LAWYER RIPS DECISION ON BORDER SHOOTING

Justice Dept. apparently won't probe teen death

EL PASO -- A lawyer representing the family of a West Texas youth shot to
death by Marines on an anti-drug patrol decried Thursday the Justice
Department's apparent decision not to pursue civil rights charges.

"If an ordinary citizen were to kill an endangered species, the government
would try to send him to prison," said Bill Weinacht, a Pecos lawyer
representing the family of Esequiel Hernandez.

"But when the government kills a good Mexican-American kid on the border,
they let everyone walk away scot-free."

Hernandez, 18, encountered a four-man Marine patrol in the border town of
Redford last May while herding his goats, inexplicably firing his vintage
.22-caliber rifle twice toward the soldiers.

His death sparked a debate over the role of the military on the border and
led to the Pentagon suspending foot patrols by armed soldiers.

Weinacht said the Justice Department has a conflict of interest in the case
because it oversees the Border Patrol, which supervised the Marines at the
time of the shooting. The lawyer said he believes the federal grand jury
looking into the matter was never asked to vote to indict, nor was the
Hernandez family called to testify, he said.

"How in America can a good boy be shot down a few hundred yards from his
house by Marines in full camouflage carrying M-16s?" Weinacht said.

The Justice Department decision is not yet official, though it has been
relayed through members of Congress. An announcement is expected any day.

A Presidio County grand jury in August decided not to bring charges against
Cpl. Clemente Banuelos, who fired the fatal shot, concluding that the
Marine was following orders.

Still pending are a civil claim brought by the Hernandez family and a
Marine investigation. In addition, U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio,
chairman of the House Immigration subcommittee, has suggested that his
panel look into the matter in greater detail.

Testimony in the federal grand jury probe ended last month in Pecos. While
critics were skeptical that the investigation would lead to an indictment,
they were heartened that the prosecutor in the case was Barry Kowalski, who
won convictions against the Los Angeles Police Department in the Rodney
King beating case.

But Weinacht said that while Kowalski agreed with him that Hernandez was a
good person, the prosecutor had presided over a farce.

"The Attorney General (Janet Reno) made the decision not to pursue charges
against anyone in this case," he said.

Copyright 1998 Houston Chronicle San Antonio Bureau