{"id":8708,"date":"2017-07-29T17:09:46","date_gmt":"2017-07-29T21:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=8708"},"modified":"2017-07-29T17:29:42","modified_gmt":"2017-07-29T21:29:42","slug":"video-u-s-border-officers-tell-mexican-teen-drink-liquid-meth-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2017\/07\/29\/video-u-s-border-officers-tell-mexican-teen-drink-liquid-meth-killed\/","title":{"rendered":"Video: U.S. border officers tell Mexican teen to drink the liquid meth that killed him"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Video shows border officers&#039; actions and inactions resulted in tragic 2013 incident\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DkVm76c880U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Cruz Velazquez Acevedo began convulsing shortly after he drank the liquid methamphetamine he\u2019d brought with him from Tijuana, Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>The 16-year-old had just crossed the U.S.-Mexico border to San Diego\u00a0and was going through the San Ysidro Port of Entry. He was carrying two bottles of liquid that he claimed was apple juice. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers\u00a0told him to drink it to prove he wasn\u2019t lying, court records say.<\/p>\n<p>A surveillance\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/2020\/deepdive\/video-border-officers-actions-lead-tragedy-48912222\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">video published by ABC\u00a0<\/a>Friday, about 3 1\/2 years after Acevedo\u2019s death, shows the teen taking a sip\u00a0of the liquid after one of the two officers, Valerie Baird, motioned for him to drink. He took another sip after the other officer, Adrian Perallon, made a gesture with his hand, appearing to tell him to drink\u00a0more.<\/p>\n<p>The teen took four sips.<\/p>\n<p>Then, he began sweating profusely. He screamed and clenched his fists.<\/p>\n<p>In a matter of minutes, his temperature soared to 105 degrees, his family\u2019s attorney said.\u00a0His pulse\u00a0reached an alarming rate of 220 beats per minute \u2014 more than twice the normal rate for adults.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMi coraz\u00f3n! Mi coraz\u00f3n!\u201d Acevedo screamed, according to court records \u2014 \u201cMy heart! My heart!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was dead about\u00a0two hours later.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0United States has since agreed to pay Acevedo\u2019s family $1 million in a wrongful-death lawsuit\u00a0brought against two border officers\u00a0and the U.S. government.<\/p>\n<p>The family\u2019s attorney, Eugene Iredale, acknowledged that the teen did something wrong\u00a0when he tried to\u00a0bring drugs into the United States on Nov. 18, 2013.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut he\u2019s a 16-year-old boy with all the immaturity and bad judgment that might be characteristic of any 16-year-old kid,\u201d Iredale told The Washington Post. \u201cHe was basically a good boy, he had no record, but he did something stupid. In any event, the worst that would\u2019ve happened to him is that he would\u2019ve been arrested and put in a juvenile facility for some period of time. \u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a death penalty case. To cause him to die in a horrible way that he did is something that is\u00a0execrable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Customs and Border Protection spokesman said in a statement that\u00a0the agency\u2019s Office of Professional Responsibility investigated the incident and \u201cdetermined that no further action was warranted and the officers involved were not disciplined.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Iredale said he does not know where or how Acevedo got the drugs, or why he brought them into the United States.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s typical for people who are drug smugglers to approach kids and offer them $150 to smuggle drugs across the border,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re never going to know in this case because Cruz died. He knows it\u2019s something he shouldn\u2019t be bringing.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8710\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8710\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Cruz-Velazquez-Acevedo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8710 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Cruz-Velazquez-Acevedo.png\" alt=\"Cruz Velazquez Acevedo\" width=\"500\" height=\"357\" srcset=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Cruz-Velazquez-Acevedo.png 500w, https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Cruz-Velazquez-Acevedo-300x214.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8710\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Acevedo crossed the border through the pedestrian entrance at the San Ysidro Port of Entry at about 6:40 p.m. on that November night. