Speaker 1: Hello, Hello, This is Christina and Carmen and this is
the Spooky Tales, the podcast for all things as spooky,
true crime, hunted places, myths, legends in Latin America. And
I have to warn everyone right now, today's case involves
one of the biggest criminals, because we can't be a
true crime podcast if we don't talk about one of
the biggest criminal gangs in the US. Yeah, one of
the most violent criminal gangs in the United States who
has operated with impunity and committed atrocities and terror across
the United States and even past the United States. So
I'm combining the two the two gangs, Oh, we're counting
them together. They actually acted together for this case. So yeah,
across United States Ice and Border Patrol. I was saying, yes,
we are talking about them. Yeah, yeah, we are. So
if that's something that you can't hear right now, understandable
skip this episode. It's so infuriating, especially given today's horrible news.
Today is January seventh, twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six.
What day it was? It's not twenty twenty five anymore. Yeah,
so today's January fifth, January seventh, twenty twenty six. I
already said sorry. Seventh. Anyway, we found out today dot
Ice shot a woman, Renee and Nicole Good, thirty seven
years old. They shot her point blank in the face
today in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Yeah. Yes, and today's case. Actually,
you will see the similarities between the case we're talking
about today and what happened today the time of recording.
But again, if you're not in the right headspace to
hear it, skip this episode come back to it later.
It is an important case to familiarize yourself with. But again,
infuriating completely. Yeah. Also, sorry if I sound weird, I
just got in middleline. So just if I thank you
said everyone out there. I feel like I feel like
I don't, but whatever I think you do. Okay, let's
get into this. On May twenty eighth, twenty ten, a
man was heard screaming a blood curdling scream on the
Sandy Zero point of Entry when i'sis saw a group
of Border Patrol agents gigging up on a man tasing
him and when they attempted to intervene, their phones were
taken and they were threatened. According to the Border Patrol,
they were actually saving this man's life. He was actually
the one heard in himself until he died. But before
we get to that day, let's talk about the man.
Anatasio and Nandez Rocaz was born on May second, nineteen
sixty eight, in San Luis, Potosi. He had eight siblings,
of which he was the third oldest. When Anatasio was fifteen,
he immigrated to the United States to find work and
help support his family, and he settled in San Diego, California,
where years later, at the age of twenty one, he
met Maria de Jesutzbuga, who would later become his wife.
They went on to have five kids over the course
of twenty years, Yami, Daisy, Fabian, and twins Danielle and Daniela.
His friends described him as fun and jobio. He was
a loving, attentive father, active in his children's lives. He
planned family out into the beach park, the movies, He
colored with his kids, and they tried to eat meals
together as often as a cut as a family. He
worked as a whole a little and picked up work
in construction and demolition when he could, but on May tenth,
twenty ten, unable to make ends meet, his desperation drove
him to shoplift food from a grocery store. According to
a PBS documentary titled Crossing the Line at the Border,
he stole steak and tequila for a Mother's Day celebration. Yeah,
maintenth is Mother's Day, so it makes sense. Yeah, and
you know what, I die, I don't care that he's stole.
I fully don't care that he's stole. And I don't
care who has an opinion about us not caring that
he stole. I don't give not one fuck. He was
arrested and once in custody, his immigration status was checked,
and after law enforcement found out he was undocumented, he
was deported to Mexico two weeks later on May twenty eighth,
and Asasio tried to re enter the United States with
his brother. I mean, of course, this is yet another
thing that does not matter to me, I know, And
that's what I'm saying, Like, of course he did. His
family was here, his life was here. Yeah, they should
just let him in. I mean I'm saying, and again,
I do not care who is mad at us saying that. No, truly, Like,
go argue with yourself. It's like one time we got
our Spotify comment that was like and what are people
supposed to do, or what is the US supposed to do?
Just let everyone in. I was like, I really don't care.
I don't care. I think that they should let anybody
whose countries they have fucked up in. I mean, and
I am in agreeance. And that's almost the whole world.
And whose fault is that? The United States? Yeah, that's
not my fault. That's when it ta his fault. Yeah,
I truly don't like. They're like, oh, you sound so
dumb for saying borders should be open, and I was like,
I don't care, and I will continue to repeat that.
But Anastasio was quickly apprehended and taken to the true
La Vista border patrol station and driven to the deportation
gate at sanny Cidro. This is also known as the
way Ski two section of the sanny carl point of entry.
From watching the documentary and I'm talking about the HBO
documentary Critical Incident Death at the Border. From watching the documentary,
it looked like they started, or it seemed like the
physical abuse started at the point of entry. But from
reading the complaint which we'll talk about later filed with
in International Commission, it actually began at the border station
there at the border station, Anastasio was beaten, tortured, and
suffocated by a border patrol agent. It began at the
border station, but we'll get into that what happen there
a little bit later. But once he was taken to
the sunny Zerol point of entry, Anasassio was beaten, tortured,
and suffocated by Border patrol agents until he stopped breathing.
Anasasio was handcuffed during this and despite being unarmed and
physically incapable of fighting back, border patrol agents punched, kicked,
dragged taste, and hogg tight Anasassio. If that wasn't enough,
they also denied an Asasio medical care. An Assassio sustained
severe injuries, including five broken ribs and hemorrhagene of internal organs.
