This is a partial transcript from “Hannity & Colmes,” February 6, 2007, that has been edited for clarity.
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Well, the family members of the jailed former Border Patrol agent, Ignacio Ramos, say he was beaten by five fellow inmates in a Mississippi prison. Prison officials would not confirm the attack, but according to Ramos’ family, the attackers waited until he slept to beat him. The agent says the attackers yelled, “Kill the Border Patrol agent” in Spanish, as they beat him.
Ramos was sentenced to more than a decade behind bars for his involvement in the shooting of a suspected drug dealer near El Paso, Texas, in 2005. And joining us now is Ramos’ father-in-law, Joe Loya.
Mr. Loya, thank you for being with us. What can you tell us about what you know about what happened?
JOE LOYA, FATHER-IN-LAW OF BORDER PATROL AGENT: Agent Ramos’ birthday was yesterday. And Congressman Dana Rohrbacher’s office in Huntington, California, was trying to make arrangements for Agent Ramos to call his children yesterday so they could wish him a happy birthday. They put in a call to the warden at the prison in Mississippi. And they were told that the warden would get back to Rohrabacher’s staff.
She never called. This was about 10:00 in the morning. At 2:00 in the afternoon, Ignacio Ramos called my daughter. And she was surprised, because she was not expecting a call until this weekend. He had said he couldn’t call back for 10 days. But, anyway, when he called, he told my daughter, he said, “I’ve been assaulted. I’ve been attacked here in the prison. I’m in isolation. I’m in segregation.”
And then he told her that he was attacked Saturday night after the “America’s Most Wanted” show, which showed a video and showed him on TV. And the attackers were able to identify him. So when he went to sleep, about 10:00 at night, they went into his cubicle. And he said it was probably five or six. He could only identify one of them. And they attacked him, and they beat him, and they kicked him all over, including the face, his teeth…
COLMES: If this happened, it’s horrible. What is the prison doing about it? And what are you asking them to do?
LOYA: OK, when the attackers left the cubicle, another inmate took him to security. Security took him and locked him up in isolation. He spent two days there in isolation, until last night, when they finally offered him medical treatment. They had him in isolation for two whole days without giving him any kind of medical treatment.
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: I’d like to understand why there wasn’t more protection offered to him, you know, knowing whenever you put a police officer or law enforcement official in a jail situation, that they’re often a target? Why was there not more security provided?
LOYA: Agent Ramos had agreed with the prosecutors Johnny Sutton, Debra Kanof, that he would go into general population, if they were to put him in a white-collar facility, minimum-security prison.
What they did Monday, a week ago, they took him out of that prison in New Mexico and took him to Mississippi in a chartered plane and took him to a medium-security prison that is full of illegals, drug dealers and drug smugglers.
And they put him there where he probably has a lot of enemies, because as a border patrolman, he was involved in over 100 drug busts.
HANNITY: Do you think that they’re negligent on their part? And are you planning any legal action, sir?
LOYA: You know, right now, our attorneys are working on that. We just want him to be safe. That’s our main concern right now, that hopefully they will move him out of there and put him in minimum security somewhere, because he was supposed to go to minimum security facility in Phoenix, Arizona, or somewhere around Phoenix, Arizona.
This was what he had agreed to. However, they pulled him out in the middle of the night and took him to medium security, where there was really some bad people.
HANNITY: You know, I keep hearing from the government their side, and it still — it doesn’t cut it with me, because the person that they brought in to testify, the guy that was shot — and he was not shot fatally — was a drug dealer, 800 pounds of marijuana, I believe, is what he had at the time. He was entering this country illegally, and then he was flown in to testify against the two agents. And it seems like his word was taken over the agents’. How did that happen?
LOYA: Well, to begin with, he was given immunity before they even brought him into the United States. Of course, Johnny Sutton has told so many lies. And now that the government, Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General and Homeland Security are releasing the documents, and the statements, and memorandums, we’re proving all of the lies of Johnny Sutton. And these guys were offered plea bargains five times. The last one…
COLMES: Mr. Loya, I’m sorry. We’re unfortunately out of time. We’ve debated this case. We hope to have you back on again and follow up on this, though, and I hope at least he finds safety in prison. I thank you very much for being with us tonight, Mr. Loya.
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