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Iredale said the teen was carrying his passport and his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/help.cbp.gov\/app\/answers\/detail\/a_id\/1635\/~\/border-crossing-card---who-can-use-it%3F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">border crossing card<\/a>, which allows Mexican citizens to enter the United States and travel within a certain distance for tourism purposes. In California and Texas, the distance is up to 25 miles from the border; New Mexico and Arizona allow noncitizens to travel for up to 55 miles and 75 miles, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0two Border Protection officers believed the teen was carrying a deadly controlled substance, but\u00a0they\u00a0\u201ccoerced and intimidated\u201d him\u00a0into drinking the liquid, according to a complaint. The boy was taken to a hospital almost an hour after he had sipped the methamphetamine.<\/p>\n<p>He was pronounced dead just before 9 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Iredale called the\u00a0officers\u2019 treatment of\u00a0Acevedo \u201cthe most inhuman kind of cruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not prepared to say they knew for certain that it was going to kill him. \u2026 It\u2019s obvious that they suspected from the beginning that it\u2019s meth,\u201d Iredale said. \u201cPlaying a cruel joke on a child is not something that\u2019s justifiable in any way. They have test kits available that would\u2019ve given results in two to three minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Iredale said the officers did test the liquid for drugs, but only after the teen started overdosing.<\/p>\n<p>He also\u00a0cited testimony by another border officer\u00a0who said Baird confessed minutes after the incident.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI asked him what it was, he said it was juice,\u201d Baird told the other border\u00a0officer, according to Iredale. \u201cI said to him then, \u2018prove it.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>Richard Tolles, an attorney for Baird, said his client and Perallon had sought a summary judgment on the case and were waiting for a hearing on their requests when the government decided to settle.<\/p>\n<p>Perallon\u2019s attorney did not return a call from The Washington Post.<\/p>\n<p>Perallon and Baird are still employed by the Customs and Border Protection in San Diego,\u00a0the agency said in an earlier statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlthough we are not able to speak about this specific case, training and the evaluation of CBP policies and procedures are consistently reviewed as needed,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. attorney\u2019s office for the Southern District of California declined to comment, but the Customs and Border Protection spokesman said federal prosecutors have declined to file charges.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint alleged violations of constitutional rights, including the right to not be subjected to punishment without due process. It also accused government officials of\u00a0not adequately training border\u00a0officers. Tolles said there was no misconduct on his client\u2019s part \u201cthat would\u2019ve risen to the level of denial of due process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no violation of any clearly established constitutional right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In a motion to dismiss filed on behalf of Baird in 2015, her attorneys said Acevedo wasn\u2019t a U.S. citizen and had no connections with the United States that entitled him to any constitutional rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNonresident aliens are entitled to constitutional protections only if they have substantial voluntary connections with the United States,\u201d the attorneys argued.<\/p>\n<p>Iredale said the settlement\u00a0was the result of several conversations between the parties. The money has been paid to Acevedo\u2019s parents, Iredale said.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/post-nation\/wp\/2017\/07\/29\/video-shows-u-s-border-officers-telling-mexican-teen-to-drink-the-liquid-meth-that-killed-him\/?utm_term=.441982ee239a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">Cruz Velazquez Acevedo began convulsing shortly after he drank the liquid methamphetamine he\u2019d brought with him from Tijuana, Mexico. The 16-year-old had just crossed the U.S.-Mexico border to San Diego\u00a0and was going through the San <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2017\/07\/29\/video-u-s-border-officers-tell-mexican-teen-drink-liquid-meth-killed\/\" title=\"Video: U.S. border officers tell Mexican teen to drink the liquid meth that killed him\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,3],"tags":[3925,3926,3927,1445],"class_list":{"0":"post-8708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-usa","10":"tag-cruz-velazquez-acevedo","11":"tag-methamphetamine","12":"tag-mexico-border","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8708"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8713,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8708\/revisions\/8713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}