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Wednesday, September 24, 1997

Lawyer says federal authorities aren't serious about investigating shooting

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- An attorney is questioning the federal government's commitment to a civil rights investigation into the shooting of a teen-ager by a Marine patrolling the Texas-Mexico border.

Bill Weinacht, who represents the teen's family, said he doubts the U.S. Justice Department ever considered going after the Marines involved in the incident because the government is both investigating the crime and paying for private defense lawyers for each member of the four-man patrol.

"That leads me to believe no charges will be brought against them," he told the San Antonio Express-News on Monday. "The federal government would be engaged in prosecution of itself."

A camouflaged Marine on an anti-drug patrol to support the U.S. Border Patrol fatally shot 18-year-old Esequiel Hernandez Jr. on May 20 in Redford, a farming community about 200 miles southeast of El Paso.

Team leader Cpl. Clemente Banuelos said he fired the fatal round because Hernandez had fired twice at the patrol and was raising his .22-caliber rifle to take a third shot.

The Hernandez family believes the youth had no idea the men were Marines and that he was hunted down and murdered in cold blood.

A grand jury last month declined to indict Banuelos or any of the other Marines. The Justice Department then stepped up its investigation.

Weinacht, who is pursuing a negligence claim against the federal government, said the civil rights investigation is keeping him from reviewing vital evidence.

He also questioned why U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, postponed a promised congressional hearing on the matter last week after meeting with U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.

A spokesman for the congressman says the hearing was delayed only until the civil rights investigation is completed and that the congressman remains "strongly committed to getting to the bottom of this."