A federal appeals court Friday ordered district judges in Arizona to stop shackling defendants unless they first determine that restraints are needed for “maintaining security and order” in the court. Read more»

The case against Border Patrol Agent Lonnie Swartz, accused of unlawfully killing a Mexican teenager during a 2012 cross-border shooting, will move forward after a federal judge rejected a motion from the defense arguing that the case should be dismissed. Read more»

On Monday, the Supreme Court may decide the fate of Hernández v. Mesa, a lawsuit launched by the parents of a 15-year-old boy who was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent in El Paso in 2010. The ruling will have a bearing on the fate of a civil suit filed against a different BP agent in the 2012 cross-border shooting death of a Mexican teenager in Nogales. Read more»

Prosecutors and defense lawyers wrangled over videos recorded by two Border Patrol cameras that show the 2012 shooting of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, as well as an expert's video reconstruction that shows BP Agent Lonnie Swartz fire bullets into the boy's prone body. Read more»

The lawyer for a Border Patrol agent facing a murder trial in the 2012 cross-border shooting death of a Mexican teen has asked a judge to dismiss the charges because the grand jury issued the indictment after hearing testimony from a supervisory agent, who repeated statements made by Agent Lonnie Swartz just minutes after the shooting. Read more»

The lawyer for the Border Patrol agent accused of unlawfully shooting and killing 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez in October 2012 has moved to block a government expert from telling jurors that Lonnie Swartz's use of force was "neither reasonable nor necessary." Read more»

A federal prosecutor said the testimony of a witness, who said that a 16-year-old Mexican boy was involved in drug smuggling just before he was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol agent, is "irrelevant" to determining if Lonnie Swartz is guilty of murder in the cross-border shooting. Read more»

In a legal filing this week, the lawyer for a BP agent accused of murder wrote that the 16-year-old boy killed in 2012 was "clearly involved" in an attempt to smuggle drugs, and that he was part of a group that threw rocks at Swartz and other agents to stop them from apprehending two other men. Read more»

A federal judge dismissed a claim that the federal government cannot pursue charges against the Border Patrol agent accused of murdering a Mexican teenager during a 2012 shooting in Nogales, but he accepted the argument that statements the agent made following the incident should not be used in court. Read more»

A former Border Patrol agent will serve 160 months in prison for attempting to smuggle 110 pounds of cocaine in a rental car headed for Chicago, and for accepting bribes as a public official. Read more»

A lawyer representing Lonnie Swartz, the Border Patrol agent charged with second-degree murder for shooting and killing a Mexican teenager at the border in Nogales, said that the agency has "lost or destroyed" the original video recordings of the incident. Read more» 1

The trial of Lonnie Ray Swartz, the Nogales-area Border Patrol agent accused of second degree murder for the 2012 cross-border shooting of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, has been delayed for the fifth time. Originally set to begin at the end of February, the trial will be now be delayed until June. Read more»

The civil rights lawsuit by the family of a Mexican teenager killed in a 2012 cross-border shooting in Nogales remains in limbo after the 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco decided to wait for a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on a similar case from Texas. Read more»

The case against Border Patrol agent indicted for murder in a 2012 cross-border shooting could be dismissed based on a judge's determination of the jurisdiction over a narrow strip of land along the U.S.-Mexico border. Read more»

The trial of Lonnie Ray Swartz, a Border Patrol agent accused of second-degree murder for the 2012 cross-border shooting of 16-year old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, has been pushed back until November. It had been scheduled to begin later this month. Read more»