Husband of El Paso’s Border Patrol chief facing charges of sex assault and kidnapping
A U.S. Border Patrol agent, whose wife heads the El Paso sector of the agency, is facing charges he kidnapped and sexually assaulted a junior agent in Arizona, according to police records obtained by ABC-7. (Editor’s note: You can read the records for yourself at the end of this article.)
Gus Zamora, 51, was allowed to quietly retire from the Border Patrol at the end of July in the wake of the allegations against him, the agency confirmed to ABC-7.
At the time of this summer’s incident, Zamora was the assistant chief of the Border Patrol’s Yuma sector. His wife, Gloria Chavez, was recently named as the Border Patrol’s interim chief of the El Paso region.
Chavez was quoted in a published report as saying that she had experienced a “betrayal” by her husband and although hurting, “will persevere.”
The alleged sexual assault reportedly occurred when Zamora traveled from Yuma to Tucson for a Border Patrol work trip with two other colleagues.
The victim alleges that Zamora — whom she considered a mentor — got her drunk on rounds of tequila shots, took her to his Tucson hotel room and attacked her. He reportedly claims the sex was consensual and that the woman initiated it.
Zamora’s attorney, Brad Roach, told the New York Times that his client “looks forward to proving his innocence at trial.”
The only comment from U.S. Customs and Border Protection regarding the incident came in the form of a statement to ABC-7 that said the agency “holds its employees accountable and expects the entire workforce to adhere to the agency’s standards of conduct.”
However, Zamora’s arrest reignites questions about a seemingly high volume of sexual misconduct allegations involving the agency’s employees.
A report last year from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General showed there were more than 1,200 sexual abuse allegations between 2010 and 2017 involving agents.
KVIA 2019
