Border Officer Pleads Not Guilty in Beating Case : Courts: Agent is accused of severely injuring a U.S. resident who was stopped for questioning in San Diego.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges that he beat and severely injured a U.S. resident near a San Diego trolley station last year.

A federal indictment charged six-year agent Frank Jeschke, 39, with violating the civil rights of Mauro Vasquez Morales, 25, a hotel worker who suffered serious kidney and back injuries in the incident on May 16, 1991. Jeschke is accused of striking Vasquez and slamming his knee into Vasquez’s back.

The indictment made public Thursday is the first case since 1988 in which a Border Patrol agent has been charged with federal civil rights violations. It comes at a time of intense focus on alleged Border Patrol misconduct.

An agent was recently convicted on rape charges in the Imperial Valley and an agent was charged with first-degree murder for shooting a fleeing illegal immigrant near Nogales, Ariz.

Jeschke and other agents allegedly stopped Vasquez and his brother for questioning about 6 p.m. near the San Diego trolley depot downtown. When Vasquez protested that he was a legal resident, Jeschke kneed and kicked Vasquez and threw him to the ground, according to Vasquez’s lawyer, Marco Antonio Rodriguez.

“The incident apparently escalated because my client notified the officer that he was conscious of his rights,” Rodriguez said. “That apparently infuriated the officer.”

The agents arrested Vasquez’s brother as an illegal immigrant but did not arrest the injured man, a legal permanent resident, prosecutors said.

Fellow agents provided key testimony to the grand jury about the alleged use of excessive force, according to sources familiar with the case.

Jeschke works at the Imperial Beach station, the busiest and most violent patrol area on the U.S.-Mexico border. A Border Patrol spokesman said officials have not decided whether to change his job status as a result of the charges.

Jeschke’s lawyer said Thursday that the agent did not assault Vasquez and that two other agents agreed with his account in written reports. Vasquez may have been injured in some other altercation and is trying to win money from the government, he said.

“There was never any indication of any injury,” said the lawyer, James Gattey. “He did not knee him. There was nothing of that type of thing.”

While Gattey said Jeschke has a good reputation and has never been disciplined, fellow agents described him as a “problem agent” known for physically and verbally abusing immigrants.

“This wasn’t the first time,” an agent said. “He doesn’t belong in the Border Patrol.”