Smuggling case leaves Guardsman full of regret
June 16, 2008
Chris Vaughn - McClatchy NewspapersIssue date: 6/12/08 Section: Real News
FORT WORTH, Texas _ Twelve months and eight days ago, Sgt. Clarence Hodge thought he had all he wanted.
He had 19 years in the Army National Guard. He enjoyed his active-duty assignment on the Mexican border, intercepting drugs and illegal immigrants. He had a great job with Delta Air Lines, close friends, a wife, two daughters.
He was only weeks away from going to warrant officer school, a long-held ambition with more responsibility in the Guard.
Then he lost it all, the moment U.S. Border Patrol agents showed up at his Laredo checkpoint on June 7, 2007, put him in handcuffs, and read him his Miranda rights.
But Hodge, a Fort Worth native now serving time in a federal prison, knew that wasn't when he really lost his freedom. He took it away, all on his own, several weeks before he got arrested.
"I took a chance and got bit," he said. "I always wanted to do the right thing and get by the honest way. Until now. And I'm paying for it."
Hodge's final bill came due in February, when U.S. District Judge George P. Kazen sentenced him to 38 months in prison for his role in an illegal-immigrant smuggling ring operated by three National Guard buddies assigned to a high-profile effort to secure the border.
He pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in August 2007, and the government dropped the rest of the charges. Two other National Guard soldiers, Sgt. Julio Cesar Pacheco and Pfc. Jose Rodrigo Torres, both Laredo natives, also pleaded guilty but have not been sentenced. Pacheco's sister and brother-in-law were also indicted in the ring.
Ordered to South Texas for Operation Jumpstart, President Bush's military response to withering criticism of his border policies, the soldiers ended up in national news, seen as further evidence of the border and its unique ability to corrupt.
People who know Hodge can still hardly believe what he did. "He has always been so on the straight and narrow, no foolishness," said his mother, Marilyn Hodge. "I can't believe my son was involved in criminal activity."
He had 19 years in the Army National Guard. He enjoyed his active-duty assignment on the Mexican border, intercepting drugs and illegal immigrants. He had a great job with Delta Air Lines, close friends, a wife, two daughters.
He was only weeks away from going to warrant officer school, a long-held ambition with more responsibility in the Guard.
Then he lost it all, the moment U.S. Border Patrol agents showed up at his Laredo checkpoint on June 7, 2007, put him in handcuffs, and read him his Miranda rights.
But Hodge, a Fort Worth native now serving time in a federal prison, knew that wasn't when he really lost his freedom. He took it away, all on his own, several weeks before he got arrested.
"I took a chance and got bit," he said. "I always wanted to do the right thing and get by the honest way. Until now. And I'm paying for it."
Hodge's final bill came due in February, when U.S. District Judge George P. Kazen sentenced him to 38 months in prison for his role in an illegal-immigrant smuggling ring operated by three National Guard buddies assigned to a high-profile effort to secure the border.
He pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in August 2007, and the government dropped the rest of the charges. Two other National Guard soldiers, Sgt. Julio Cesar Pacheco and Pfc. Jose Rodrigo Torres, both Laredo natives, also pleaded guilty but have not been sentenced. Pacheco's sister and brother-in-law were also indicted in the ring.
Ordered to South Texas for Operation Jumpstart, President Bush's military response to withering criticism of his border policies, the soldiers ended up in national news, seen as further evidence of the border and its unique ability to corrupt.
People who know Hodge can still hardly believe what he did. "He has always been so on the straight and narrow, no foolishness," said his mother, Marilyn Hodge. "I can't believe my son was involved in criminal activity."
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