Driver in Beating Case Denies Smuggling Illegal Immigrants
A 37-year-old man accused of leading sheriff’s deputies on a chase that ended in the beating of two illegal immigrants pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal charges.
Rigoberto Sosa-Padilla appeared in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to deny two charges of transporting illegal immigrants. He remains in jail without bail awaiting a July 23 trial.
Sosa-Padilla--also known as Fidel Delgado-Pimental--is accused of driving a truck packed with illegal immigrants on April 1, leading law enforcement officials on an 80-mile chase that began near Temecula and ended in South El Monte.
At the end of the pursuit, television news cameras captured Riverside County sheriff’s deputies clubbing two of the immigrants as they got out of the vehicle. The beating triggered protests by immigrant rights groups who said the deputies had overstepped their bounds.
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