A few days later, on May thirty first, twenty ten,
an Assassio succumbed to his injuries and was taken off
live support. He was forty two years old at the
time of his death. From there, the Border Patrol tried
to cover everything up, and a years long battle ensued,
which uncovered a shadow organization within the Border Patrol and
culminated at an international human rights court. Now we were
to ask the Border Patrol agent what led to an
Asasio's death. They would say that it was actually Anastasio's
own fault that he died. Agents involved in his murder
stated they were trying to save him from himself. Their
literal words that they had to tie his hand behind
his back because he was hurting himself and all the
injuries that he succumbed to were of his own doing.
So what happened on that day, it actually took years
to be together. His family was left in the dark
for a long time. They had to filed a lawsuit
and then another to just get information. Their lawyer, Jean Iredale,
requested evidence, which Border Patrol failed to turn over. They
also failed Bord Patrol also failed to call San Diego PD,
which should have been contacted the day of the incident
as it happened. Really, instead, their own team called the
Critical Incident Team CIT, swept in and got rid of
all incriminating evidence, which is their job or was to
cover up things done by Border Patrol and or was
it just Border Patrol or his ice too from what
I knew this Border Patrol, But more than that later,
Let's get into the day first, Like we mentioned, earlier.
Anastasio was apprehended on May twenty eight, twenty ten, and
then transported to the Chuo Lavisa Border Patrol Facility and
detention Center, which we'll just refer to either as detention
center or to Larisa facility, either one. He was searched
and then directed by Border Patrol agent Gabriel Ducing. The
ucing Gabriel du Coin to throw his water away instead
of throwing the bottle in the trash, Anastasio poured out
the water from his jug into the trash can, and
this made officer to Coin angry that he didn't just
throw the bottle away, that he emptied it, so then
the officer slapped the water jug out of Anastasio's hand,
hands pushed Anastasio into a wall and then repeatedly kicked
his ankles to make Anasasio stand with his ankles apart,
but from the moment he was pushing into the wall
and Assassio was already standing and with his ankle's apart,
But the agent kept kicking and kicking, and Astasia cried out,
why are you doing this to us? Why are you
hitting us? We haven't done anything wrong, to which officer
Ducoin replied, you don't want to be beaten. Then he
handcuffed Anastasio and took him to an interview room. In
that room, Anastasio complained that Officer Ducoin injured his ankle
and that it was hurting, especially because he had previously
broken this ankle. He also requested to appear before an
immigration judge, but all of his complaints on requests were dismissed,
and according to Border Patrol policy, officer Ducoin was supposed
to inform his supervisor that Anasasio had a complain about
mistreatment and request medical attention. He did neither. An Aastasio
was then taken to a processing area where he was
handcuffed to a bench. There, he requested medical treatment again.
He asked for a phone call, and he attempted to
assert his right to appear before an immigration judge, and
once again complained about the mistreatment that he was receiving.
After sitting on that bench handcuffed through hours, the facility supervisor,
officer Ismael Finn, spoke with Anastasio, who once again requested
medical care and complained about mistreatment. The supervisor dismissed these
complaints again and then told his agents to immediately remove
Anastasio from the United States, so agent Philip Krasile Wicks
and get Real Ducoin were the ones transporting Anastasio. These
two agents had already up to that point expressed anger
and disdain towards Anastasio. They later not at this point,
but they would later say Anastasio did not behave like
a quote typical alien end quote during processing, that he
did not comply like a typical alien, but instead because
instead of quietly facing the wall when instructed to do so,
Anastasio talked loudly, looked directly at the agents and complained
about the treatment he was being subjected to, just because
he spoke up about being hurt, like they want people
to shut up and take it. Yeah, they both felt
that Anastasio did not grant them the respect they deserved.
You deserve it zero respect. You deserve full disrespect from
anybody that's ses you. Yeah, they considered Anastasio disrespectful and problematic,
and that's why he had been arranged for immediate removal,
as opposed to his brother, who remained at the facility.
Prior to entering the agent's vehicle for transportation, Anathasio was
already seen limping, and that can be seen in the footage. Yes,
the agents took Anastasio to an area known as Whiskey Too.
This was the primary area of deportations, also called the
Deportation Gate. It is an enclosed area and only federal
officials have access to it. So when they arrived at
Whiskey Too, the pair of agents removed Anastasso's handcuffs. When
they removed his handcuffs, they stated that Anastasio lowered his
hands down to his hips instead of raising them to
the top of his head as he had been told
to do. They also stated he was moving around too much.
And so these two things were like acts of violence
to the Border patrol agents. It was their excuse in
their reason to act the way they did exactly. And
so then they grabbed Anastasio, and according to them, a
quote struggle ensued end a quote. So two not border patrol,
but two Ice agents Andre Piligrino and Harinto Narra and
Nessink intervened. These Ice officers you their steel batons to
hate Anastasio, and their blows struck Anastasio in the chest.
The Ice agents continued to hit Anastassio until the pair
of Border patrol officers were like stop stop, oh, I
didn't know that, mm hmm. And what they claimed happened
doesn't add up. They have contradicting statements because they're made up, yes,
because they're lying. Ice agents Pilogrino and Nara and nes
Singh stated that Anastasio punched all four agents. Mind you,
footage shows that he's handcuffed this whole time. We at
this point, he had not been handcuffed yet. Oh ic
ic Yeah, yeah, they unhandcuffed him. But however, it's one
guy and for law enforcement personnel. So that's what they claimed,
that he had punched all four of them. Border Patrol
agents to Coin and krasile Wigs stated that Anastasio did
not punch any of them. Each one of them stated
that all five of them then fell to the ground
after Anastasio punched them, and that Anastasio had landed on
his stomach, and that's when Border Patrol agent Derek Llewellyn arrived.
