Steve Neavling

Federal prosecutors released video of a Border Patrol agent accused of beating a Mexican immigrant while in custody, CBS 8 in San Diego reports.

The agent in the video was found not guilty by a jury last month on excessive force charges.

The video shows Agent Luis Fonseca repeatedly choking and kicking the man until he fell to the ground.

The man, Adolfo Ceja-Escobar, had been deported several times.

Steve Neavling

An excessive force case against a Border Patrol agent goes to trial this week, the San Diego Union Tribune reports.

Agent Luis E. Fonesca is accused of kicking and choking an unauthorized immigrant until he was unconscious.

Prosecutors say they have a videotape that proves their case.

Fonesca has pleaded not guilty to a count of deprivation of rights under color of the law.

Steve Neavling

The Justice Department plans to announce it is investigating excessive force within the Cleveland Police Department, WXYC Channel 3 reports.

The probe involves a police pursuit in November when Cleveland cops fired 137 bullets at an unarmed man and woman.

WXYC reported that a news conference is expected today to announce the investigation.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has requested assistance from the Justice Department.

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The Justice Department is launching an investigation of the Albuquerque Police Department following more than two dozen shootings, the New York Times reports.

The probe is to determine whether police used excessive force, including unreasonable deadly force, against suspects.

“We will peel the onion to its core, and we will leave no stone unturned,” Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said at a news conference in Albuquerque.

“We will talk to department leadership and rank-and-file officers,” Mr. Perez said. “We will also actively engage with the community, a critical part of the process of determining whether systemic violations exist.”

In the past two years, the police department has been involved in 25 shootings, 17 of which were fatal, the New York Times reported.

The frequency of the shootings has alarmed authorities.

Steve Neavling

 The family of a Mexican teen fatally shot by the U.S. Border Patrol last week claims excessive force in a forthcoming lawsuit, Reuters reports.

Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, 16, was shot seven times in the back as agents opened fire on a group of rock throwers accused of dropping off drugs on the Arizona side of the border shortly after midnight Wednesday, according to Reuters.

A lawyer for Mexico’s Public Ministry in Nogales told Reuters the family will see legal action against the agent or agents responsible for Rodriguez’s death.

The Border Patrol declined to comment beyond an original statement about the shooting, which said an unnamed agent opened fire after smuggling suspects “began assaulting the agents with rocks” and defied orders to stop, Reuters reported.

 Steve Neavling

The FBI is investigating whether a Houston police officer used excessive force by fatally shooting a double-amputee in a wheelchair at a home for the mentally ill, the Associated Press reports.

The AP said police were responding to a call about an irate one-armed, one-legged man who wouldn’t come down.

One of the officers said he shot the 45-year-old amputee in the head because he felt cornered by the wheelchair and feared his partner was in danger by what turned out to be a ballpoint pen, according to the AP.

“It is my desire to have everyone reserve judgment until all the facts and evidence in this investigation have been gathered,” Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland said.

Steve Neavling

The city of Seattle and the Justice Department are engaged in intense negotiations with a mediator over how to bring about sweeping changes in the Seattle Police Department, the Seattle Times reports.

Negotiations come six months after the Justice Department revealed troubled findings about a department that engages in a “pattern and practice” of using excessive force, mainly against minorities and the chemically and mentally impaired, according to the Seattle Times.

Also found was inconclusive evidence of biased reporting.

Both sides pledged quick action to avoid a lawsuit, the Seattle Times reported.

Did ICE agents use excessive force? An advocacy group says yes.

BY TRENTON DANIEL
Miami Herald
MIAMI– A coalition of immigrant advocates is demanding that the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami investigate the arrests of dozens of Mexicans and Guatemalans taken into custody as undocumented immigrants last month during a raid targeting a separate group of alleged sex-trade traffickers in Homestead.
The advocates, along with local community leaders, say the 42 Mexicans and 35 Guatemalans — who were not involved in sex-trade trafficking — were rounded up Nov. 19 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. They accused ICE agents of using excessive force when they took the foreign nationals into custody.
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