CBP officer pleads guilty to rights violation

BORDER

SAN DIEGO

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in San Diego to using unreasonable force when he grabbed a non-resistant man by the neck and shook him at a Calexico border crossing in 2018.

Esaul Bello, a 53-year-old San Diego resident, agreed to voluntarily resign from Customs and Border Protection as part of his plea agreement, prosecutors said.

He also faces up to a year in prison and a fine up to $100,000 when he’s sentenced this summer.

According to prosecutors and court documents, Bello was working in a booth in a vehicle lane at the Calexico Port of Entry on Nov. 26, 2018, when he encountered a man identified in court records only as J.A.

Prosecutors did not disclose what led to the interaction becoming violent, but at some point Bello “placed two hands around the neck of J.A., who was not offering any physical resistance, and shook him,” according to court documents.

According to the charge, Bello’s actions “willfully (deprived) J.A. of the right secured and protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States to be free from unreasonable seizures, which includes the right to be free from the unreasonable use of force.”

Bello was placed on administrative duty while under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Tenorio said. It was unclear when that probe began.

“This is a rare and troubling situation,” Robert Brewer, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California, said in a news release. “We will always move swiftly to protect the public from officers who use their power to violate another person’s Constitutional rights.”

Tenorio said plea negotiations were ongoing with Bello and his attorney before any official charges were filed Wednesday, which is not uncommon in federal criminal cases. Bello pleaded guilty Wednesday to one misdemeanor count of deprivation of rights under color of law pursuant to those plea negotiations.

Bello’s attorney declined to comment on the case.