We seem to have fairly determined that the Bushes and their loyalists habitually accuse others of things they've done or about to do. Which, of course, means that, regardless of how peculiar it might sound, we'd better pay close attention to what they say.
"Under the color of law" is a phrase I'd never heard of until a few weeks ago, perhaps because it falls within the purvue of United States Attorneys who, as a general rule, don't garner a whole lot of publicity. It's the Federal Bureau of Investigation that's in charge of gathering information after receiving a complaint and the Miami office his put out a nice summary of how the process is supposed to work.
How it works in reality seems to be another matter, at least in the West Texas district where United States Attorney and Chair of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee, Johnny Sutton rules.
At the behest of my sister-in-law in Houston, I wrote up a couple of diaries here and here about the conditions at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, 35 miles northeast of Austin, Texas.
And in the process I ran across an even more eggregious abuse of youth at a Texas Youth Facility, which had been receiving widespread coverage in the press, as well as action by the legislature and a grand jury, after languishing in the United States Attorney's shop for a year and a half and resulting in no action:
Youth Commission sex cases finally go to a grand jury
Federal inquiry highlights difficulty prosecuting such cases.
By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, March 22, 2007
As the Texas Youth Commission sex assault cases that sparked a statewide scandal went to a West Texas grand jury Wednesday, a fizzled federal inquiry offered evidence that prosecuting such cases is not as easy as it might seem.
Federal prosecutors cite a host of difficulties in pursuing charges, including insufficient evidence that two administrators at the West Texas State School in Pyote were acting in their official capacities when they were accused of having sex with youths at the school; difficulty in proving that any sexual relations were not consensual (including a lack of bodily injury to the victims); and a belief by supervisors that the cases would not result in felony charges.
Consequently, the U.S. Justice Department investigation resulted in no charges being filed. Assistant Superintendant Ray Brookins and Principal John Paul Hernandez resigned in 2005 from the West Texas lockup, which is southwest of Odessa. Neither has been charged or arrested.
[...]
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Baughman stated in a response letter that although charges of conspiracy to violate civil rights and deprivation of civil rights under the color of law were considered, only lesser charges were likely to stick.
"Although both men are technically employees of the state as administrators in a Texas Youth Commission facility, I believe that a jury would consider their assaults of these students to be the actions of individuals and not the actions of persons acting 'under color of law,' " Baughman responded in a July 28, 2005, letter obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
"I am very concerned that we would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the actions of Hernandez and Brookins were committed 'under color of law,' " the letter states.
Strange as it seems, the United States Attorney for West Texas was otherwise quite successful in prosecuting "color of law" cases, to the apparent distress of the Washington Times
Deputy in border shooting to be sentenced today
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 19, 2007
A deputy sheriff who fired shots at a sport utility vehicle after he said the driver tried to run him down faces up to 10 years in prison during sentencing today in a Texas federal court.
Edwards County Deputy Sheriff Guillermo F. Hernandez, 25, has been held without bond since his Dec. 1 conviction after a jury trial in U.S. District Court in Del Rio, Texas, on charges of violating "under the color of law" the civil rights of Maricela Rodriguez-Garcia.
The woman, a Mexican national, was being smuggled into the United States when she was struck in the lip by bullet or other metal fragments after an 11:50 p.m. traffic stop in Rocksprings, Texas, in April 2005. Hernandez said he fired shots at the vehicle's rear tires as it sped off after being stopped for running a red light.
[...]
The deputy was prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, who also won jury convictions last year against two U.S. Border Patrol agents who fired shots at a drug-smuggling suspect as he fled back into Mexico after abandoning a van containing 743 pounds of marijuana.
Agents Ignacio Ramos, 37, and Jose Alonso Compean, 28, were convicted of causing serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in a crime of violence and a civil rights violation, and sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison, respectively.
[...]
Considering that Johnny Sutton heads up the Attorney General's Advisory Committee and hasn't been fired, it seems fair to assume that he's one of the "loyal Bushies." Yet, his successful prosecution of border patrol agents hasn't just riled conservative sensibilities, but seems inconsistent with the announced Bush agenda on national security.
But what really grabbed my attention was a reference to 'color of law' in the Law Enforcement Information Sharing Policy Statement and Directives issued by Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty on December 21, 2006 in the third paragraph on page three:
In meeting our commitments under the LEISP strategy, the Department will not disclose information endangering our Nation's security or the life of any law enforcement or intelligence officer or member of the public, including witnesses and certain crime victims. Nor will the Department share information the dissemination of which is prohibited under international or inter-agency agreements. Furthermore, components are permitted to refrain from sharing information revealing or related to public corruption cases, sensitive sources and methods of intelligence collection, civil rights investigations involving color of law violations, internal investigations and administrative cases. No other category of information will be exempt from sharing unless approved by the LEISP Coordinating Committee.
Why would the participants in the law enforcement information sharing program want to keep "color of law violations" to themselves? For that matter, why shouldn't information about "public corruption cases" be shared? This member of the public would like to know how the public interest is served when malfeasance by public officials acting "under color of law" isn't fully disclosed. Never mind that sharing information with the public isn't even an issue here!
One thing seems obvious: as 2006 was drawing to a close, the Department of Justice was working overtime to tie off lose ends. People got fired; new people got hired; policy directives went out. The question is why?
And just for the record, McNulty's Law Enforcement Information Sharing Policy Statement and Directives seems to rely heavily on work done by the US Attorneys in San Diego and Washington state who'd just been fired. One wonders if Carol Lam and John McKay might charge that their work product was stolen "under color of law."