Border Agent Arrested in Kidnaping of Mexican Boy

Calexico police have arrested a U.S. Border Patrol agent on suspicion of kidnaping a 14-year-old Mexican boy, attempted extortion and assault with a deadly weapon, Police Chief Leslie Ginn said Monday.

Robert M. Ferrick, 24, was arrested Sunday night, Ginn said, after the youth told police that Ferrick had terrorized him over a three-day period. The boy told police that Ferrick handcuffed him, cut his hair, forced him to strip and fired a shot near his head while he lay on the ground.

Ferrick is being held at the Imperial Valley Jail in El Centro in lieu of $100,000 bond. He is expected to be arraigned today.

Reassignment Possible

Dale Musegades, chief agent in charge of the Calexico station, said the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s office of professional responsibility is investigating the case. Musegades said that if Ferrick is released on bail, he will be reassigned to a desk job pending the outcome of the case.

Ferrick, who joined the Border Patrol a year ago last month, has had no other complaints lodged against him, Musegades said. He said the youth who made the charges is a resident of Mexico who has been detained 18 times in the last nine months for being in the United States illegally.

Mexicans who regularly cross the border illegally and the agents who patrol the area tend to know each other by name, Musegades said.

The youth told police that Ferrick was retaliating against him because the boy allegedly stole a pair of binoculars from Ferrick’s vehicle last March, Musegades said.

Calexico Police Chief Ginn said the extortion charge related to “money for the binoculars” but declined to elaborate on the charge.

The youth accused Ferrick of terrorizing him on Friday, Saturday and Sunday after the youth had been detained by Border Patrol agents each day, Ginn said. Mexican illegal aliens usually are offered voluntary departure and are released at the border.

Hair Allegedly Cut

Ginn said that after Ferrick completed his Thursday night shift on Friday morning, he allegedly took the youth from detention to a remote area on Mt. Signal Road, about 10 miles west of Calexico, physically abused him and left him there.

On Saturday, Ferrick again allegedly took the youth from detention to the remote area, handcuffed the boy, and cut off some of his hair with a scissors.

“The victim was forced to lie on his back while the agent threatened him and fired a shot into the ground about two feet from his head. The juvenile was then forced to undress and was kicked into a ditch,” Ginn said.

On Sunday, Ferrick allegedly drove the juvenile to the Mt. Signal area for a third time and cut off the rest of his hair.

‘Forced to Undress’

“He forced the youth to undress, threw the youth’s clothes into the All American Canal and left him,” Ginn said.

The unidentified juvenile retrieved his clothes from the canal and found some fishermen to give him a ride back to Calexico, he said. The boy reported his charges to Calexico police at about 11:30 a.m.

Ginn said he and two sergeants immediately launched an investigation.

“We found the hair, we found the bullet,” Ginn said.

He said Ferrick was arrested with a search warrant at his home in Holtville, about eight miles northeast of Calexico, at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Ferrick did not resist arrest, Ginn said.

‘Don’t Know What Happened’

The police chief said he did not know how or why the youth would have been released to Ferrick each day.

“I am not going to have the Police Department investigating Border Patrol procedures,” he said. “I don’t know what happened. Possibly there’s no paper work on the kid.”

Musegades said Border Patrol records show that the youth was detained on Sunday only and was released at the Calexico Port of Entry. He said it would be against Border Patrol procedures to detain an illegal alien without making a record of his detention, and he thought that it was “highly unlikely” that happened in this case.

“We’ll wait for the investigation,” Musegades said.

The youth, who is an orphan, is being held at the county juvenile detention facility.

The is the second agent from the Calexico office to be investigated by the INS internal affairs unit. Last month, a Calexico doctor, Jose A. Cisneros, said he was beaten and humiliated by agent Kevin Jarvis.

Times staff writer H.G. Reza contributed to this report.