US Federal Judge Orders Juarez Cartel/La Linea to Pay $4.6 Billion in Wrongful Death Suit of LeBaron Family Mormons

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

A federal judge in North Dakota has issued a multibillion-dollar judgment against a Mexican drug cartel blamed for the deaths of nine people in 2019.

The judgment by U.S. Magistrate Judge Clare Hochhalter totals more than $1.5 billion to the families who sued the Juarez cartel, an organization labeled by the U.S. government as a known drug trafficker. Under the federal Anti-Terrorism Act, such awards are automatically tripled, making the true amount $4.6 billion.

Maria Rhonita LeBaron and four of her children, ages 12, 10, and 8-month-old twins; Christina Langford; and Dawna Langford and her children, ages 11 and 2, were attacked about 90 miles south of the U.S. border on Nov. 4, 2019. One hundred cartel gunmen split into two groups for the attack, during which hundreds of rounds were fired into three vehicles from a distance, according to court documents. The shooters then approached the vehicles and set fire to them, “a signature move” of the organization, the documents say.

Families of the victims filed civil lawsuits in 2020 that were later consolidated into one suit. LeBaron’s husband, Howard Miller, and Christina Langford’s husband, Tyler Johnson, lived in North Dakota at the time of the slayings. 

The people in the three-vehicle caravan were members of an offshoot Mormon community. Survivors accused the cartel of attacking them in retribution for their public criticism and protests against the cartel. Mexican authorities said in 2020 that the mastermind of the attack was one of 17 people arrested.

Court documents state the end goal of the cartel through such acts of terror was to take back territory from a rival drug organization. The Juarez cartel and its armed wing La Linea each is designated by the U.S. government as “a significant foreign narcotics trafficker,” court documents show. The legal action was brought under the Anti-Terrorism Act, and notice was served to the cartel through publication in Mexican newspapers.

Hochhalter during a weeklong trial in February heard testimony from witnesses and experts. One expert testified some of the victims survived the initial hail of gunfire and “were alive and conscious” when their vehicle was intentionally set on fire.

Burning is “arguably the worst way you can die,” said Dr. Sebastian Schubl, director of medical operations at the University of California-Irvine Health Administration. He added that LeBaron had the additional terror of being shot and unable to assist her children, who were still alive and able to see, feel and hear what was going on as the attackers poured fuel on the car and started it on fire.

“So you’re not only burning to death after being shot, but you’re also suffocating. You’re asphyxiating because there’s no oxygen left in the air. It’s just fire,” Schubl said.

The trial was held as a way to establish wrongful death and pain-and-suffering damages for the victims and their families. Court documents state children saw siblings die from gunshot wounds, and some, though injured by gunshots themselves, trekked in near-freezing temperatures to seek help. Family members later went to the scene to find their deceased loved ones.

It “was horrible, it was sickening,” LeBaron’s father, Adrian LeBaron-Soto, testified. “Me, my wife, and family were forced to do the unconscionable -- collect our families' bones and ashes.” Hochhalter after hearing testimony said he’d never seen “a more horrific set of facts” and told family members he would “do justice” and “read the statute the way it was meant to be read. I’m not afraid of big numbers at all,” he said. “There is no way that any big number is going to keep us from finding justice in this case.”

The cartel did not respond to the published summons or have representation at the trial.

The Langford family’s tripled judgment was just more than $2 billion.

“The horror that my children experienced and my entire family has been through as the result of the Nov. 4, 2019, killing of (wife) Dawna Langford and my two children by the Juarez cartel will never, ever be made right,” David Langford said. “We went into a United States courtroom in North Dakota seeking some acknowledgment of and measure of justice for the trauma inflicted on our family and we received it."

The families can seek the judgment amounts through a process similar to that used by the victims of the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. government can freeze the assets of terrorist organizations. The victims, in this case, would present their judgment to the U.S. Treasury Department, which holds such assets. It's unclear if the department holds any cartel assets.

Source Bismarck Times