When they were all on the ground, that's when he
Llewellyn handcuffed Anastassio's hands behind him behind his back. Then
agents Decoin, krasau Wicks and Pellegrino pressed on him while
Anastasio was fased down. They held him by the legs,
the waist and his side. This is when Anastasio began
to cry out for help in Spanish. This drew people
together on a pedestrian bridge that overlooked Whiskey two, and
this is when the crowd began to record the incident. Meanwhile,
two more Border Patrol agents arrived at the scene. They
were Alan Boutwell and Kurt Sower, and these two joined
the other five. So now there's seven trying to force
Anastassio into the backseat of their suv vehicle, which they
couldn't do because Anastasio had his feet against the door.
Then they dragged Anastasio, who was still hot ncuoked, behind
the suv. They placed him face down on the ground. Again,
can I interject really quick with something? So I feel
like some people might question, like, oh, well, why was
he resist? Obviously you know this is what they say.
Why was he resisting? Why wouldn't you put his feet
against the door like that? But maybe in his head
it's like a like a response fear response. Right, he
probably thought and they these people did, right. He probably
thought they were going to kill him. So he's like,
why would I get in the car with them. Right,
these agents already had it out for him from the station,
and then these two are the ones instructed to take
him out. I would be fearing for my life too.
They were already abusing him at the station. Yeah, So
now they dragged him behind the suv. They placed him
face down on the ground again. Then, according to witnesses,
they kneeled on the back of Anastasio's neck and his
lower back while other agents continued to punch and step
on his back and his head. According to witnesses, Anastasio
never tried to harm the officers. And then two more
vehicles arrived and I'm like, how many people is enough?
Like this is just out of control. Yeah. One of
the officers from this pair of vehicles got out of
the vehicle, ran straight to Anastasio, who was still on
the ground, and kicked him hard like a soccer kick,
is how the witnesses described it. This is a fucking
game to them. Yeah, no, they truly they And even
now there's reports of ICE agents who literally like they
view everything like as a game, Like they kill people,
they harm people, and they laugh and then they know
that it's gonna get go viral on social media and
they're like excited about the potential of going viral. Yeah.
Then Border Patrol agent Jerry Valles began to yell stop resisting,
even though at this point Anastasio was handcuffed and not
moving at all. And from that video there's like people screaming,
like when it's it's saying he's on the ground, he's
not moving. What do you mean, stop resisting? Yes, more
agents have arrived by now, so now there's somewhere between
fifteen to twenty five Border Patrol and Ice on the scene.
Jerry Valles then warned the rest of the officers that
he was going to use his taser. The group of
officers then surrounded Anastasio, partially blocking the view of the
eyewitnesses who were up on the bridge. However, someone did
manage to record this and capture as Jerry Vallis tasted
Anastasio multiple times while Anastasio was on the ground in
a fetal position, still handcuffed. Border Patrol agent Jerry Valez
used his taser at least four times, and this was
proven by using the taser's log This is a program
on the taser itself that records every time it's used
and for how long. And according to that log, the
first two shots for five seconds, the third was thirteen seconds,
and the fourth was twelve seconds long. And at least
two of those shocks were successful. The other two might
have been not like success not hit him hm. The
last shock was done in drivesten mode, which means direct
contact without probes the taser's probes, and so the taser
is then pressed directly against the skin. And when in
drivesten mode, a taser should never be used on the head,
back of the neck, the trachia, or the chest. And
if you guess that officer Valles uses taser in drivestnd
mode directly on on Astasio's chest, you would be correct.
That is exactly what he did. Anastasio then convulse until
the taser was removed. And there is a recording of this.
There's a recording of all of this taking place. It's
quite terrible. I'm not priority. Yeah, I will not be
playing in an audio of that at all. Yeah, there
was links in the show notes if you want to
look at it again. It is quite horrible to hear,
but you hear these desperate screens In Spanish, no no
no qita, no the me no, no, no, ma, ma
madre and in English, what did I do? Help me? Please,
help me? You're treating me like an animal. No, no, no,
take him off me, no mom, mother, Just these desperate
cries again, and I'm like, you have to see someone
as an object, as trash in order to hear these
please and not stop. And so it doesn't matter the
amount of training that they do, like they dehumanize migrants
and brown people and anyone opposing them now at this point,
as we have seen from today's news as not as humans,
and so any police to humanity, it doesn't matter because
they don't see you as equal to them, and so
they just treat you however they want, yes, exactly, having
the ability to ignore please like this, it cannot be reformed.
