Plea Deal Filed For BP Agent Accused Of Purposely Hitting Migrant

Border Patrol agent Matthew Bowen struck a plea deal Thursday in response to charges relating to a 2017 incident where Bowen was accused of purposely running his Ford F-150 into 23-year-old Antolin Rolando Lopez-Aguilar, a Guatemalan, in Nogales. Bowen is also accused of falsifying a memo pertaining to the incident, which he gave to the Border Patrol Tucson Sector’s head.

The plea deal comes on the heels of U.S. District Judge Cindy K. Jorgenson’s 11-page ruling to allow the jury to see some of Bowen’s texts including those that had “racially offensive language.” It also comes soon after a government decision allowing the jury to watch the whole video rather than a frame-by-frame of the incident, tucsonsentinel.com reports.

The federal court plea agreement includes Bowen's confession that he “intentionally struck [the migrant] with an unreasonable amount of force.” Bowen’s statement also says, “My actions when I struck [the migrant] were not justified and violated his rights protected by the Constitution of the United States.” Bowen’s misdemeanor plea deal means he won’t face more than a $100,000 fine, five years’ probation or one year in prison. A date for sentencing is yet to be decided.

The texts that would have been shown the jury, if the trial had commenced Tuesday morning as scheduled, included those referring to migrants as “subhuman,” “savages” and “unworthy of being kindling for a fire,” according to federal court records. Read more at KGUN.