Border Patrol, Government Sued for Millions Over Shooting of Immigrant

TUCSON, Az—After two federal trials resulting in hung juries, the parents of Francisco Javier Dominguez-Rivera have filed a $7.5 million wrongful-death lawsuit against Border Patrol Agent Nicholas W. Corbett, and the government, for a fatal shooting that witnesses say could have been avoided.

Corbett’s history of violence made this case national news, but the lawsuit and Cochise County attorneys say that this case points to larger problems in the Border Patrol, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.

On November 4th, after seventeen hours of deliberation, an all white jury – comprised of five women and seven men – ended in a second hung jury against Corbett. This second mistrial sealed the deal for Corbett to return to the field after over a year in an administrative position within Customs and Border Protection.

Sometime during the morning of January 12, 2007, Dominguez-Rivera, his two brothers and his brother’s girlfriend crossed a barbed-wire cattle fence that runs east and west, dividing the United States/Mexico border.

According to Federal Court testimony by Francisco’s two family members, and his brother’s girlfriend, Sandra, Corbett sped through the desert toward their direction. They considered running, but Sandra was tired from walking several miles early that day, so the four stayed together as others in the group fled back to Mexico. They reasoned they would all get arrested and deported together so they could cross again, perhaps at a later date.

At approximately 3 P.M., a video camera – stationed on a security tower about a mile away – caught the agent’s high speed chase on camera. The poor quality of the video recording depicts Agent Corbett, speeding north from Border Road at mile marker 7.5, cutting off the undocumented crossers. Agent Corbett, towering 6 feet 4 inches and weighing approximately 265 pounds to Francisco’s five foot four inches and 140 pound frame, exited his vehicle and went around the rear end of his vehicle, near the bumper, where he fatally shot Francisco.

According to two jurors, the vote to acquit Corbett was 11-1, a reversal from the first trial where the prosecution indicated a vote between 10-2 or 11-1 to convict.

Despite the second mistrial, questions remain regarding the United States Justice Department denying resources to Cochise County to try the case.

In a statement made by Cochise County Attorney Edward Rheinheimer, whose office brought charges against Nicholas Corbett when the forensic evidence didn’t match Corbett’s statement, said “This should have been an FBI investigation because it involved a homicide by a Federal Agent.”

Rheinheimer said that his office was denied assistance from the United States Department of Justice to try the case against agent Corbett. He thinks the decision was purely political. In late 2007, Rheinheimer spoke to a confidant at the DOJ in Washington DC, who said, “Border Patrol is furious over the Compean/Ramos prosecution,” referring to a case where two Border Patrol officers were sentenced to serving over 10 years in prison for the shooting of an undocumented immigrant near El Paso, Tx in 2005.

Rheinheimer said tensions are strained between the Border Patrol Administration and the Union. “The DOJ’s decision wasn’t about the case and it’s merits or whether it was right or wrong,” Rheinheimer said, “it was about the DOJ—and [how] they couldn’t afford a hostile and adversarial relationship with their biggest customer—the Border Patrol.”

Sandy Raynor, Public Affairs Officer for the State of Arizona District of the DOJ, said, “The department recused themselves because they work with Border Patrol all the time.”