There is no reforming this organization. As we have said
time and time again. And between Anastasio's cries for help,
officers can be heard yelling stop resisting, while the crowd
is yelling leave him alone. He's not resisting. Why are
you using exact excessive force? He is not resisting. And
these people's screams sound desperate. They are watching someone be murdered. Yeah,
After the final incident, of the taser being used, officers
swarmed Anastasio and pressed him down with knees on his
head and his back. As they did this, they also
punched him repeatedly in the ribs again online video. At
some point, they pulled his pants down and zip tied
his ankles together, howg tying him. After they howg tied
him like this, they all stood up and they nudged
him so kicked him with their feet and Anastasio at
this point was not moving at all. After they realized
he wasn't moving at all, they still waited two more
minutes before beginning CPR. Fifteen minutes after this, an ambulance
arrived and after some back and forth, was finally able
to actually attend to him and put him in the
ambulance and take him to the Chula Vista Hospital. At
the hospital, the extent of his injuries became apparent. There
were bruises pretty much all over his body, bruises and
cuts everywhere. He had five broken ribs, visible taser marks,
one on one of his butt cheeks as well, so
his brain had gone without oxygen for eight minutes. At
some point during the repeated tasing and beating, he had
a heart attack. At the hospital, he was diagnosed with
a noxic brain injury, which means death of brain cells
due to lack of oxygen. He was on life support
for a little bit until he went into a sister
le also called cardiac standstill, which most of us would
recognize as flatlining. He was pronounced dead at four thirty
pm on May thirty first, twenty ten, and while in
the hospital, border patrol was guarding his room. Oh, I
was gonna ask if you are I don't know if
bringing against this later, but in the documentary they Maria
talks about how the police went to inform her that
Anassasio was in the hospital, but all they told her
was that he had gone into a fight. Oh, yes,
that is in my notes. Ya okay, So yeah, in
the hospital, border patrol was guarding his room and only
allowed family to see him after the Mexican consulate and
immigrant rights activists got involved. Before that, they did not
let Maria, his wife, or Bernardo, his brother, into the room,
and they had told her when they told her that
he was in the hospital, they had only told her
that he had been in a fight and nothing else. So,
of course, when she was finally able to enter the room.
The state in which she found her husband was truly
shocking because of Border Patrol having guarded the room for
so long, only Maria and two of the oldest kids
were able to see him before he died, and even then,
these kids' last image of their father was traumatizing. I
saw the image of him in the hospital and it's impactful.
It's hard to look at he looks, he's in a
terrible condition, and his children, only two of them could
see and actually see him and say goodbye, but still
seeing this is traumatizing. The youngest three didn't have a
chance to say goodbye. And before we get into the
autopsy and what his death certificate said was the cause
of death, let's talk about what was supposed to happen.
After Anastasio had been taken to the hospital. The San
Diego Police Department Homicide Unit should have been informed of
what took place so that our criminal investigation could begin.
This didn't happen. Border Patrol didn't inform SDPD of the
incident until late morning in May twenty ninth, and Border
Patrol and sdpt's initial reports described the Nastasio as a suspect,
and the officers as victims of battery. Bullshit, how do
you haven't describe a man in the hospital as the
so crazy suspect. Yeah. A full day after the incident,
SDPD secured the crime scene and took witness statements, which
were all from Border patrol and ICE agents. These interviews
took less than fifteen minutes, and not even all the
agents involved were interviewed. And this includes the two that
ICE agents that had arrived to Coin and the other
one that had arrived and started hitting in with the batons.
They weren't interviewed. They weren't no, okay, yeah, and their
names were kept hitten for a very long time. Years yes, years. Yeah,
it's literally until the civil lawsuit. Not even Actually I
didn't think it was the when the DOJ started investigating,
when the names were finally revealed, if I'm remembering right, well,
I had an order of protection, So then was it
the civil laws sophistication? I think it was a civil lawsuit. Okay,
we'll get into this. Yeah. Also, while iceen Border patrols
were beating and tasing Anastasio, they had calls for more backup.
This backup then went onto the pedestrian bridge where people
were shouting at them to stop, and they confiscated cameras
and cell phones. And the San Diego Police Department didn't
bother taking statements from these officers who did the confiscating,
So they were not interviewed, And of course neither were
the witnesses of the civilian witnesses who saw this. No,
none of them were interviewed at first. Within days of
Anastasio's death, the media was publishing articles referring to Anastasio
as quote violent and combat Oh my god, I didn't
know that. Yeah. And these articles also mentioned drugs or
mental disorders playing a role in his death. And are
you going to get into the autopsy? Yes, okay, And
these were lies. Of course. They tried to say he
was on meth, right, and that's what caused a heart attack. No,
And the thing they were counting as meth was a
medication given to him at the hostspital. Yeah, to treat him,
but to bullshit. Yes. Then just several days later, on
June ninth, Umberto navare Mendoza posted videos of the attack
on Anastasio, as well as an audio recording of all
of it. He had witnessed the attack and managed to
hide his recording device from the officers who were confiscating
all of them. Once the video was out, that's when
the a s DPD actually took witness statements from civilians
who saw everything from the bridge. Before that, they hadn't
talked to any of them, and local press had also
been reporting eyewitness accounts before as DPD even tried to
reach out to witnesses who saw what happened. Umberto himself
and two others were interviewed as part of the San
Diego Police Department's investigation, and then in July of twenty ten,
they referred the case to the US Attorney's Office in
San Diego, who then, I guess just sat on it.
I believe in that documentary they mentioned this and that
the the choes to not prosecute right, which is sitting
on it, right not to do anything about it. Okay,
that makes sense. And right after he died, an Assassa's
family had tried contacting the Civil Rights Division of the
Department of Justice. The DOJ refused to provide his family
with any information about the investigation. The family continued to
attempt to contact did DJ through a representative throughout the
rest of twenty ten and twenty eleven. Then on April twentieth,
twenty twelve, PBS, the very same PBS who is losing
funding or is like officially out of funding, Yeah, as
a result of this current administration. But local PBS places
are still operating, Yes, but yeah, they lost their main
source of funding, This very same PBS. They released a
video of Border Patrol and Ice, you know, together beating
Anastasio and the servicing of this video. It took a
lot of work. Reporter John Carlos Frak, who has spent
his whole career reporting on Board Patrol, he began to
look into Anastasio's case shortly after his death, and he,
like everyone else, noticed that there was little to no
information from official sources. So he began to look for witnesses,
and it took him a month of investigating to find
a witness who had the video, but was afraid to
come forward at first. She was even too scared to
show him the video and instead she chose to just
describe what happened. And I mean, who can blame her?
