Prisoners’ case will be heard in Mexico

Published 11:42 pm Saturday, February 7, 2009

ARLINGTON — A Mexican federal judge is scheduled Monday to review whether an 88-year-old Arlington man has been jailed for a month in violation of his civil rights.

Edward Chrisman’s family hopes this means he could be released as soon as Monday evening.

Chrisman’s attorney filed the emergency hearing request because of the World War II veteran’s health and age. Chrisman apparently has contracted pneumonia at the prison, and his family fears he won’t live through the ordeal.

Chrisman’s plight has attracted international attention and resulted in protests near the border town of Algodones where he was arrested.

“I’m really, really anxious for Monday to come. Hopefully, justice will be served,” said Gary Chrisman Sr., the man’s son. “We’ve had so many ups and downs I’m afraid to get my hopes up too much.”

Edward Chrisman, a longtime resident of Arlington, was wintering in Yuma, Ariz., when he decided Jan. 8 to take a quick trip across the border with his grandson, Gary Chrisman Jr. Mexican police arrested both men the same day, alleging the pair tried to pay young girls to pose nude for photos.

The Chrisman family maintains the men are innocent. They have been held in a crowded Mexicali prison. Their family has traveled across the border daily trying to get them released.

The Chrismans’ lawyer filed for an amparo proceeding, a special Mexican federal hearing to examine whether their constitutional rights have been violated.

The amparo procedure is something very important in Mexico, said Jorge Vargas, a professor of law at the University of San Diego School of Law, whose specialties include Mexican law.

“This clearly suggests the Mexican attorney is doing his or her job defending the interests of this citizen,” Vargas said.

The federal judge will consider the men’s case together. The judge also will consider Edward Chrisman’s situation on its own as part of a separate emergency amparo proceeding. Mexican lawyers told the family that if the judge rules in Edward Chrisman’s favor, he could be released immediately.

“Amparo” means to shelter or to protect. Anyone who feels human rights protected by the Mexican constitution have been breached can bring such an action, Vargas said. The hearing is akin to habeas corpus in the U.S. judicial system, which attempts to alert the court to alleged violation of the defendant’s rights and can result in freedom for the accused.

An amparo can be filed at any point during the Mexican legal process, and this type of proceeding often is concluded quickly, Vargas said. Although the decision can be appealed, the federal judge’s ruling often carries “tremendous weight and respect,” he said.

Under an amparo, all other judicial charges are suspended while the case is being resolved, said Juan Galvan, a police reporter for La Voz de la Frontera, a newspaper in Mexicali.

“This case is not different from any other,” Galvan said in Spanish. “The thing is that there is also a lot of sexual tourism in the area, but many times it’s also the public opinion that matters. Many just want to see Americans in jail.”

The family said Gary Chrisman Jr. stopped at a convenience store for a soda and, while there, asked a mother if he could take photos of her daughters. He’d been taking photos of Mexican culture all day with a new camera.

The mother granted permission and he gave her $25. He snapped head shots of the two fully-clothed girls and left the store. Edward Chrisman never even went into the store, the family said.

Family members were asked by an intermediary to pay $2,000 to the prosecuting attorney “to make the situation disappear,” Shannon Perkins, Edward Chrisman’s granddaughter, said. The payment was not made.

According to a prosecutor’s document, written in Spanish, the Chrismans are accused of approaching a 13-year-old girl in her mother’s business on Jan. 8 and asking to take pictures of her naked. The girl’s mother reported the incident to police. Both men reportedly were in the store at the time.

Another employee of the store told police the same men offered her money to take photographs of her fully clothed three days earlier and she accepted, according to the document.

The woman said the younger Chrisman took the photographs and also gave her money. She also said he offered her money if she would pose nude but she declined, and he left a phone number, the document said.

This week, a 13-year-old and an 18-year-old woman told KSWT-13 News in Yuma that Gary Chrisman Jr. asked the girl to sit on a sofa and open her legs. The 18-year-old said the younger Chrisman threatened her with a knife and then a left a phone number to contact him.

In the television interview, the girl and her mother both said Edward Chrisman was sitting in the car.

The Chrismans’ family said these new allegations are bogus and don’t match with what’s in the police file. Police arrested the pair shortly after Gary Chrisman Jr. left the store and no knife was ever found, Perkins said.

“None of it makes any sense,” she said.

La Raza del Noroeste reporter Aileen Charleston contributed to this story.

Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.