8 MARINES ARE REPORTEDLY CLEARED IN SHOOTING DEATH

A Texas congressman has said the Justice Department will not file criminal
civil rights charges against four Camp Pendleton Marines involved in the
slaying of a young goatherd nine months ago.

The shooting took place the evening of May 20 near Redford, Texas, the home
of the 18-year-old victim, Esequiel Hernandez Jr.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee,
issued a press release yesterday saying he learned just a few days ago that
a grand jury inquiry into a possible civil rights case concluded Jan. 8,
apparently with a recommendation not to prosecute.

Jerald Crow, an attorney for one of the Marines involved, said yesterday
that he had heard that Attorney General Janet Reno is to announce that
decision today.

Press officers at the Justice Department said yesterday that they could not
discuss Reno's intentions.

Smith said he has initiated his own inquiry but he gave no details.

"The shooting death of Esequiel Hernandez remains troubling," he said in
his news release. "The public has a right to know who is responsible for
this death. But no one is being held accountable."

"This is a death that did not have to happen," Smith said, "and raises
serious questions about training and supervision by the Border Patrol,"
which was directing the Marines.

In Texas, members of the Redford Citizens' Committee for Justice weren't
satisfied, either.

The Rev. Melvin La Follette, a retired Episcopal priest who heads the
organization, said the group is just waiting to see what the federal
government will do about the allegation of a civil rights violation before
filing a civil suit on behalf of the entire community of 100 residents.

La Follette faulted a state grand jury, comprised of several government
employees or spouses, that exonerated the Marines last summer.

"When the fox investigates the chicken coop, he's not going to find any
hens missing," La Follette said. "At least there are civil recourses and
whatever kind of political process."

La Follette said the townspeople blame the Border Patrol agents who gave
the command to fire on Hernandez more than the young Marines who, he said,
are trained to obey orders.

The Marines were helping with a Border Patrol campaign aimed at identifying
illegal immigrants and drugs crossing into Texas from Mexico.

Simon Garza, the Border Patrol's new chief patrol agent for the area that
includes Redford, said he has offered his condolences to the Hernandez
family and added, "My agenda is to assure that it does not happen again."

Garza, who was not in charge at the time of the shooting, said joint
operations involving the Marines and his agency are in abeyance but could
be reactivated.

"We do have a mission to accomplish, a dangerous mission," he said, noting
that in the past fiscal year 20 tons of marijuana and 10,000 pounds of
cocaine were intercepted in the area.

Bill Weinacht, attorney for the Hernandez family, said, "We have a claim
pending with the Justice Department that has not been denied at this time."

A Camp Pendleton spokesman, Lt. Philip Schrode, said base officials are
referring all calls about the case to Jack Zimmermann, the attorney for
Cpl. Clemente Banuelos, who fired the fatal shot.

Schrode would not say whether the four Marines are still at Camp Pendleton.

Zimmermann was not in his Houston office yesterday and could not be
contacted for comment, but attorneys for the other Marines said three of
them remain in the service.

Crow said his client, Lance Cpl. James Blood, has mustered out and now
lives in the Pacific Northwest. Blood said publicly during the state grand
jury hearings that Hernandez had fired twice at the Marines, camouflaged to
blend in with the local terrain, and was pointing the gun a third time,
right at him, when Banuelos shot the youth and saved Blood's life.

Hernandez, a third-generation resident of Redford, was tending to the
family's goats at the time. The family said the teen-ager always carried
his World War I-era .22-caliber rifle to protect the herd.

Both Crow and Michael Gross, attorney for one of the other Marines in the
contingent involved in the shooting, Cpl. Roy Torrez, said they had
received no official notice of any decision by the Justice Department, but
would welcome news that the Marines would not be prosecuted on civil rights
charges.

"Yes, I believe it's a second vindication," Crow said. "I personally would
consider it a great victory."

Gross agreed.

"The Marines were just doing what they had been told to do," he said.

The four private attorneys, all former Marines now living in Texas, were
hired by the government to represent the Marines.

Dan Hagood, who represented the fourth Marine, Lance Cpl. Robert Weiler
Jr., said he would not comment until he receives official notification of
the Justice Department ruling.