She was only twenty two and she was scared. She
saw them be a man with no justification, no mercy.
Of course, she was scared exactly, and she was actually
visiting San Diego. She's a Seattle local. Oh, I didn't know,
And it's in the PBS documentary because she's in it.
She's not anonymous anymore and she's in the PBS documentary.
I'm going to watch that. But yeah, she's a Seattle
local visiting San Diego. And she was walking across the
bridge and she was like, I heard sounds that someone
was dying, someone was begging for help, and she took
out her camera and began to record, and she's in
the video. She can be heard yelling like leave him
alone too. And she saw border patrol lining everyone up
who was on the bridge and like take their phones.
And she at the last minute removed her as D card,
put it in her pocket and handed her phone over
and that's why she still had the footage. And it
took John two years to convince her to release the video,
and when he finally got it, it was sent on
a disk and an envelope with no return address. Like
that's how scared she was, yes, exactly, and yeah, the
video shows what we shared earlier. It shows the officers
screaming keep walking to bystanders. They're ganging up on him.
There's over fifteen of them. It shows him on the
ground the whole time, contradicting officers were yelling that he
stood up, tried to kick them. There's agents yelling quit resisting,
and he's just on the ground. And yeah, it's showing
them piling up on him, punching him, grabbing his pants.
It shows all of this. And then they tried to
surround him, right, the witnesses wouldn't sea and not to
They were yelling, quit resisting, yes, to make it seem
like he was. And even then, yeah, even then, his
legs are pretty visible and he's not moving. Plus from
the top, no matter how you surround, you can't hide, no, exactly.
And at this point, now that the video is being
circulated and it moved people to protest, especially in San
Diego and in Mexico, protests were growing and so the
DOJ had no choice but to act. At this point,
even members of Congress were contacting the Department of Homeland
Security expressing their concern, and so finally, on May ninth,
twenty twelve, two years later, the family traveled to DC
to meet with investigators who had barely opened a criminal investigation.
And then the family remained in the dark. Jean Iredale
took over the case for them, like she he was
the family's lawyer, but he found Border Patrol was not
cooperating with anything. Pori Patrol refused to turn over any evidence,
any evidence that remained because they destroyed a lot of
the evidence. They claim to not understand what I cannot
breathe means in Spanish, so they didn't know he couldn't breathe.
They also stuck to their story of being concerned that
Anastasio was hurting himself and that's why he was being handcuffed.
And the documentary shows the depositions that Jean conducted with
the Border Patrol agents and he asks one of them
about the you know, the I cannot breathe statements, and
one of the agents respond saying, if you're talking, you
can breathe them, he can breathe, And I was like,
shut the fuck up, dude. They honestly, they pissed me
the fuck off, obviously, Like this is so infuriating, but
their carelessness, they don't give they don't care who they
hurt or who they kill. Yeah, they really don't. And yeah,
the only reason that this was even opened as a
case was because of the protests in both the US
and Mexico after PBS released the video, and so you know,
they did these depositions and then just like nothing happened
for a while. After five years since the day that
Anastasio died, the DOJ announced that the investigation was being closed,
and in their press releases they stated, so this is
twenty fifteen now. They stated that they had reviewed hundreds
of pages of evidence generated by SDPD investigators, and they
initiated an independent federal investigation into the incident, which included
federal law enforcement witness accounts, Mexican law enforcement winness accounts,
civil witness accounts, medical personnel accounts, medical records, autopsy reports,
official use of force training materials, and forensic evidence. But
it's like, okay, do not see the video then, like,
because that's very clearly it's very it's a video, like please,
But the press release described the incident as Anastasio having
been resisting and needing to be restrained, and that he
had continued to struggle and kick agents, which again the
video shows that he wasn't doing any of this, But
that's what the press release from the DOJ investigation that's
what they were releasing. The press release also stated that
the medical examiner said that Anastasio would not have died
if there had not been methamphetamine intoxication in like so
methavetomine in his system. But that's they said this in
their press release. But there was no It was a lie.
He was not intoxicated with methamphetamine. No so like. This
was not just an error, it was a strain up lie.
Two separate autopsies were done and both essentially said the
exact same thing. This was a homicide brought on by
the variety of restraints, the number of persons who beat him,
the fact he was prone and tasered, and if it
were not for the repeated blows and tasers, Anastasio would
still be alive. That was the conclusion of two separate autopsies.
And yet in their press release they said, oh, he
would have been alive if he didn't have methanist system,
which again he didn't. On top of the DOJ closing
the investigation, they also did not inform the family that
the statue of limitations for assault was five years and
they took so long with the investigation that the statute
of limitations was up anyway, so they didn't even have
They didn't wow, and that's because they took so long.
They also in their press release stated that Border Patrol
they couldn't legally prove Border Patrol acted with force or
with malice, Like, oh, you're telling me, it's not force
or malice for twenty five agents to gang up on
one man who cannot physically fight back, and even if
we could, it would be no match for twenty five
people against one And it's not with force or malice.
