Retribution at Homeland Security

For those Americans who fear that the government is out of control the best example may be Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Department of Homeland Security. ICE agents in San Diego have gone to war with a former female DHS Customs and Border Protection Officer who filed complaints about serious procedural weaknesses in the largest U.S. port of entry at San Ysidro. Calif.

Julia Davis joined the DHS as a Customs and Border Protection Officer in early 2002 and within weeks found herself fighting off the unwanted sexual advances of a supervisor. Her bosses would not take action against the supervisor. While Davis successfully prosecuted a sexual harassment complaint against her boss she also discovered a host of security problems at the port. Davis' reward for reporting them has been a massive legal attack directed against her and her husband, Hollywood film director and former stuntman B.J. Davis. Julia Davis was serving as an officer within the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Customs and Border Protection and involuntarily resigned in 2004 in the face of intolerable retaliation and harassment by the agency. In her successful Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit against DHS, Judge Daniel Leach ruled that Julia's "resignation was caused by, or in response to, the illegal treatment."

The Davises found themselves in a Kafkaesque nightmare after Julia won a $225,000 judgment against the government last June. (EEOC No. 340-04-00317X, Agency No. I-03-W121) Shortly afterward, DHS charged the couple with immigration violations dating back to 1994, stemming out of Julia's emigration to the United States and marriage to B.J.

Storiesthatmatter.org is in the process of completing a major investigation into the Julia Davis case. The results will be posted with video and audio in the coming weeks. The ICE agent who took Davis's original harassment complaint is now targeting her. Agent Jeffrey Deal's invesigation did nothing, according to Davis, to stop the sexual harassment. Only when the DHS Inspector General entered the case and Davis obtained a restraining order did the harassment stop. Davis's boss actually refused to talk to the IG and was allowed to retire by local DHS officials before the case could be ruled on. Now Agent Deal, the same ICE agent who took Davis's original sexual harassment complaint, is spearheading a criminal case against Davis and her husband that resulted in the couple's indictment for marriage fraud. Relying on the questionable testimony of one of B.J. Davis's many ex-wives, ICE agents claimed that Julia paid B.J. to marry her while he was on location filming a movie in the Ukraine so she could immigrate to the United States. Security experts find it curious that Julia received both DHS and FBI security clearance without any concerns about her marriage turning up.

In the process of going after the couple, ICE agents managed to disrupt an FBI investigation into an organized crime case involving a film company that members of the Bonnano crime family were trying to take over. B.J. Davis was producing and directing a movie called "Forget About It," starring Burt Reynolds and Raquel Welch. Julia Davis wrote the comedy. ICE agents revealed to associates of the Bonnano crime organization that B. J. Davis was cooperating with the FBI in its investigation of the company producing the film. Davis was threatened by Bonnano associates when he refused to cooperate with the Bonnano's representatives who wanted changes made to the film. At one point in production B.J. said he was asked to provide a $60,000 part in the movie for Bill Bonnano to play the part of the Godfather. The SEC is also investigating the production company because of allegations the company was engaged in a pump-and-dump stock scheme.

In his decision in favor of Julia Davis in the EEOC case Judge Leach ruled that "the agency engaged in illegal conduct" against Davis and that "the conduct was intolerable to a reasonable person because it was especially humiliating and included unnecessary harassment."

The Department of Homeland Security attempted to prevent Davis from collecting the award by filing a motion to "Hold Issuance of Decision in Abeyance." Judge Leach denied the motion ruling that Davis had "established agency culpability of an egregious sort and has been awarded a significant sum in damages because of the effects of the agency's unlawful discrimination."

DHS Agents Deal, Herbert P. Kaufer and Robert Broyles conducted a warrant-less search of the Davis' residence as part of their investigation of the alleged sham marriage. The same agents have previously conducted a search of BJ Davis' Beverly Hills Film Studios office in Hollywood and were involved in the mishandling of Julia's EEOC case against the government. Agents Deal, Kaufer and Broyles have been placed under official investigation for their alleged criminal misconduct by the DHS Office of Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility.

In their last ditch attempt to prevent Julia from collecting her award, on August 10, 2005 the Department of Homeland Security conducted a full scale assault and raid using a Blackhawk helicopter on the Davis' property. In a sworn statement, agents on the raid said they took nothing but a shotgun from the property, but photographs taken of the raid contradict that testimony.

An ICE spokesman in Washington, Dean Boyd, claimed the reason for the removal of the shotgun in the raid was that B.J. Davis was a convicted murderer and ICE agents feared for their safety. In fact, court records show Davis had been pardoned since he was convicted as a teenager for manslaughter as an accessory after the fact to a murder his mother and her boyfriend committed. Boyd's reference to B.J. as a "murderer" was clearly an effort to discredit the director and his wife.