Judge Clears Border Patrol in Fatal Crash
Border Patrol agents were not to blame for a 1995 crash that killed a pickup truck driver and two illegal immigrants who were riding in an overloaded van, a federal judge ruled.
After a four-day nonjury trial, U.S. District Judge Rudi M. Brewster on Wednesday rejected a civil lawsuit filed against the Border Patrol by immigrants who survived the crash and their families.
Brewster ruled that Border Patrol agents were following and monitoring the van carrying 36 immigrants, but that their actions did not constitute a chase that caused the smuggler to swerve into oncoming traffic and hit a pickup truck head-on.
“This vindicates the Border Patrol agents,” said Timothy Stutler, an assistant U.S. attorney. “This has been a cloud hanging over their heads for five years.”
Thomas A. Brill, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, did not plan to appeal, saying that it is difficult to win appeals of nonjury decisions.
The crash occurred in southern San Diego County when the van swerved across a center divider and hit a pickup driven by Richard Jeffrey Horton, 32, of Jamul.
Three Border Patrol vehicles followed the van, driving at a maximum of 55 mph, while a fourth was ahead of the smuggler and heading in the same direction.
Horton died in the crash, as did two of the Mexican immigrants, Antonio Silva Frias and Roberto Ocegueda Lopez.
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