A federal judge on Wednesday ruled to formally dismiss the case against a Lakeview comedy club manager whom federal authorities had accused of slamming the door on the leg of a Border Patrol agent during an October immigration arrest.
Nathan Griffin, 25, was charged Oct. 27 with assaulting, interfering with or impeding a federal officer after he allegedly shut a car door on a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent in a scuffle that followed an immigration enforcement arrest near the Laugh Factory, at the intersection of Belmont Avenue and Broadway. A grand jury ultimately refused to indict him.
Prosecutors’ move to drop the case against Griffin is the latest instance in a string of high-profile cases against U.S. citizens caught up in “Operation Midway Blitz” to fall apart only weeks into proceedings.
U.S. District Judge Keri Holleb Hotaling, walking into a 17th floor courtroom of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse Wednesday morning, asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Snell about the move to dismiss the charges, filed Dec. 3 in what Hotaling called a “bare bones” motion. Snell said the deadline to return an indictment in the case had already been extended once and the grand jury assigned to the case had not seen fit to indict Griffin.
Federal public defender Akane Tsuruta asked that the dismissal be granted with prejudice, which would prevent the government from taking up the charges later, but Snell said the government has “no intention” of taking another swing at the case. Hotaling ultimately ruled to dismiss the case without prejudice.
Although she had found probable cause to send Griffin’s case to a grand jury, Hotaling said the panel’s no-bill move showed “the system working as it should.”
“Good luck, Mr. Griffin,” she said. “I’m glad that this is now taken care of for you.”
Griffin kept his job at the Laugh Factory throughout the case, as did Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old day care teacher who was shot five times by Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum during an Oct. 4 confrontation in Brighton Park. Prosecutors dropped felony charges against Martinez in late November, shortly after a series of bombshell text messages surfaced in which Exum bragged about his marksmanship to other agents in a private group chat and lawyers alleged that federal agents had tampered with evidence in the case.
Speaking after the hearing, Griffin said he was “looking forward to moving on from this” and said the process had been difficult. He’d heard that government had moved to drop the charges last week, but hadn’t heard that the grand jury refused to indict him until Wednesday morning.
“There is some vindication in that,” he said. “The fact that they’re not interested in pursuing (the case) further is still very good to hear.”
