Gene Duprez v. United States

On March 26, 1969, at approximately 2:30 A.M., Cecil G. Sargent, Jr., an immigration patrol inspector for the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, was on duty at his checkpoint station located on Highway 395, sixty-seven tó seventy-seven miles from the Mexican border. As a border patrolman it was the duty of Sargent to determine alienage or citizenship of persons suspected of being in the United States illegally. Also, as is true of all such patrolmen, it was Sargent’s duty as a deputy customs inspector, to curb any violations of the narcotic laws of the United States which might come under his observation.

At this time, a motor vehicle approached the well lighted inspection station. It first appeared to slow down; then as it came closer to the station, its speed increased to thirty-five to forty miles per hour and it proceeded through the checkpoint. The vehicle was identified by Sargent as a brown pickup truck with a camper.

After the truck had been driven through the checkpoint, Sargent and his partner, Howard Dobbs, who at this point had been sitting in the “chase vehicle,” pursued the fleeing truck. The two officers followed the vehicle for approximately…