Slain girl's mom files $30M lawsuit against DEA

San Antonio Express News ^ | 3/13/2003 | maro. robbins

[wildbill]

Slain girl's mom files $30 million lawsuit

Claiming federal agents had no reason to use deadly force against her daughter, the mother of a slain 14-year-old girl filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the two agents who she claims fired at Ashley Villarreal. The complaint seeks $30 million and potentially offers the most public review of the Feb. 9 encounter between the teenager and agents who were waiting to arrest her father, cocaine-trafficking suspect Joey Villarreal.

The case was filed in federal court a day after authorities asserted that Joey Villarreal knew about the stakeout and that his daughter was acting as a decoy when she drove along the street with her headlights off.

When investigators tried to stop her sedan, officials said, she rammed their unmarked vehicles and accelerated toward agents, who opened fire without being able to see who was at the wheel.

A lawyer for the girl's mother, Deborah De Luna Villarreal, dismissed this account as "the government laying out an alternate reality."

"I think there is a grave danger that reality is going to be distorted dramatically," said the attorney, Marynell Maloney. "How is a 14-year-old girl responsible to such a degree that she should be killed?"

The lawsuit is directed at two agents who, it asserts, are believed to have fired at the car: Bill Swierc and Jeff Kinnaman. The agents could not be reached for comment.

Authorities have not said who fired the fatal shot.

Maloney said a similar complaint against the agents' employer, the Drug Enforcement Administration, is in the works. Lawyers for Joey Villarreal have indicated they are preparing their own civil suit.

Should the case go to trial, it would offer possibly the most public review of the shooting at the intersection of South San Joaquin and Motes streets.

While the DEA and the San Antonio Police Department are separately examining the incident, it is unclear whether their findings will be released in detail.

A DEA spokesman, noting that the reviews still are under way, said it would be inappropriate for the agency to comment on the lawsuit.

The narrative described in the lawsuit says Ashley believed the agents were gang members. It also faults investigators for not seeing the girl climb into the car, emphasizing that minutes earlier she and a friend had put garbage cans on the stoop.

"This is a girl who's carrying out the trash, standing out there in the streetlight, and they're shooting her dead moments later," Maloney said. "It doesn't add up."

Described by Maloney as traumatized and grieving, Ashley's mother wasn't at a news conference held at the lawyer's office Wednesday.

Maloney said that, while the lawsuit seeks $10 million in actual damages and $20 million in punitive damages, what Ashley's mom wants most is to prove that her daughter was a victim.

"The numbers are really difficult to determine. What is the worth of human life?" Maloney said. "The main point is this thing shouldn't have happened."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- mrobbins@express-news.net

03/13/2003

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[TLBSHOW]

THE O'REILLY FACTOR February 21, 2003 FACTOR Follow-Up

O'REILLY: Thanks for staying with us. I'm Bill O'Reilly.

And, in THE FACTOR "Follow-Up" Segment tonight, bad news in the drug war.

The U.S. inexplicably did not destroy the poppy fields in Afghanistan, and the Bush administration has not moved the military to the borders to back up the Border Patrol as the patrol has requested.

Result: It is business as usual for drug dealers around the country, and some believe America is waging a phony war on narcotics. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/857630/posts

[Oztrich Boy]

Side note: What exactly was she supposed to be a decoy for? How did her father even know undercover DEA agents were outside? Did he try to "flee" during the ordeal?

Actually from the story posted when this particular Drug War Engagement first hit the press, the father was nowhere near the house and knew nothing about it. The Drug warriors are just trying a cover story on.

The DEA need better lies.

Not really. The law & ORDER supporters will believe anything "Federal Officials say" no matter how pathetic.

[budwiesest]

and some believe America is waging a phony war on narcotics.

It long ago ceased being a war on drugs and became a full-employment act for the many who might otherwise have had to look elsewhere to apply their jackbooted tendancies.

Sadly, there has been no shortage of applicants willing to ply this anti-American trade amongst the various racial pimplitudes, which suggests that a career in law divorcement is dependent upon the perks that the state may make available, regardless the efficacy of the mission.

The "you win some-lose some", has been replaced with 'you lose all' and still get paid, not to mention the disability retirement coming your way should you qualify (which most will).

There has yet to be established a public function that receives so little support and yet such huge monetary(taxpayer) enrichment that can regularly fail in it's mission as the war on drugs and still be considered a legitmate appropriation of tax dollars.

[jmc813]

WOD Ping

[MrLeRoy]

If the goons had one ounce of manhood or honor they would write a letter of contrition and blow out their brains. If they could add some guts to that mix they would confess to the murder of that girl and take their medicine. But they have none of those virtues, not a particle, not an atom.

Bump.

[FreeLibertarian]

the DEA does it for reasons of principle

The DEA agents I have met are adrenaline junkies just like the pushers, they're in it for the rush not the principle.

[dcwusmc]

I am sure he is, as am I, anti-FEDGOV cops. Since there is ZERO authority for them in the Constitution. Take your copy (before you finish wiping with it) and look up all the crimes that fall under fedgov jurisdiction absent taking place on a military base or in the District of Criminals. You'll count THREE of them. Period. Dot. Finis. Piracy, treason and counterfeiting. Under WHICH of these three CONSTITUTIONALLY-authorized areas did this girl's "crimes" fall?

[dcwusmc]

Federal officials say the car pulled away from the house at high speed with the headlights off. When agents tried to box the car in, they say, the girl kept coming toward them and crashed into their vehicle, then threw the car into reverse and rammed the DEA vehicle behind her."

I have taken the liberty of highlighting the important words here. Needless to say, said Federal officials are not going to say or allow to be said ANYTHING else. It was all HER fault they murdered her.

[Roscoe]

Needless to say, said Federal officials are not going to say or allow to be said ANYTHING else.

Oh? You're speaking freely enough.

[dcwusmc]

Unlike (probably) you, I am NOT a fedgoon official. The FedGoons speak with one voice: She murdered herself.

[Roscoe]

I am NOT a fedgoon official.

Darn those civil service tests!

[dcwusmc]

Unlike you, I would rather make an HONEST living. Being a FedGoon would sap every bit of honor and pride and achievement and usefullness I ever EARNED...

[Roscoe]

I would rather make an HONEST living.

If wishes were horses...

[dcwusmc]

I DO make an honest living...and have the additional satisfaction of knowing that I have made and continue to make a REAL contribution to my country... which involves PROTECTING and DEFENDING the CONSTITUTION and not raping it in the name of some war on Americans or other... Don't you wish YOU could HONESTLY say the same? I know you mouth the words but the lies come as easily to you as to a politician or any other government employee... How can we tell if Roscoe's lying? His computer's on and his lips are moving.

[Roscoe]

So you say.

[dcwusmc]

Yes... and I can back up what I say, which is more than you're capable of doing!

[A Navy Vet]

"So you say."

I know for a fact who dcwusmc is and what he has accomplished.

[dcwusmc]

Thanks, old FRiend! Happy Saturday!

[Roscoe]

I can back up what I say

So why don't you?

[A Navy Vet]

There's some kind of substance falling from the sky here in Southern California. Civilization has come to a screeching halt. The sky is falling! The sky is falling!