Driver in Chase Guilty of Smuggling

The driver in a freeway chase that ended with two Riverside County sheriff’s deputies being videotaped beating a pair of Mexican nationals was convicted Thursday of smuggling illegal immigrants into this country.

Rigoberto Sosa-Padilla, 37, faces up to 20 years in federal prison for his role in the incident, which captured international attention with its graphic, televised images of alleged police brutality.

During the two-day federal court trial, prosecutors depicted Sosa-Padilla, a Mexican national, as a menacing figure who cared little about the welfare of the undocumented immigrants he shuttled across the border for up to $400 each.

That disregard for human life, prosecutors said, was evident during the April 1 pursuit that started near the U.S. border checkpoint at Temecula and ended in South El Monte.

Throughout the chase, Sosa-Padilla swerved in and out of freeway traffic at speeds up to 75 mph, sideswiping at least one motorist. At the end of the pursuit, Sosa-Padilla pulled to the shoulder of the Pomona Freeway, jumped out of the truck and fled from authorities.

At least 19 illegal immigrants also tried to elude deputies, bailing out of the rusted blue truck and hiding in a nearby plant nursery as Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputies Tracy Watson and Kurt Franklin arrived.

As Sosa-Padilla made a successful escape, the deputies grabbed two other immigrants--Alicia Sotero Vasquez and Enrique Funes Flores--and clubbed them with batons while yelling at them in English to get down on the ground. The deputies’ conduct was televised live by a helicopter news crew that had been following the pursuit.

Sosa-Padilla was arrested more than a month later sneaking another load of illegal immigrants across the border, prosecutors said.

Sosa-Padilla denied that he was the smuggler--or coyote as they are known--in the April incident. However, he pleaded guilty to a smuggling charge in the May 3 incident in which he was arrested. Sosa-Padilla has three previous misdemeanor convictions related to smuggling, according to court documents.

“It’s a case of mistaken identity,” his attorney, Irene Ayala, said of the April incident. “He wasn’t there.”

A portion of the videotape was played before the jury in Sosa-Padilla’s trial, but the clubbing scenes had been edited out. Nowhere in the videotape were the features of the driver clearly visible.

The jury deliberated about seven hours before convicting Sosa-Padilla.

His conviction does not bring closure to an incident that stirred memories of the infamous Rodney King episode. Like the King case, the conduct of the two deputies has triggered public debate about excessive use of force and has sparked a flurry of civil lawsuits and criminal investigations.

The two illegal immigrants who were clubbed filed lawsuits against the deputies and the Sheriff’s Department, contending that their civil rights had been violated.

Meanwhile, the U.S. attorney’s office and the Los Angeles district attorney’s office have ongoing criminal investigations of the officers’ actions.

“It’s ironic that the government was able to move as quickly as it did against the smuggler, while the investigation of the two deputies is mired in some sort of black hole,” said Peter Schey, an attorney with the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, who is representing Funes. “The deputies’ conduct was clearly caught on videotape. . . . It should be easy to indict them.”

As a result of the incident, Riverside sheriff’s officials fired Watson and reportedly suspended Franklin for a month. Watson was seen on the videotape using his baton to club Funes a number of times. Then he hit Sotero with the baton and pulled her to the ground by her hair. Franklin struck Sotero at least once with his baton during the 15-second encounter.

Watson, a five-year veteran of the force, has sued the department, charging that his civil rights were violated when sheriff’s officials put him in a room and forced him to write a report immediately after the incident without talking to an attorney.

Franklin, a 20-year veteran of the department, has been taken off patrol duty and reassigned to the helicopter unit as a spotter.

Both deputies have appealed the disciplinary actions.

All of the illegal immigrants who were in the truck were captured and given grants of immunity and temporary work permits in exchange for their testimony. Three of them testified during Sosa-Padilla’s trial.

Sosa-Padilla is scheduled to be sentenced March 3.