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Judge rules on US Border agent who shot mexican teen

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Lithium381

Lithium381

Lifer
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/18/te...paign=Feed:+rss/cnn_latest+(RSS:+Most+Recent)

(CNN) -- A lawsuit against the United States brought by the parents of a 15-year-old boy who was fatally shot by a border patrol agent has been dismissed by a U.S. district judge.

Under the ruling, the family's claims against the agent himself can proceed separately. The ruling, which came down August 11, was first reported by the El Paso Times on Thursday.

Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, was fatally shot June 7, 2010.

Authorities said at the time that Hernandez was throwing rocks at the agent from the Mexican side of the border before the agent opened fire.

Hernandez had a history of involvement with human smuggling and was on a list of repeat juvenile offenders, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said at the time of the shooting.

The officer, identified in court documents as Jesus Mesa Jr., received widespread condemnation from those who questioned his use of deadly force against the teen.

In January, Hernandez's parents, Jesus Hernandez and Maria Guadalupe Guereca, filed a lawsuit against Mesa, the United States and every office involved with border protection.

The suit alleged that the government was liable for the teen's death under the Federal Tort Claim Act, the Alien Tort Statute and the U.S. Constitution.

The parents alleged that Mesa "maliciously, wrongfully, or otherwise tortuously shot" Hernandez and claimed negligence on part of the government.

Judge David Briones ruled, in short, that precedent prohibits the family from suing the United States because the injury happened on the Mexican side of the border, even though the action originated on the U.S. side.

But the judgment also did something else that was welcomed by the family's lawyer, Bob Hilliard.

In his order, the judge separated the claims against the United States from the claims against Mesa. Under normal circumstances, Hilliard said, the defense in such a case would have to wait for the entire lawsuit to be resolved before the ruling could be appealed.

By severing the claims against the United States and then closing that case by dismissing the charges, the judge allowed Hernandez's family to appeal last week's ruling immediately.

Separately, the claims against Mesa continue.

Hilliard said the defense is arguing that the facts in the Hernandez case differ from the ones in the precedent-setting case that the judge based his ruling on, and thinks that an appeals court is the appropriate place to address that question.
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Lithium381 said:
That's a nice post, but did you have a point?


This is P&N..... I am posting an update to an earlier thread about when this originally happened.....
Click to expand...

In P&N, you have to add commentary to your OP or it will be locked. If you're just updating an earlier thread then maybe you should just...update that other thread.
 
Had the rock hit and hurt the BP agent would he be able to sue the family and Mexican government in a Mexican court?
 
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