Will You Re-elect A Liar
2012-08-12 01:03:42 UTC
Eighteen months after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was
murdered in Arizona by Mexican bandits using guns purchased
through a U.S. government program called Fast and Furious, we
still dont know who within the Department of Justice knew about
the program, much less who authorized it.
Certainly there has been no serious talk about prosecuting any
of the people responsible for assisting in the illegal sales of
over 2,000 guns to Mexican arms traffickers guns that were
subsequently involved in the murders of BPA Terry and
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata, as well
as possibly hundreds of Mexican citizens.
But while that investigation has dragged on, with Attorney
General Eric Holder denying knowledge of the program, denying
knowledge of who was involved and denying congressional
investigators access to tens of thousands of documents that
might answer those questions, New Mexico gun dealer Rick Reese
and his two sons Ryin and Remington have sat rotting in separate
detention centers, jails and prisons around the state accused of
a similar crime involving some 30 guns.
The Reese family, including Ricks wife Terri, ran a gun shop in
Deming, N.M., and was arrested in late August of 2011 on charges
of knowingly selling guns to Mexican smugglers and various other
related charges.
After spending 6 months in jail, Terri Reese was finally granted
bail in March of this year, but Rick and the boys have been
repeatedly denied bail on the pretext that they are flight risks
or might try to engage in a Ruby Ridge-type standoff.
The rationale for denying the Reeses constitutional rights is
that Rick knows some people in Mexico, his home has a well and
solar power and there were guns and ammunition in their homes
and businesses when they were arrested. Thats right: Guns and
ammo in the home and business of a federally licensed firearms
dealer (all of which were seized a year ago and have never been
returned) is being offered as evidence that they cant be
trusted and a judge bought it.
Well, theres also the fact that Rick and Terri were involved
with a local tea-party group. Thats probably reason enough
right there.
The Reeses are scheduled to finally get their day in court in
late July, almost a full year after they were arrested and
incarcerated. The first of several pre-trial motion hearings was
held last week in which the judge heard arguments as to whether
the charge of criminal conspiracy should be dropped. The
prosecution contends that the Reese family members were all in
cahoots in a conspiracy to sell guns to illegal buyers, falsify
purchase paperwork, smuggle guns to Mexico and launder the
illegal proceeds. The defense contends that the family operated
a business buying and selling firearms, ammunition and
accessories, and that they made every effort to ensure that
every sale they made was legal and properly documented.
During this first hearing, we learned several things about the
prosecutions case. For instance, we learned that prosecutors
acknowledge that every gun the Reeses sold was properly logged
into and out of their store inventory, and that FBI background
checks were conducted, and approvals received, for each
purchaser. They also agree that all taxes were paid and no money
was exchanged under the table, nor did any of the family
members receive compensation above their normal company paycheck.
We learned that Rick Reese also employed retired and off-duty
law enforcement officers as part-time help in the shop, and that
a substantial portion of the companys business came from law
enforcement officers and agencies.
We learned that prosecutors consider three family members
standing close to each other and quietly talking to be evidence
of conspiracy and that the lead investigator in the case has a
very low opinion of fellow law enforcement officers. When asked
if he considered the fact that the Reeses employed LEOs in the
shop to be contraindicative of a criminal conspiracy, he replied
that he did not because a lot of them [cops and former cops]
are dirty.
Probably the most important fact we learned at this hearing was
that the entire investigation was instigated based on a tip that
a woman named Penny Torres was making suspicious purchases of
guns and ammunition, and might be illegally buying for someone
else. That tip led to Torres arrest and her subsequent grand
jury testimony against the Reese family and another gun shop
where she had made some purchases. The presumption is that her
cooperation garnered her leniency in the charges and sentence
she was facing for her criminal activity.
What is most significant about the arrest of Penny Torres is
that the original tip identifying her as a potential straw
buyer came from Terri Reese.
Torres had claimed that her purchases were in preparation for a
large family reunion at an area ranch where her relatives wanted
to do a lot of shooting. At some point after the sales, Terri
Reese became suspicious of Torres story and contacted a friend
in the Luna County Sheriffs office, who acted as the shops go-
to guy in law enforcement. He assured Terri that he would make a
report to ATF and get back to her.
Torres testimony against the Reese family led to a months-long
sting operation conducted against the Reeses by a federal agency
called Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI. That
investigation involved a confidential informant named Roman, who
was trying to earn a reduced sentence for drug and human
smuggling. His job was to make purchases of firearms and
ammunition from the Reeses while dropping hints that his intent
was to illegally take the guns to Mexico. The trick was to drop
those hints in such a way that they wouldnt alarm the Reeses,
but that someone listening to a recording of the tape and
reading a transcript would conclude that the Reeses knew, or
should have known, his intentions.
