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Ex-Border Agent Says Sex With Migrant Not Forced

By Susan Carroll, Citizen Staff Writer
Originally published in the Tuscon Citizen, February 16, 2002

A former U.S. Border Patrol agent testified in court yesterday that having an undocumented immigrant in his custody perform oral sex on him was a mistake.

But Dennis M. Johnson said he did not force the woman into the act.

“I am responsible for what I did,” Johnson, 35, said in U.S. District Court in Tucson. “She didn’t twist my arm or force me to do anything. But I didn’t twist her arm and force her to do anything, either.”

The woman testified Tuesday that she did not trade sexual favors for freedom.

Johnson admitted that he drove the Salvadoran woman, then 21, into the desert Sept. 28, 2000 and handcuffed her before she performed sex on him.

Johnson, who faces kidnapping and sexual assault charges, said she made a deal to trade oral sex in order to avoid deportation to El Salvador.

He told the jury she said, “Can I do something for you?” while she was in the back of his patrol car.

Prosecutors asked Johnson, acting supervisor the night of the alleged assault, why he would handcuff someone who allegedly consented to a sexual act.

The 6’1″ former sailor testified that he felt threatened by the woman, who is 8 inches shorter than he is and weighs about 100 pounds less.

“I handcuffed her because I didn’t know what her intentions were,” he said. “I didn’t trust her.”

With his wife and mother in the courtroom, the father of six cried as he talked about detectives serving a search warrant on home. He resigned from the Border Patrol in April 2001.

“I feel terrible,” he told the jury of nine men and two women. “I have embarrassed my family, most importantly my wife. I have embarrassed my children.”

The trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday morning.