Doctor, U.S. Government Settle Over Border Beating

A Calexico doctor who was beaten by U. S. Border Patrol agents nearly five years ago has agreed to an out-of-court settlement in a lawsuit against the federal government.

Terms of the agreement were sealed, but court records show that Jose A. Cisneros, 38, agreed to the settlement Feb. 22, one month before the case was scheduled to go to trial. Cisneros, a U. S. citizen, had sued for $350,000 in damages, plus compensation for medical costs, attorney fees and loss of earnings.

A final handwritten entry in the court file indicated there was a stipulated agreement by both sides, but offered no details. A computer search of the case, done in the court clerk’s office, shows the settlement was reached last month.

On Wednesday, Cisneros’ attorney, Raymond Buendia, refused to discuss the settlement or confirm that one had been reached. He referred questions to Assistant U. S. Atty. Robert H. Plaxico, who represented the government in the case. Plaxico did not return phone calls to his office.

Robert Wilkins, clerk for U. S. District Judge Earl B. Gilliam, said an agreement had been reached in the case, but he offered no details.

“I may have told you too much already. The fact that an agreement had been reached is supposed to be secret, too,” Wilkins said.

Cisneros, who could not be reached for comment, was arrested May 5, 1985, and charged with assaulting Border Patrol Agent Kevin Jarvis. However, Jarvis, who allegedly administered the beating, later called the incident a “misunderstanding” and the charge was dropped.

Initially, Border Patrol officials told The Times that Cisneros, who walks with a limp because of childhood polio, had resisted arrest and attempted to run from Jarvis and Agent William Bowen, who responded to Jarvis’ call for assistance.

According to the lawsuit, Jarvis punched, cursed and kicked Cisneros while Bowen watched. The two agents and George F. Bonsall, an El Centro polygraph operator, were later indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with the beating. However, the charges were dismissed when federal prosecutors delayed in taking the case to trial.

Jarvis, who reportedly transferred to Boston, and Bowen, who left the Border Patrol and is selling real estate in Studio City, are defendants in a separate civil suit filed by Cisneros. Bonsall, who was hired by federal authorities to administer lie detector tests to the two agents, was charged with lying to investigators and failure to provide the polygraph charts. He is not named in the second complaint.

The incident began when Cisneros was target shooting with a newly purchased handgun in a desert gully, 10 miles east of Calexico. Cisneros had fired four shots at a bottle when Jarvis yelled at him from behind the gully to stop shooting.

In an earlier interview with The Times, Cisneros, who graduated from a medical school in Guadalajara, Mexico, said he was not aware that Jarvis was on the other side of the gully and yelled an apology to the agent before driving away. As he approached the highway, Cisneros said, his path was blocked by a Border Patrol vehicle. He was ordered out of his car, handcuffed, thrown to the ground and beaten, he said.

Eventually, he was picked up by two Imperial County sheriff’s deputies who arrived at the scene and took him to jail. He was released the following day, when FBI Agent David Gomez signed for his release after FBI officials refused to file charges against Cisneros, saying there was no evidence he had deliberately fired at Jarvis.

Jarvis and Bowen could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Cisneros, who has a practice in Mexicali, across the border from Calexico, was the second Border Patrol beating victim to be awarded damages by a San Diego federal court this year.

In January, Arturo Halog Huerte, a convicted alien smuggler, was awarded $65,000 for injuries suffered in a 1986 beating by Border Patrol agents at the San Onofre immigration checkpoint. Halog was also represented by Buendia.