EL PASO, Texas -- U.S. District Judge Lucius Bunton ordered the FBI Wednesday not to retaliate against Hispanic agents who are testifying in a class-action discrimination suit filed against the agency.
The order came after a complaint by the plaintiffs' lawyer, Antonio Silva, that Special Agent Felipe Frocht of San Jose, Calif., was told by FBI officials he was under investigation for alleged misconduct as the result of testifying in the class action discrimination suit by 311 of the nation's 404 Hispanic FBI agents.
Silva said he received a phone call Tuesday night informing him of the action against Frocht, who testified last week that he had been the victim of racial discrimination by several FBI officials who passed him over for promotions and transfers. Focht also said he feared retaliation for his testimony.
Silva said Frocht was advised of the investigation because of published reports in California of Frocht's testimony.
'The FBI should know that people have the right to testify in court,' Bunton told defense lawyers. 'You tell the FBI that administrative investigation is over. You take care of it or you can be certain that this court will take care of it.'
Silva said the FBI's retaliation against Frocht was a defiance of the judicial system and was an attempt to get the agent to recant his testimony.
'Frocht is being pressured into saying the officials he mentioned in testimony last week did not discriminate against him,' the attorney said.
Justice Department lawyer Felix Baxter said he concurred with the judge's verbal order and said he would so inform the FBI. He said the defense lawyers had no knowledge of the alleged retaliatory action.
'Tell them (FBI officials) to write a memorandum to the SAC's (special agents in charge) and ASAC's (assistant special agents in charge),' the judge ordered.
The FBI declined comment. FBI spokesman Gregory Jones in Washington, D.C., said the ongoing litigation 'very much precludes us from discussing any aspects of the trial or any actions arising from the trial itself.'
Oliver B. Ravel of Washington, D.C., another top FBI official, testified Wednesday the agency does not discriminate against Hispanics. He denied earlier testimony that he had called Special Agent Bernardo Matias 'Matt' Perez a 'no-good trouble maker' and said he is 'absolutely not' an anti-Hispanic bigot.
Perez, 48, initiated the suit in January 1987. He was demoted from special agent in charge of the San Juan, Puerto Rico, bureau and transferred to a lesser post in Los Angeles, where he testified he was discriminated against by his Mormon superior, Richard Bretzing.
