A Matamoros family has filed a federal lawsuit against American officials, who they claim were supposed to protect them.
The family said they came to Brownsville's B & M International Bridge back in June 2008 for an interview with FBI agents in a case linked to Sylvia Handy, the ex-Hidalgo County commissioner convicted on tax fraud and conspiracy charges.
The family claims their then 7-year-old boy was beat unconscious, sexually assaulted and sodomized in a public restroom attached to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection office at the bridge.
The Brownsville Police Department and Chief Carlos Garcia are accused of failing to properly investigate the case.
The boy's mother said they violated her family's constitutional rights after assuming control over the investigation.
The family's attorney links it to the boy's nationality and or race.
They say the suspect was caught and released, never to be seen again.
Meanwhile, a physical examination revealed a bruise on the boy’s head as well as genital and anal trauma, according to the lawsuit.
It went on to read how a laboratory report for the city, released five months after the incident, showed no evidence of a rape.
The family's attorney believes agencies failed to preserve forensic evidence in the case.
They're suing the United States government, the City of Brownsville, the Brownsville Police Department and Chief Carlos Garcia for unspecified damages.
Mark Sossi, attorney for the City of Brownsville, released this statement to Action 4 News regarding the allegations made in the federal lawsuit:
"Brownsville law enforcement takes all allegations of violence against children seriously regardless of nationality of the victim. The plaintiff’s lawyer’s story that an act of violence was committed against a child but not investigated because the child happened to be a Mexican National is offensive and inconsistent with the good work that Brownsville police officers do every day."
Action 4 News learned that some of them had not yet been served in the lawsuit.
Click here to read a full copy of the lawsuit
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