They tasered him numerous times, that they kicked him in
the head, Like this is ridiculous. Yeah, and again, so
they said that there's no like, there was no evidence
to support that there was an abuse of force. But
the reason there was no evidence is because Border Patrol
themselves make sure there was no evidence in investigating Anastasio's death.
Reporter john Frey Carlos is connected to Gen Budd, a
former Bord Patrol officer turned whistleblower who we actually mentioned
a little bit in our last episode with Lonnie Schwartz
having fired into Mexico. That was episode two fifteen, and
so we did talk about her a little bit. She
has a book about this whistle blowing and border patrol
and stuff. She encouraged john Frey Carlos to find other
officers willing to talk, but he found that as soon
as he mentioned he was a reporter, every officer just
ended the call. Okay. So then during the course of
investigating and being connected with Jen Bud, Jen called john
Frey Carlos, so he was connected with her, and then
he was like, help me look into this. She suggested.
You know, he reached out to agents who all hung
up on him. I don't think I wrote it down,
But during the course of being connected together meeting investigating,
she looked into the Border Patrols handbooks on violence and whatnot,
or just her general handbook, and she saw one mention
of something called critical Incident Teams, and it talked about
how they work, how they investigate border patrol incidents of
violence to mitigate civiliability, meaning their own fault, their own
doing wrongdoing. So then she says that she saw a
tweet on Twitter from a Border Patrol chief in Tucson
alluding to critical incident teams, and then so they're like talking.
He's like, but do you know, She's like, no, I'm
just suspecting because it sounds similar to this blah blah blah.
So like whatever case this persident was talking about sounder
similar to Anastasio's case. To her, yes, okay, So then
she assumed cis involved the Critical Incident teams. So then
this happened in Tucson, right, so then near Nogdalist whatever
it was. So then John Frey goes out to Nogalist,
talked to the police there and he found that the
police department was not allowed to investigate the case that
was similar to an Assatu's case. So then he and
I can't remember if this is the same incident, but
there was a woman who was shot in the head
by Border patrol and I believe it's the same, insist okay,
so they've done this shit before. Yeah, and she survived
and she's like, yes, Border patrol shot me, she told
John Fray. And so then John Fray Carlos goes to
speak to Sergeant Angulu from the Nogalist police department and
they told they can't talk about it. So then he
leaves and he runs into a chief of the police
chief be Movedness, and he's like, hey, I don't want
to talk about any specific incident because I know you
guys can't comment on it, but what is the general
protocol involving Border patrol shootings? And so then the Chief
Bermudas tells John Frank Carlos that as far as he knows,
and he's been with them for a long time, he's
the chief with the police, right as far as he knows,
the police has never investigated any Border Patrol shooting incidents,
and that he knew he knew of the existence of
the critical Incident teams because this is a hush hush thing. Yes,
Like when I mentioned Jen had looked up there are
policy handbooks, she had meant she had found one mention
of critical incident teams in an older version of the
policy and not and knew as in this timeframe, and yeah,
so one mention of them and then nothing else. So
if it was very hush hush, and they're like they
just knew that they had something to do with un sol,
they kept looking into it. So then they chief police
chief and is confirmed critical incident teams does exist, but
he couldn't comment on the role. So then John Fray
called the Border Patrol media person to ask about the
existence of critical incident teams and the person's like, oh,
I don't know. I don't know anything about that, but
send me an email and I'll look into it. So
this person literally didn't know this Border Patrol media person
and leads on, I guess you could say imediately. He's on,
they didn't know about the existence of critical incident teams.
So they're like, well, send me an email and I'll
look into it. And someone sends John Fray in an
anonymous text and they're like, Hey, I heard you were
asking about critical incident teams. Here's a PowerPoint and it's
a presentation about the critical incident teams. So the Critical
Incident Teams were established in September nineteen eighty seven, and
their goal, as it's said in the PowerPoint, is to
do concurrent investigations with local agencies. But it seems like
they don't partner concurrently to investigate. They investigate themselves and
they don't allow local agencies to investigate for mitigation for civiliability,
prepare administrative report that preserves and protects the integrity of
the Border Patrol, and then they investigate and prepare criminal
cases against suspects for assault on bord Patrol agents. Which
is why they referred to Anastasio as a suspect of
assault on border patrol agents. So an anonymous former CIT
agent actually came forward and he speaks synonymously on the documentary,
but he came forward to john Frey Carlos, and he
admits that it was a program created to investigate high
profile critical incidents, and these incidents are deemed the critical
by the chief patrol agent of the district. I guess
you could say where the incident happens, but there are
also times where the agents themselves could call for CIT
basically and they would contaminate evidence even before CC showed
up to cover up. And so the purpose is to
protect against civiliability. And there's been way more cases where
they are similar to an Assisio's case, and yeah, who survived.
But Jen Budd looked into this. She looked up federal
lawsuits in the PACER system to kind of look into
cases that seem similar to Anastasios to then see if
try to find out if CIT was involved in those cases.
And it was the same story over and over again
that the agents acted in self defense. And so looking
into it, this led Jen to believe that anytime there's
been an incident like a shooting or a death at
the border, CAT has been involved. Interesting And so then
in twenty twenty one, John Frey along with the john
Frey Carlos I keep saying to this John Fray, but
john Frey Carlos and Jenbud along with the Southern Well
she was working with them and in conduction with the
Southern Border Communities Coalition, and this is a group organization
that was helping Maria and the family. They released the
information they found on CAT to the media and so
they found that CAT was interfering in fatal incidents, and
they described the CIT as off the books investigative units
or quote, shadow police units. And they found that the
CAT would go to a scene, collect evidence that supports
the Border Patrol, leave the evidence, but then destroy any
other evidence to alleviate responsibility and liability for Border Patrol.
