Pubdate: Fri, 01 Jun 2001
Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX)
Copyright: 2001 San Antonio Express-News
Contact:  http://www.mysanantonio.com/expressnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/384
Author: Maro Robbins

2 POLICE RELEASED FROM JAIL

The door to the U.S. Marshals Service office swung open Thursday, and the 
suspended police officers stepped into outstretched arms.

Patrick Bowron walks with his fiancee, Alexandra Ugarte, and his mother, 
Beatrice, as they leave the federal courthouse after Bowron's release. The 
San Antonio police officer later answered questions from reports. Photo by 
Delcia Lopez/Express-News Photographer

Eyes slick with tears, Conrad Fragozo Jr. embraced his weeping wife. 
Patrick Bowron's mother clutched her son fiercely.

Free for the first time since they were arrested and accused more than two 
months ago of organizing a scheme to protect cocaine smugglers, Fragozo and 
Bowron are forbidden to speak to each other as a condition of their release 
on bond.

They left the courthouse one at a time.

Fragozo declined to talk to reporters, but Bowron later met with the media 
at his lawyer's office.

He started by attributing his release to prayer, and frequently injected 
religious references into his answers. Later, he acknowledged that as a 
police officer he had looked skeptically on jailhouse religious fervor.

He recalled arriving at the West Side substation March 22. He was about a 
half-hour early for the A shift, which starts at 6:30 a.m.

Waiting for him were FBI agents along with SWAT officers. He said he cannot 
recall what went through his mind when the handcuffs came out.

"It was just unbelievable," he said, "unbelievable to hear someone say, I'm 
under arrest for such-and-such and then put you in handcuffs when you're 
still in police uniform."

Bowron, 27, refused to answer questions of guilt or innocence during the 
interview in the office of his lawyer, "Rusty" Ronald Guyer.

One of the youngest officers arrested, Bowron's boyish good looks were 
countered by stubble and pallor Thursday.

On either side of him, his fiancee, Alexandra Ugarte, and his mother 
occasionally offered a steadying or consoling hand.

Bowron said that, at first, he had nothing in his barren cell.

Authorities had taken from him the onyx crucifix he routinely carried in 
his left breast pocket, a gift from his mother when he joined the force.

Outside, he was losing his material possessions, most notably a pickup 
repossessed by creditors.

His link to the outside was a phone he could request by punching an 
intercom. He did what so many others do in those circumstances.

"I cried," he said. "I cried a lot."

He fumed about the case.

He was one of a dozen people swept up by the FBI undercover operation, 
which revolved around an agent posing as a drug trafficker. Most were 
quickly released on bond; he and Fragozo, however, were denied bond.

And prosecutors labeled him a "ringleader."

"That was nonsense," he said.

"I couldn't believe this was happening to a person like me," he said. "I've 
always felt I've always been a good person, a great guy, a great friend."

As Fragozo left the courthouse, he and his wife silently threaded through 
the swarming cameras and microphones that followed their every step until 
they reached a waiting sport utility vehicle.

Flanked by his fiancee and his parents, Bowron drove to see his grandmother 
briefly and then to his attorney's office, where he sat for interviews. His 
attorney hoped it would give the officer a more sympathetic image in the 
public's eye.

After their March 22 arrests, U.S. Magistrate Judge John Primomo released 
most of the accused, but detained Fragozo and Bowron.

He said they might flee because they face the stiffest penalties if 
convicted: life behind bars.

The two appealed but remained in solitary cells until this week when U.S. 
District Judge Edward C. Prado set a $100,000 bond for each. In addition, 
he required certain of their friends and family to sign as sureties and to 
post a $10,000 deposit.

"Given the conditions I set up, I don't think they're going anywhere," 
Prado said.

Fragozo, 36, was silent when he left the courthouse, ignoring questions 
reporters flung at him.

"Right now, this is time for him to spend with his family," said his 
attorney, Joel Perez.

During his interview Thursday, Bowron told reporters his anguish increased 
when a friend and colleague, officer Hector Garza, was killed while 
responding to a domestic disturbance call days after Bowron's arrest.

"We used to cover each other on calls," he said, tears filling his eyes.

Bowron said he shared similar relationships with at least three of the 
officers accused alongside him: Manuel Cedillo Jr., Lawrence Bustos and 
Peter Saenz.

It was the same bond he forged with all the officers who worked with him on 
a job he loved.

Talking nostalgically about the small details of a patrol, such as logging 
onto the squad car computer, he said he still loves the job he may never 
have again.
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