Roman, by the way, speaks only broken English, and his
conversations with the Reeses included a lot of Spanish, a
language that no one in the Reese family speaks, but which has
been transcribed for the court in English.
Who would believe that a gun dealers report of a suspicious
purchaser would lead to a federal investigation of the dealer
herself, culminating in a raid with armored vehicles,
helicopters and heavily armed officers and agents from multiple
jurisdictions?
Or that a few firearms and ammunition sales in a high-volume gun
store, including the sales that Terri Reese had reported as
suspicious, would result in confiscation of virtually everything
the family had accumulated over a 25-year marriage and 17 years
in business bank accounts, gun and coin collections, store
inventory, vehicles, real estate, just about everything the
family had?
Or that the same Justice Department that had instructed dealers
to sell over 2,000 guns to known straw buyers for Mexican drug
cartels while making no attempt to track or interdict them
with a few arrests and minor charges against the straw
purchasers, but no charges against the ATF and DOJ employees who
masterminded the criminal operation would effectively destroy
a family for not being quite diligent enough in their efforts to
screen their customers?
It is worth noting that as HSI progressed in their investigation
against the Reese family, they were briefing and receiving
guidance from Phoenix ATF Bureau Chief Bill Newell the man
responsible for directly overseeing Operation Fast and Furious.
For the Reese family, who have already served 10 months behind
bars and have had all of their worldly possessions taken from
them, the July trial is an opportunity to prove their innocence
and try to reassemble whats left of their lives.
For the prosecution, it is imperative that they prove that the
Reeses were intentionally engaging in the criminal activity they
have already been being punished for. Failure to get a
conviction would leave egg on the face of a relatively new
federal law enforcement agency trying to establish itself, and
would mean that the various agencies involved wouldnt get to
divvy up the spoils already pillaged.
Once again though, we see a case where those inside the
government and law enforcement are handled with kid gloves and
given the benefit of every doubt, while those outside of
government and law enforcement are presumed guilty until they
can prove their innocence even after the government has taken
away the resources they need to make their case.
If you would like to help the Reese family in their struggle, a
defense fund has been set up at:
REESE DEFENSE FUND
ATTENTION Patricia Arias
First Savings Bank
520 South Gold
Deming, NM 88030
)^()*&%
murdered in Arizona by Mexican bandits using guns purchased
through a U.S. government program called Fast and Furious, we
still dont know who within the Department of Justice knew about
the program, much less who authorized it.
Certainly there has been no serious talk about prosecuting any
of the people responsible for assisting in the illegal sales of
over 2,000 guns to Mexican arms traffickers guns that were
subsequently involved in the murders of BPA Terry and
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata, as well
as possibly hundreds of Mexican citizens.
But while that investigation has dragged on, with Attorney
General Eric Holder denying knowledge of the program, denying
knowledge of who was involved and denying congressional
investigators access to tens of thousands of documents that
might answer those questions, New Mexico gun dealer Rick Reese
and his two sons Ryin and Remington have sat rotting in separate
detention centers, jails and prisons around the state accused of
a similar crime involving some 30 guns.
The Reese family, including Ricks wife Terri, ran a gun shop in
Deming, N.M., and was arrested in late August of 2011 on charges
of knowingly selling guns to Mexican smugglers and various other
related charges.
After spending 6 months in jail, Terri Reese was finally granted
bail in March of this year, but Rick and the boys have been
repeatedly denied bail on the pretext that they are flight risks
or might try to engage in a Ruby Ridge-type standoff.
The rationale for denying the Reeses constitutional rights is
that Rick knows some people in Mexico, his home has a well and
solar power and there were guns and ammunition in their homes
and businesses when they were arrested. Thats right: Guns and
ammo in the home and business of a federally licensed firearms
dealer (all of which were seized a year ago and have never been
returned) is being offered as evidence that they cant be
trusted and a judge bought it.
Well, theres also the fact that Rick and Terri were involved
with a local tea-party group. Thats probably reason enough
right there.
The Reeses are scheduled to finally get their day in court in
late July, almost a full year after they were arrested and
incarcerated. The first of several pre-trial motion hearings was
held last week in which the judge heard arguments as to whether
the charge of criminal conspiracy should be dropped. The
prosecution contends that the Reese family members were all in
cahoots in a conspiracy to sell guns to illegal buyers, falsify
purchase paperwork, smuggle guns to Mexico and launder the
illegal proceeds. The defense contends that the family operated
a business buying and selling firearms, ammunition and
accessories, and that they made every effort to ensure that
every sale they made was legal and properly documented.
