Gypsy Jan
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Registered: 1-27-2004
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Claim filed against Border Patrol in woman's death
From The Union Tribune
By Pauline Repard
CHULA VISTA - "A U.S. Border Patrol agent who fatally shot a woman in Chula Vista last month was suspended four times for misconduct during a nearly
four-year stint as an Imperial County sheriff's deputy and quit before being fired, court documents show.
The attorney for the woman's family filed a wrongful death claim Friday with the Border Patrol seeking damages and raised questions about agent Justin
Tackett's departure from his sheriff's job.
Chula Vista police are continuing to investigate the Sept. 28 shooting, but officials said last week that Valeria "Munique" Tachiquin Alvarado, 32, of
San Diego, was leaving an apartment known for drug activity when she struck an undercover agent with her car and carried him on the hood while he
yelled at her to stop. Out of fear for his life, police said, the agent shot Alvarado through the windshield, killing her.
Alvarado, a mother of five, was on probation for a 2011 drug-related conviction, police said. San Diego County court records show she also had
convictions for drunken driving in 2000 and methamphetamine possession in 2004.
Agents had gone to the Moss Street apartment to arrest a previously deported felon with a history of drug charges.
Border Patrol and Chula Vista police have declined to identify the agent or say how long he has served with the federal agency. Attorney Eugene
Iredale, however, names Tackett, 34, in the claim he filed.
Efforts to reach Tackett by phone and through his union were unsuccessful.
Alvarado's family has challenged the police account of the shooting, and some witnesses have said they saw the agent walk toward the woman's car while
firing at her. At least one other witness related seeing the agent on the car hood while he fired.
Iredale said the agent shot Alvarado nine times.
Shawn Moran, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, the agents' union, said he was "confident the agent did the right thing."
"No Border Patrol agent takes being involved in a fatal shooting lightly," Moran said. "If the agent says his life was threatened and he needed to use
deadly force, we're going to back him and accept his statement at face value. I'm sure Mr. Iredale will file suit, and our union will defend the agent
when the time comes."
Iredale said this week that the court records surrounding Tackett's departure from the Imperial County Sheriff's Department show that as a deputy he
was "reckless, with a temperament inappropriate for law enforcement work."
"He was involved in mistake after mistake, misconduct after misconduct. He should never had been hired by the Border Patrol," Iredale said.
Tackett was a Sheriff's Department court bailiff and patrol deputy from January 2000 through December 2003. The next year, he filed suit against the
county and the department, alleging wrongful termination, racial discrimination, retaliation for being a whistle-blower and intentional infliction of
emotional distress.
He alleged his supervisors retaliated when he tried to pursue crime cases against friends, relatives or campaign contributors of sheriff's officials
and the county Board of Supervisors.
He further alleged he was denied promotions and transfers because he is white. He also said other deputies were told to not back him up if he radioed
for help.
Tackett's suit said he was forced to resign "or else risk dying on the job" and because of the department's "relentless mission to silence his protest
of governmental misconduct."
The county countered that Tackett showed unprofessional conduct, dishonesty, insubordination and incompetence on the job.
Court records show the Sheriff's Department suspended Tackett two of the five times he crashed a patrol car on duty and once after an altercation with
a Brawley resident. In 2002, the department said he was suspended for 30 days for lying to supervisors over an incident involving a probation search.
In 2003, a county prosecutor rejected one of Tackett's drug arrests, saying the number of times the deputy violated the suspect's rights were "almost
too numerous to list." The deputy was issued a termination notice after that incident, but he quit before being fired.
Tackett lost his wrongful termination case two years later without going to trial. A federal judge in San Diego entered a judgment in favor of
Imperial County and the Sheriff's Department, saying the deputy's lawsuit had failed to provide evidence of his claims.
Between law enforcement jobs, from 2004 to 2006, Tackett worked as a staff assistant in the El Cajon office of then-Rep. Duncan Lee Hunter, R-Alpine.
His son, Duncan Duane Hunter, now holds the seat.
Joe Kasper, who worked for the elder Hunter and is deputy chief of staff to the current congressman, said office staff knew Tackett had a lawsuit
against Imperial County when he was hired.
"He was well-connected in the law enforcement community," Kasper said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C. "He did constituent services,
especially for law enforcement issues. He was a hard worker. He left the office and committed himself to go into the Border Patrol."
The office had no complaints with Tackett's work, Kasper said.
The wrongful death claim filed against Tackett and the Border Patrol was made on behalf of Alvarado's parents, husband and five children.
The claim states that the shooting was "the unjustified use of legal force in circumstances that did not justify its use." The filing for damages is
the first step before suing a government agency.
The Border Patrol has six months to respond to the claim, then the family can file suit, Iredale said.
Staff writer Greg Moran contributed to this report.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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MrBillM
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 21656
Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Out and About
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Mood: It's a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Day
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The American Way
Mom, Apple Pie, Chevrolet and ..............
Lawsuits.
In this case, to (hopefully) make a buck off the (apparently justified) extermination of a habitual Druggie menace to society.
IF the investigation backs up agent accounts, there is likely NO WAY that they could make a case in court, but there is
always the prospect of nuisance settlement money
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BajaBruno
Super Nomad
Posts: 1035
Registered: 9-6-2006
Location: Back in CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Happy
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"Apparently justified" seems to be in dispute, but the bigger problem for the Border Patrol is that an officer with an administrative determination of
lying and violating the Constitution doesn't make for a very credible witness. If the BP can't put him on the stand in a civil suit (and they can't
with that background) then how are they to defend the suit?
Credibility is everything in the law enforcement world, and once you have lost it, you are a liability to everyone.
Christopher Bruno, Elk Grove, CA.
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