Posted on 06/10/2005 10:23:23 PM PDT by TheOtherOne
U.S. Customs Officials Knew Man Had Court Date the Day He Crossed the Border
Published: Jun 11, 2005 TORONTO (AP) - A Canadian senator said Friday U.S. customs should have done a better job after they let a man carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood into the United States.
Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, on April 25, saying he was an assassin, the same day he was to be sentenced in Canada on charges he assaulted and threatened to kill his neighbor's son-in-law.
The following day, a gruesome scene was discovered at the neighbors: The decapitated body of a 74-year-old country musician named Frederick Fulton was found on Fulton's kitchen floor. His head was in a pillowcase under a kitchen table. His common-law wife was discovered stabbed to death in a bedroom.
Canadian police and U.S. customs officials did not know about the slayings when customs officials let Despres into the U.S., but they knew he was due in court that morning for sentencing on the assault case.
They let him enter the U.S. anyway.
Colin Kenny, chairman of Canada's Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defense, said U.S. customs should have at least alerted local police in Maine to keep an eye on him.
"I think I would have wanted to keep a close eye on that fellow for awhile," Kenny said. "The whole thing gives me a queasy feeling."
Bill Anthony, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Friday the Canada-born Despres could not be detained because he is a naturalized U.S. citizen and there was no warrant out for his arrest.
William Heffelfinger, deputy assistant commissioner for field operations for U.S. customs, acknowledged though that they knew he was probably going to skip his court appearance.
"We knew he was supposed to be at court," Heffelfinger said. "There was an RCMP officer at the port at that very time and he would not go back to court."
Heffelfinger said Despres told custom officials that he was with the Marine Corps and "a trained sniper with over 700 kills."
Police did not track Despres after he left customs.
Anthony said they fingerprinted Despres because "obviously you don't want somebody like that walking out of the port into your community where your officers live and your children play."
Joseph Gutheinz, a University of Phoenix criminal justice professor, said they could have arrested Despres for lying to a customs officer. The comment about "700 kills should have tipped" them that he was not telling the truth, he said.
Eddie Young sat next to Despres at the customs office when the agents processed them. Young told the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal that he heard Despres tell custom officers he was an assassin.
"That's the reason I remember him. He said he was an assassin," Young said. "When he come in they opened his bag up and they took out, it looked like large bayonets to me but they could have been a little bit longer for swords, and then two pairs of brass knuckles fastened on to his bag, a chainsaw and what looked like a flak jacket, a bullet-proof vest."
Young said the customs officers appeared to be joking around with the swords.
"I watched the Customs guys fling the swords around in the back room," Young said. "I mean, wouldn't the evidence be ruined with their fingerprints?"
Young said Despres was treated better than he was.
"When I came back in they were giving him a coffee," Young told the newspaper. "He got processed faster than I did."
Young said he was detained at the border because he was arrested in Ottawa almost 20 years ago for drug possession.
Despres, 22, became a suspect for the murders because of a history of violence between him and his neighbors, and he was arrested April 27 after police in Massachusetts saw him wandering down a highway in a sweat shirt with red and brown stains. He is now in jail in Massachusetts on murder charges, awaiting an extradition hearing next month.
AP-ES-06-11-05 0022EDT
His hair is evil brown,
his ears sick surprise
his hands are oddly cold,
He's got Scott Perterson eyes
He'll turn the music on you,
You won't have to think twice
He's pure as Canada snow,
He got Scott Peterson eyes
Not good enough. I've been in line at the DMV longer than that!
I will make this comment. Had he been stopped in Alabama...simply pulled over for speeding, and all of these bits of evidence were seen by a state trooper there...the guy would have spent 24 hours in jail while phone calls were made. And I think Texas Rangers would have done the same thing. I think Customs needs to load up on common sense and honest facts...if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...it can't be nothing else but a duck.
"William Heffelfinger, deputy assistant commissioner for field operations for U.S. customs, acknowledged though that they knew he was probably going to skip his court appearance.
"We knew he was supposed to be at court," Heffelfinger said. "There was an RCMP officer at the port at that very time and he would not go back to court." "
Please explain what the above means. Did the RCMP officer know the guy needed to be in court and ignored him? Are the Canadians exporting their bad apples?
We don't exactly hire the best and the brightest.
This is sick.
Can't see why he would raise any eyebrows.
Oh, good. It's the psycho Canuck version of Frodo.
ping
"It is a thin line they walk every day over admissions."
Oh please, it may be thin, but they were pretty thick. If this is border security it's a bigger joke than we all realize. They are just lucky this creep didn't go on and kill several people in America. No thanks to them that he didn't. If they don't have the power to detain chainsaw, etc. bearing maniacs, who are boasting of their "700 kills" then what's the point of having customs on the northern border? To stop cigarette smuggling? Suppose he was a Muslim American and appeared in such fashion, spouting such tripe? Would they still let him in?
Ridiculous, people need to be fired over this.
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