During this first hearing, we learned several things about the
prosecutions case. For instance, we learned that prosecutors
acknowledge that every gun the Reeses sold was properly logged
into and out of their store inventory, and that FBI background
checks were conducted, and approvals received, for each
purchaser. They also agree that all taxes were paid and no money
was exchanged under the table, nor did any of the family
members receive compensation above their normal company paycheck.
We learned that Rick Reese also employed retired and off-duty
law enforcement officers as part-time help in the shop, and that
a substantial portion of the companys business came from law
enforcement officers and agencies.
We learned that prosecutors consider three family members
standing close to each other and quietly talking to be evidence
of conspiracy and that the lead investigator in the case has a
very low opinion of fellow law enforcement officers. When asked
if he considered the fact that the Reeses employed LEOs in the
shop to be contraindicative of a criminal conspiracy, he replied
that he did not because a lot of them [cops and former cops]
are dirty.
Probably the most important fact we learned at this hearing was
that the entire investigation was instigated based on a tip that
a woman named Penny Torres was making suspicious purchases of
guns and ammunition, and might be illegally buying for someone
else. That tip led to Torres arrest and her subsequent grand
jury testimony against the Reese family and another gun shop
where she had made some purchases. The presumption is that her
cooperation garnered her leniency in the charges and sentence
she was facing for her criminal activity.
What is most significant about the arrest of Penny Torres is
that the original tip identifying her as a potential straw
buyer came from Terri Reese.
Torres had claimed that her purchases were in preparation for a
large family reunion at an area ranch where her relatives wanted
to do a lot of shooting. At some point after the sales, Terri
Reese became suspicious of Torres story and contacted a friend
in the Luna County Sheriffs office, who acted as the shops go-
to guy in law enforcement. He assured Terri that he would make a
report to ATF and get back to her.
Torres testimony against the Reese family led to a months-long
sting operation conducted against the Reeses by a federal agency
called Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI. That
investigation involved a confidential informant named Roman, who
was trying to earn a reduced sentence for drug and human
smuggling. His job was to make purchases of firearms and
ammunition from the Reeses while dropping hints that his intent
was to illegally take the guns to Mexico. The trick was to drop
those hints in such a way that they wouldnt alarm the Reeses,
but that someone listening to a recording of the tape and
reading a transcript would conclude that the Reeses knew, or
should have known, his intentions.
Roman, by the way, speaks only broken English, and his
conversations with the Reeses included a lot of Spanish, a
language that no one in the Reese family speaks, but which has
been transcribed for the court in English.
Who would believe that a gun dealers report of a suspicious
purchaser would lead to a federal investigation of the dealer
herself, culminating in a raid with armored vehicles,
helicopters and heavily armed officers and agents from multiple
jurisdictions?
Or that a few firearms and ammunition sales in a high-volume gun
store, including the sales that Terri Reese had reported as
suspicious, would result in confiscation of virtually everything
the family had accumulated over a 25-year marriage and 17 years
in business bank accounts, gun and coin collections, store
inventory, vehicles, real estate, just about everything the
family had?
Or that the same Justice Department that had instructed dealers
to sell over 2,000 guns to known straw buyers for Mexican drug
cartels while making no attempt to track or interdict them
with a few arrests and minor charges against the straw
purchasers, but no charges against the ATF and DOJ employees who
masterminded the criminal operation would effectively destroy
a family for not being quite diligent enough in their efforts to
screen their customers?
It is worth noting that as HSI progressed in their investigation
against the Reese family, they were briefing and receiving
guidance from Phoenix ATF Bureau Chief Bill Newell the man
responsible for directly overseeing Operation Fast and Furious.
For the Reese family, who have already served 10 months behind
bars and have had all of their worldly possessions taken from
them, the July trial is an opportunity to prove their innocence
and try to reassemble whats left of their lives.
For the prosecution, it is imperative that they prove that the
Reeses were intentionally engaging in the criminal activity they
have already been being punished for. Failure to get a
conviction would leave egg on the face of a relatively new
federal law enforcement agency trying to establish itself, and
would mean that the various agencies involved wouldnt get to
divvy up the spoils already pillaged.
Once again though, we see a case where those inside the
government and law enforcement are handled with kid gloves and
given the benefit of every doubt, while those outside of
government and law enforcement are presumed guilty until they
can prove their innocence even after the government has taken
away the resources they need to make their case.
If you would like to help the Reese family in their struggle, a
defense fund has been set up at:
REESE DEFENSE FUND
ATTENTION Patricia Arias
First Savings Bank
520 South Gold
Deming, NM 88030
)^()*&%