Beating by Border Patrol Agent Wins Alien Smuggler $65,000

A convicted smuggler of aliens was awarded $65,000 for injuries inflicted in 1986 by a Border Patrol agent who helped arrest the man at the San Onofre immigration checkpoint.

Arturo Halog Huerte, 27, and a U.S. citizen, suffered a broken nose in the incident when Border Patrol Agent L. E. Frost hit him with a flashlight, and a fractured skull from subsequent blows. However, visiting U.S. District Court Judge Justin Quackenbush ruled that use of the flashlight did not amount to “unreasonable force.”

Instead, the judge found that blows delivered by Frost, after Halog was subdued, amounted to excessive force, said attorney Raymond Buendia, who represented Halog. Halog has two convictions for alien smuggling and spent 21 months in federal prison after the arrest.

Quackenbush’s ruling was applauded by longtime Border Patrol critic Roberto Martinez. Martinez, director of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group that advocates migrants rights, said the judge’s decision “sent a message to Border Patrol agents. . . . They just can’t physically abuse people and get away with it.”

Agent Ted Swofford, Border Patrol spokesman, declined to comment.

The incident involving Halog oc curred early on the morning of March 17, 1986, when agents stopped him on suspicion of alien smuggling. According to affidavits filed in the case, Halog attempted to escape by running across the freeway but was chased and caught by Border Patrol agents.

Frost, who is now a U.S. Customs agent in Albuquerque, N.M., admitted delivering a blow with the flashlight but denied hitting Halog afterward. No agents were disciplined in the case.

Halog was placed in custody and taken to San Clemente Hospital, where a doctor diagnosed a fractured skull and recommended admitting Halog. The doctor relented when agents told him that Halog would be transferred to the Metropolitan Correctional Center, where medical treatment is available.

Halog was instead taken to a small holding cell in San Ysidro and the following day to the MCC, where prison officials photographed his injuries before booking him. He was then taken to Harborview Hospital where a doctor rediagnosed a fractured skull and admitted him for two days.

“On several occasions, after his arrest, Halog asked for medicine and medical attention, but Border Patrol agents laughed and refused to act,” said Buendia.

The statement was contested by Special Assistant U.S. Atty. Samuel Bettwy, who represented both the Border Patrol and Frost at the civil trial. According to Bettwy, the judge “ruled that there was no failure to provide adequate medical treatment, and there was no harm done.”

Bettwy said that Quackenbush never specified which blows amounted to excessive force, but agreed with Buendia that they occurred after Halog was hit with the flashlight. He characterized Frost as “a highly commended employee with a clean file.”

Violence and shootings along the border are commonplace, and Border Patrol agents are frequently involved in incidents that result in allegations of brutality and excessive force. Martinez said that civil suits against the Border Patrol are rarely successful because federal judges usually believe an agent’s account of the incident.

Humberto Carrillo Estrada, 14, is one of a few who have won damages from the Border Patrol. In 1987, a federal judge awarded Carrillo $574,000 for injuries suffered when he was shot by Agent Edward C. Cole two years earlier.

In that incident, Cole alleged that the boy was going to throw a softball-sized rock through a hole in the border fence, at another agent who was arresting Carrillo’s older brother. Cole fired several shots through the fence and hit Carrillo who was standing on the Mexican side.

The judge who heard the lawsuit ruled that Cole lied in his version of the shooting and acted unlawfully. No charges were brought against Cole, despite investigations by the INS Office of Responsibility, the district attorney and the state attorney general’s office.