INS Agents Indicted in Death of Worker

Three U.S. immigration agents in San Antonio have been indicted on federal civil rights charges in connection with the death of an undocumented worker whom they allegedly beat and doused with pepper spray after handcuffing him in a raid last year.

Serafin Olvera-Carrera, 47, a roofer who suffered a broken neck and went without medical attention for several hours, died Feb. 24 as a result of complications caused by the injuries received 11 months earlier, authorities said.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service deportation officers were arrested Tuesday when they reported for work, triggering the unsealing of a five-count indictment against each man.

The indictment alleges that in a March 2001 raid at a Bryan, Texas, home where more than a dozen undocumented workers resided, INS agent Carlos Reyna, 42, assaulted Olvera-Carrera, a Mexican. Richard Henry Gonzales, 36, later sprayed him with pepper spray. Reyna, Gonzales and a third INS officer, Louis Rey Gomez, 36, were charged with deliberate indifference to Olvera-Carreras’ subsequent medical needs.

“The Justice Department is committed to vigorously prosecuting those law enforcement officers who abuse their sworn positions of trust and mistreat those in their custody,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Gen. Ralph F. Boyd Jr. “Such conduct undermines the tireless efforts of the many courageous law enforcement officers throughout our nation.”

The trio’s arraignment in Houston has not been scheduled. Each was freed Tuesday on $30,000 bond.

Conviction on all five counts carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

A separate civil lawsuit against the government, filed before Olvera-Carreras’ death, claims he did nothing to provoke the beating. It alleges that after agents stormed the house, Olvera-Carrera was thrown against a kitchen wall and onto the floor, hit, kicked and struck in the upper back by a knee.

The agents forced Olvera-Carrera to walk to a waiting INS bus and dropped him on the ground, the lawsuit alleges, and then placed him on a bus bench where he was pepper-sprayed.

Hours later, Olvera-Carrera was taken to a Comal County jail, where a nurse called an ambulance, according to the lawsuit. His injuries left him paralyzed from the neck down.

The civil suit seeks more than $9 million in damages for denial of civil rights, assault and battery, negligence and denial of medical care.