U.S. MAY 20, 2019 / 1:08 PM / UPDATED 4 HOURS AGO

U.S. Border agent accused of calling migrants 'savages' before knocking one over

Andrew Hay
3 MIN READ

(Reuters) - A U.S. Border Patrol agent had called migrants “subhuman” and “savages” in text messages weeks before he knocked over a migrant with a pickup truck, according to federal court documents.

Agent Matthew Bowen sent the messages in November 2017, two weeks before he is accused of deliberately knocking over a Guatemalan man with his Border Patrol vehicle in Nogales, Arizona, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson.

Prosecutors Monica Ryan and Lori Price filed the documents on April 30 with a request to use the messages in court to show Bowen’s “state of mind” prior to the incident and his “willful” intent to knock over the migrant on Dec. 3, 2017. They said the messages showed Bowen’s “great disdain for the aliens” and “dissatisfaction with restrictions Border Patrol placed on its agents in how they could apprehend aliens.”

Defense lawyer Sean Chapman, in a May 10 response to block release of the messages, said the case turned on whether Bowen, by using his truck to stop the fleeing individual, used excessive force.

“Text messages using such language is not admissible because Mr. Bowen’s alleged ‘disdain’ for aliens is not relevant to the issues before the jury,” Chapman wrote.

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