And they have no authority to exist, mind you, right,
So then john Frey Carlos also met with Senator Alex
Padilla to share this CIIT and information and he's like, yeah,
they have no approval or funding from Congress, like this
is a shadow organization within the Border Patrol. And on
November sixteenth, twenty twenty one, there was a congressional oversight
to question the depriving of Homeland Security to question them
about the existence of CIIT, and so they questioned the
head at the time was something I don't know, it's
first thing, but majorcas and two former senior Border Patrol
officials agreed to be in viewed about I guess maybe
their contact with THET and internal affairs. No, sorry, they
were with internal affairs. Oh okay, but yeah, after the
congressional oversight hearings, the Biden administration did eventually officially on
paper at least terminate CIT. Is there a possibility they
exist because they existed before in the shadows? Yeah? Yeah.
So in the documentary, two former senior Border Patrol officials
that were internal affairs agents were interviewed and they mentioned
I believe it's I'm not sure, but there was not
always an internal affairs in bar Patrol. And so one
of them, they're both named James, but one of them
is basically like he saying he was taken aback to
learn that there was no internal affairs before and he
was taken it back to the agent's response to internal affairs,
and one of them talks about how Border Patrol consider
themselves more like military and paramilitary than law enforcement. And
so then he would tell them, hey, law enforcement has
to abide blah blah blah blah blah whatever, like reason
with them, like, hey, cooperate with me, you know, and
they would be like, you don't understand. You've never worked green.
And this is the thing. It's a in group, it's
a they made this their whole identity. And it's something
we talked about in the Border Patrol series that we
did over at Estorias Unown as well. Honestly, like, if
you're just now questioning if this organization should even exist,
we highly suggest you check out those episodes on our
history podcast Estorias Are Known. It goes to the beginning
of Border Patrol and it's like five episodes deep diving
into them. But this mentality, one, this brainwashing is so dangerous.
People are talking about right now talking about how thuggish
the Sly are, but it's like it's not. It's always
been like this, This this mentality mentality has been ongoing.
I mean like literally in that series that most of
the research came from doctor Kelly Litel and none. This
book Migra, a US History on a history and US
Border Patrol, But even before a decade of their existence,
there was a call for a reform because of the
extreme violence that Border Patrol agency perpetrated mm hmm. And
that was within the first ten years of the Border Patrol, yep.
And there was a reform where supposedly they got rid
of all the old timers that had this you know,
violent mindset, but in reality, they kept a lot of
them on as trainers, and this violent mindset never went away.
It's embedded in the legacy of Border Patrol and now ICE,
because ICE is a division of that you know yep.
So one of the internal affairs agents said that they
were briefed on Anascio's case and that agent confirmed that
anasthetia was on his back when he was tasered, and
he confirmed that the critical incident team was reporting directly
to the porpitual chief in San Diego, and one of
the internal affairs agents was directed to submit a false
report on the incident. And they also said that the
CIIT illegally obtained the autopsy report before anyone else had
access to it, and then they used that autopsy to
construct their own story. So they read about the math
and they said, Okay, he was on meth but in reality,
but they're so stupid and they didn't recognize that that
was a medication he was given at the hospital, right.
It was the medication peneleprine. Yeah, and this often causes
a false positive for a meth and so they just
took that and around with it to construct their story
because they had to make something up right to not
seem culpable. And so I thought this was important for
them to come out and say the truth because every
other agent that was interviewed about this in the documentary,
including the current chief, they're like, oh, well he was
excuses right, Oh he was resisting. Oh I don't know
too much about it, but I just know he was
resisting like things like that. And then there are like, no,
I was brief on this and he was on his
back when he was taard and c AT directed me
to submit a Polish reports. So yeah, yes, thank you
for that rundown. And you know, even after all this,
like not being told what was going on after the
case was closed by DOJ and Assasi's family did not
give up. When the criminal investigation went nowhere, they pursued
a civil lawsuit, which they won February twenty seventeen. And
this does not at all mean that justice was served.
It was pursued because the criminal case was closed, and
it was in the civil lawsuit that the family finally
learned some of the names of some of the officers involved,
not even not all of them at all. There had
been a protective order in place to withhold their names
because they're like they're always protected. Hence why they're walking
around in masks right now. In between the criminal investigation
and the civil lawsuit taking place, the family also filed
a petition with the Inter American Commission on Human Rights,
or the IACCHR, and they had the help of Alliance
San Diego and international law experts from UC Berkeley like
Roxanna Alfhalls. And the IACCHR is the only court currently
in which you can sue the United States for human
rights abuses. They do not have the authority to put
anyone in prison, but they do hold moral and political
sway and can encourage the creation of hard law protections.
The IACCHR is what is considered a soft law and
change in policies and stuff like that. Yeah, and so on.
May tenth, twenty seventeen, the IACHR announced that it would
be moving forward with the case, and it gave the
US government a chance to respond to the allegations of
extra judicial killing, torture, and obstruction of justice. And the
Trump administration did respond, arguing that the IACHR did not
have jurisdiction to hear the case. But they did, and
they did. They did take the case, and they had
jurisdician to do so, and so in twenty nineteen August
twenty nineteen, they spoke with Maria Burga and others and
this was the trial. During this she testified, quote, I
still hear the cries of my husband calling for help.
