Federal prosecutors made a surprise announcement in court Wednesday that they are dismissing the main conspiracy charge in the politically charged “Broadview Six” case against immigration protesters and will proceed instead with misdemeanor counts.
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Hogan revealed the move at a status hearing before U.S. District Judge April Perry, who had been scheduled to take up a number of thorny issues ahead of the May 26 trial.
Instead, Hogan said they were moving to dismiss the main count in the indictment and are filing a superseding criminal information on misdemeanor counts for the remaining four defendants in the case.
The development in one of the highest-profile cases to emerge from Operation Midway Blitz vastly changes the scope and consequences for the defendants and could lead to the trial being scuttled entirely should they decide to cut a deal.
It also came as a complete surprise to attorneys for the defendants, who late on Tuesday had filed a nearly 40-page motion over pretrial issues that are now largely moot.
After the hearing, attorney Christopher Parente, who represents defendant Brian Straw, said the move demonstrated that “this case never should have been brought” and that the government was “giving up” trying to prove it at trial.
“We’ll take the win for right now, but we’re still very angry that they even charged this,” Parente said in the lobby of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.
Parente also noted that by bringing a felony case, the U.S. attorney’s office has caused massive collateral damage, not only to the defendants but also to other people who decided not to go to protests because they were worried about being indicted on a felony conspiracy charge, which he described for reporters as “bull−−−−.”
The dismissal of the conspiracy charge came on the same day prosecutors had been ordered to bring unredacted grand jury transcripts to the judge, who was weighing a motion to dismiss based on First Amendment grounds. Records filed by prosecutors showed it took three separate sessions for them to inform the grand jurors on the law before they returned an indictment.
“What did they say to the grand jurors that took them three separate sessions to explain the law on something like this” Parente asked. “Those are the questions that we still have … we’re going to keep fighting.”
U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros, meanwhile, issued a statement saying his office is “constantly evaluating the facts and law in our Operation Midway Blitz cases, as well as new information when it is brought to our attention.”
“Today in court, we demonstrated that we are fully prepared to adjust our positions to adhere to that standard. Our commitment to do the right thing is unwavering in all cases,” Boutros said.
Perry set a next date in the case for May 18.
The four remaining defendants in the case are former congressional candidate Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh; Andre Martin, originally of Providence, Rhode Island, who was Abughazaleh’s deputy campaign manager; 45th Ward Democratic Committeeman Michael Rabbitt; and Straw, an Oak Park trustee.
Last month, Perry granted a request from the U.S. attorney’s office to dismiss charges against Catherine Sharp, a onetime candidate for the Cook County Board, and Joselyn Walsh, a part-time garden store worker and singer.
After the hearing, Abughazaleh, who did not attend court, posted on social media that it was “a huge win” despite still facing trial on the misdemeanor counts.
“This case has cost myself, one of my closest friends, and four others immeasurable amounts of stress, money, and opportunity,” Abughazaleh wrote. “But the federal government knew they couldn’t try this BS and had to drop the felony charge.”
Attorneys Terence Campbell and Valerie Davenport, who represent Martin, said they’re hopeful the government will “see fit to dismiss” the misdemeanor charge as well.
“Protesting the malicious violence, mistreatment, and discrimination committed by ICE Agents against our friends and neighbors in our community is not a crime, pure and simple,” Campbell and Davenport said in a written statement.
In the 11-page indictment, prosecutors alleged the defendants were part of a group that surrounded an ICE vehicle outside the Broadview facility during a Sept. 26 protest and “banged aggressively” on the vehicle’s side and back windows, hood and doors before they “crowded together in the front and side of the Government Vehicle and pushed against the vehicle to hinder and impede its movement.”
They further alleged that the protesters scratched the vehicle’s body, broke a side mirror and a rear windshield wiper and etched the word “PIG” into the paint — though no one listed in the indictment is accused of specifically causing that damage.
The conspiracy count carried a maximum sentence of six years in federal prison, while the misdemeanor counts of impeding a federal officer are each punishable by up to one year in federal prison.
The Broadway Six case has been beset by controversy from the moment the indictment was brought last October as the defense has alleged the case was brought amid pressure from the administration of President Donald Trump and was nothing more than an attempt to silence protesters of the president’s draconian immigration policies.
The defense had asked Perry to order prosecutors to turn over any records of communications with White House officials about the case, noting that senior staff members “have repeatedly and openly taken steps to improperly bend the Department of Justice toward (Trump’s) personal and political interests.”
Perry poured cold water on that effort, telling the parties at a hearing earlier this month that she could find little evidence that prosecutors had selected specific defendants to prosecute because of their political affiliation or the fact that some were elected officials.
“You all know public officials being charged is the bread and butter of the U.S. attorney’s office,” Perry said. “You can’t base a malicious or selective prosecution theory on the fact that your client is a politician.”
The defense had also focused on text messages by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer whose vehicle was damaged during the Sept. 26 protest. In one exchange, an acquaintance commented on news articles about the protest and told the agent, “You’re gonna be famous bruh,” court records show.
“Only among lefties,” the agent responded.
In another exchange, someone asked the agent if he’d had a hard time getting into the Broadview facility that morning.
“Yeah, there was some trash in the street,” the agent responded — an apparent reference to the protesters.
As the case neared trial, both sides filed voluminous motions over what evidence should be presented to the jury on the conspiracy count — arguments that are now mostly meaningless given the dismissal of the felony charge.
In one hotly contested issue, prosecutors had asked Perry to bar any mention of other incidents involving immigration agents during Operation Midway Blitz, including shootings in Chicago that killed a Mexican immigrant in Franklin Park in September and the shooting of Marimar Martinez by a Border Patrol agent in Brighton Park three weeks later.
But the defense motion Tuesday night said that information would be relevant to the jury should any defendants testify at trial about their motivations for attending the protest in Broadview.
“It is anticipated that part of the motivation … was because of the impact of seeing United States law enforcement abduct, disappear, and even shoot human beings on the streets of our cities,” the motion argued.
In his remarks after the hearing Wednesday, Parente said the entire ordeal was a big waste of resources, particularly given the brutality of the federal agents who participated in Midway Blitz.
“Why are we charging stuff like this? Charge the agents who shot Marimar Martinez, right?” said Parente, who also represented Martinez. “Stuff that actually matters to people in this district. Not ‘you delayed a car from getting into the entrance of the Broadview facility by 20 seconds.'”
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
