House floor in February to denounce Mr. Sutton as a “dishonest and overzealous prosecutor who has lied to us about this case.”

Mr. Sutton also successfully prosecuted Edwards County Deputy Guillermo F. Hernandez, whose shots at a fleeing vehicle injured an illegal alien being smuggled into the United States, and Border Patrol Agent Gary M. Brugman for using unreasonable force to arrest an illegal alien. Hernandez was sentenced to a year and a day, and Mr. Brugman to two years, a term that he has completed.

Mr. Sutton has argued that the press mischaracterized the prosecutions, particularly of Ramos and Compean, adding that the agents committed serious federal crimes including aggravated assault, making false statements and obstructing justice.

Story Continues →