The border agents who killed him must have thought he
didn't have a family or a community. They were wrong.
Here we are and we will fight for justice for
Anastasio and all other victims of border agents until the
system changes end quote. And in a landmark ruling on
April twenty eighth, twenty twenty, almost a decade after his killing. Yeah,
almost a decade, yes, sorry, I can't do math. Almost
a decade after his killing, the IACHR ruled in favor
of Anastasio's family. They ruled that the US had violated
the rights to life, health, justice, personal integrity, and humane
treatment during deprivation of freedom. They also stated that Anastasio
was subjected to torture, which he was The commission recommended
that the US reopen the DOJ investigation, and this has
yet to happen. But this was a meaningful not only
for Anastasio's family, but also for the many who have
been abused and killed at the hands of both Border
Patrol and ICE, hundreds hundreds of people. In documentary they
mentioned that after Anastasio's and I don't know how how
far how recent they counted, but after Anthatia's death, at
least two hundred people have died at the hands of
Board Patrol. Oh yeah, we've shared similar statistics in our
episode two fifteen, and like one is one too many,
but here we are at two hundred plus. The current
Commissioner of the US Customs and Border Patrol is implicated
in the killing of Anastasio. He was the chief, He
was the one in charge of the critical incident. He was,
say theory, the critical Incident team that interfered with the investigation.
Under his direction, they did the following, some of which
we have already mentioned, but they took control of the
incident scene and collected evidence now SDPD. They erased witness
cell phone video and dispersed witnesses. They requested that a
hospital doctor tests an Assassia for drugs. They unlawfully used
in the administrative subpoena to acquire those medical records. They
provided police investigators the wrong video footage from surveillance cameras.
They allowed surveillance footage of the incidents to be taped over.
They participated in all of the witness interviews conducted by police.
They intervened in the autopsy and took their own photos.
They altered the Border Patrol arrests record before giving it
to the police. They wrote their own investigative report used
to mitigate the liability of agents. And that is the
person currently in charge of patrol, the person who was
in charge of that investigation by C. T. Scott something.
You wrote his name down, Rodney Scott. Rodney Scott. This
is the person currently in charge of Border Patrol. He
is the commision of the Customs and customs and border whatever.
He's the commissioner. Yeah. And when he was questioned about Anastasio,
was it for the documentary, how arrogant that he still
appeared in the documentary instead of just not commenting or
denying to appear. Anyway, He was questioned about Anastasio's case
for the HBO documentary and he said the following about
Anastasio quote, it was an illegal alien. He right, he
didn't say it, did he? However, it's typed up, is
how he said. That's insane. Quote. I did they ask
him about the incident, like, have you heard of the
case case? Okay, yeah, that would make more sense. Okay,
it was an illegal alien that Border Patrol agents arrested.
They were sending him back south. He kind of flipped out,
multiple agents responded, and ultimately he ended up he ended
up passing away, just like that of his own volition. Yeah,
he passed away. It was his fault he passed away. Actually,
he ended up passing away, you know, just like anviently. Yeah.
Plunos and Rodney Scott denied ci T was on the
scene and denied there was a cover up at all.
And like we said earlier, Congress did announce a formal
investigation into CIT in twenty twenty two, but in May
of that year. But in May of that year, by
the announce that they would eliminate cit And like we
said earlier, who knows if this actually happened like it
made have happened on paper, But they could very well
still be existing in the shadows, just like they had
been four years before all of this came to light.
And that wouldn't be the most surprising thing, just thinking about,
like say, the School of Americas which was quote unquote
officially closed but then reopened under a different name Windzek,
So yeah, that wouldn't be that shocking. And this is
the exact type of investigative unit that would have responded
to what happened today. Yeah, m hm. And part of
me also wonders like if di Biden administration chose to
eliminate it so that there would be no vestigation. No, really,
and investigation is warranted. Yes, how many deaths have they
covered up? Yeah, we don't know because there's no investigation. Yeah,
and that was the case of Anastasio Ernandez Drojas, one
that we should all be familiar with, especially right now. Yeah, Yeah,
that was heavy for sure. It was it was go
get some ice cream or something or I don't know,
sign petitions and protests and then go get ice cream
something yeah, but yeah, we first we are sorry for
or how whatever this brought up for you, it brought
up the same for us. But again, it's a very
important case and it's hard to talk about, it's hard
to read about, it's hard to learn about, but it
deserves to be told. And even the family themselves are like,
the settlement was not justice. Justice will be first of all,
this should never happen, right, But justice to the family,
as they have said, would be for this to never
happen again, and for things like this to never happen again.
We have to talk about the injustice and the atrocities
that have already been committed by bor patrol and ice
because people don't know that they have always been like this, right,
Today's murder by ice agents is nothing new, right, And
if people aren't surprised, then they should look into the
history of borbae Ie because they have always acted as
menaces to society. They have murder and raped women and
children and men, and yeah, they have acted with impetuity.
They have never been convicted of a murder despite killing
hundreds of people. Yep. And so this is just a call, right,
like these type of murderers organizations shouldn't exist exactly. And
that is where we will leave you with those words,
and we'll be back next week with a different topic.
As always, Goodbye as Book tells Us. Hosted by Christina
and Carmen, Produced and edited by Christina, researched by Christina
Carmen and with the help of Don Shout out with Don.
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