Webloggin » Reporter Stalks Family of Slain Soldier

From Tom Duggan at The Valley Patriot:

Slain soldier, Army Pfc. Alex Jimenez was captured by Al Qaeda and had been missing for 15 months before his remains were finally found in Iraq. “As hard as it was for the Jimenez family,” said Jim Wareing spokesman for the Jimenez and Duran Family “someone tipped off the Eagle Tribune that Alex had been found before the family was notified.”

“And when we arrived to deliver the devastating news to Andy (Alex’s father who lives in Lawrence), the Tribune was already in the house, snapping pictures as the family was told, breaking down in tears. It was total exploitation of this family who had been through so much. We were horrified by the picture they ran on the front page the next day. It was such an invasion of privacy,” he said in a somber tone.

The mother of Alex Jimenez, Maria Del Rosario Duran, told the Valley Patriot in an exclusive interview that she was very hurt by the disrespect she and her family endured at the hands of the Eagle Tribune.

“First, what happened to Andy (Alex’s father) was not right. They came to the house and took [a] picture during private time for the family. I wasn’t there, so you should talk to him,” she said, “but I know he was very sad about that and it should not have happened.”

“We were crying together and trying to grieve,” said Andy, Jr., Alex’s brother. “I don’t know why they were there, just to get a picture of us crying and embarrass us in their newspaper? It was such disrespect [sic]’” he said.

But, Wareing, who runs New England Caring for our Military, a volunteer organization to help soldiers and their families, said that the invasion of privacy the Jimenez family endured at the hands of the Eagle Tribune was just beginning.

Just getting started indeed. The Jimenez family made it clear, they did not want this reporter anywhere near them, near their family, near their son’s casket, or anywhere. The Eagle Tribune Reporter Yadira was told personally not to come to the base, not to come to the funeral, the mass or anything.

Yet somehow Yadira found out where the body was to be flown, she found her way into the church early, she even got on the military base. How could that happen?

Wareing said that he was puzzled as to how a reporter from the Eagle Tribune could have snuck onto a secure military base to either snap pictures or take notes, so he began to ask those in the motorcade.

“One of the auxiliary police officers finally admitted that Chief Romero had ordered him to take her in his police cruiser before the motorcade began. I didn’t think I had to search all the police cars before we left, but apparently Chief Romero is in bed with them and I suspect, though I can’t prove it yet, that Romero was the one who tipped them off about Alex’s body being found before the family even knew.

That does explain why Trib reporters were in the Jimenez house before the notification was made.”

Thrown out of Wake and Funeral

But Wareing [Jim Wareing spokesman for the Jimenez and Duran Family] said the harassment of the Jimenez family didn’t end there.

You MUST go read the entire article here at The Valley Patriot, or pdf here.

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