Latest Legal News from the Criminal Courts in Houston, Texas

April 16, 2007

BORDER PATROL AGENT CONVICTED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT

(McALLEN) A federal jury has convicted a Border Patrol Agent of violating the civil rights of a young female by sexually assaulting her, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today.

Today, at approximately 2:30 p.m. a federal jury returned its verdict finding Scott Anthony Sullivan, 42, last known to reside in Premont, TX, guilty of violating the civil rights of a 23 year old woman by sexually assaulting her. The jury began its deliberation on Thursday, April 12, 2007, and deliberated for approximately eight hours before returning their verdict.

In its verdict, the jury also made the following special findings which are considered at sentencing. The jury found that in sexually assaulting the young woman, Sullivan had caused bodily injury, and by forcibly assaulting the young woman Sullivan also committed aggravated sexual abuse of the victim. With these findings, Sullivan now faces a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. United States District Judge Ricardo H. Hinojosa has set sentencing for June 27, 2007. Immediately following the announcement of the jury’s verdict, the court granted the government’s motion to remand Sullivan into federal custody pending sentencing. Sullivan was lead from the courtroom by Deputy United States Marshals.

During the five day trial, the jury heard the testimony of agents, the victim’s mother, her aunt and the female victim which proved that on March 21, 2003, the then 23 year old woman had been detained at the Falfurrias Border Patrol Inspection Station by Sullivan, a Border Patrol Agent assigned to the station. Sullivan took the young woman aside for questioning and took possession of her United States birth certificate. The rest of her family was passed through the inspection station. After separating the young female from her family, Sullivan arranged for her to be transported to the bus station in Falfurrias and instructed her to wait for him there at which time he would return her birth certificate. After completing his shift, Sullivan drove to the station, but rather than return the documents as promised he drove her to a motel where he sexually assaulted her three times over the course of the evening through the early morning hours of March 22, 2003. In the morning, Sullivan transported the young traumatized woman to a store near the bus station. The young woman found her birth certificate, a bus ticket and $20 in her suitcase. The woman boarded a bus bound for Dallas.

The victim, who was born in Ft. Worth, Texas but was raised in Mexico from the age of four months, had returned to the Untied States to live with family members in Dallas to seek an education and a better life for herself. A few days later, the Mexican Consulate was notified of the traumatic events suffered by the victim in Falfurrias,Texas on March 21 and 22, 2003. The Mexican Consulate notified the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General ("DHS-OIG"), which has jurisdiction to investigate allegations of criminal conduct by federal employees of the Department of Homeland Security. An investigation was initiated and ultimately lead to the identification of Sullivan and the filing of federal civil rights charges against him.

Federal law prohibits a law enforcement officer, while acting under color of law, from willfully depriving a person of any right protected and secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States including the right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law, which includes the right to bodily integrity.

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