A federal judge on Monday said she will review unredacted grand jury transcripts in the politically charged “Broadview Six” case against Operation Midway Blitz protesters to “see if there is anything suspicious about them,” though she guessed most of the redactions had to do with “IT issues.”
U.S. District Judge April Perry agreed to the review after repeated requests from defense attorney Christopher Parente, who has suggested the U.S. attorney’s office dismissed the original felony conspiracy charge because of some error before the grand jury that they were now trying to avoid disclosing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Hogan said he’d get the unredacted transcripts to Perry by Tuesday, adding that prosecutors had offered to do so “weeks ago.”
The grand jury transcript was one of a flurry of outstanding issues taken up by Perry at a pretrial conference ahead of the high-profile trial, which is set to kick off with jury selection the day after Memorial Day.
If it goes as planned, the “Broadview Six” trial — which is now down to four defendants — will perhaps be the most-watched misdemeanor proceeding to ever unfold at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, where gangsters, fraudsters, bank robbers and crooked politicians typically garner most of the attention.
The last high-profile misdemeanor trial was nearly a decade ago, when former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds was convicted in a bench trial in 2018 of four tax evasion counts and sentenced to six months behind bars.
The Broadview Six trial, meanwhile, is expected to last only a week or two, including jury selection, which the judge said will surely be challenging “given all the publicity on the case.”
At one point, Hogan asked hypothetically if they don’t get a jury picked until 3 p.m. or so on Tuesday, could they delay opening statements until the next day.
“If we had a jury by 3 on Tuesday, I would be so excited I’d give you the rest of the day off,” Perry said.
Among the judge’s other rulings Monday: The defendants will be allowed to testify that they thought they were engaging in protected free speech outside the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 26, where they allegedly surrounded an agent’s vehicle, chanted anti-ICE slogans and tried to impede the vehicle’s progress.
But Perry said that testimony will come with a caveat: The jury will be instructed that just because the defendants believed they were protected by the First Amendment “doesn’t mean that their conduct could not also constitute a crime.”
Perry also ruled that prosecutors can introduce various chants used by the protesters that day, including “(Expletive) this pig!” and “Get a real job” to show that the defendants knew the person in the vehicle was a federal agent.
But the judge barred other evidence, such as a previous incident where defendant Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh had allegedly tussled with government agents outside the Broadview facility. The judge also precluded prosecutors from making arguments that the defendants were part of a “mob” or that their actions were part of a larger pattern of resistance to immigration policy.
Perry also denied a request to have jurors take a field trip to the scene, saying she’d consulted with fellow judges and none could remember it being done in another criminal case dating back at least 35 years.
Defense attorneys had argued it was important for the jury to see the layout of the scene in person to get a perspective on the events that unfolded. But Perry said such a trip had a high risk for backfiring, noting her ability to control any protesters at the scene who may be holding signs or trying to take photos would be far more limited than it is in the courtroom.
“There is a very, very large chance of something going wrong,” Perry said. “I, for one, don’t want to be doing this case twice.”
The “Broadview Six” case has been beset by controversy from the moment the indictment was brought in 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 back-and-forth escalated last month when Parente raised the possibility that the U.S. attorney’s office had misinstructed the grand jury on the law or had “improper or prejudicial” interactions with the panel, then dismissed the conspiracy count to avoid having to turn over unredacted transcripts of the proceedings.
In response, prosecutors blasted Parente for “histrionically” speculating about perceived misconduct in what was the normal practice in Chicago’s federal court. “There was nothing remotely unusual, let alone nefarious, about that state of affairs,” prosecutors said.
Perry said Monday the redactions only involved about 30 lines. She said she would read them, but did not promise to disclose what they said.
“That’s all I am asking, judge. Thank you,” Parente said.
In addition to Abughazaleh, a former Democratic congressional candidate, the remaining defendants in the case are Andre Martin, who was Abughazaleh’s campaign manager; 45th Ward Democratic Committeeman Michael Rabbitt; and Brian Straw, an Oak Park village trustee.
Earlier this year, 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.
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 had carried a maximum sentence of six years in federal prison. The remaining misdemeanor counts of impeding a federal officer are each punishable by up to one year behind bars.
While the trial is expected to bring a throng of interested spectators, the evidence will be relatively straightforward. The majority of what prosecutors will present was captured on video from multiple angles. Also expected to testify are the ICE agent who was in the vehicle as well as two Broadview police officers who were working crowd control at the scene.
Not every issue in the case has been hotly contested.
Near the end of Monday’s two-hour hearing, attorney Josh Herman, who represents Abughazaleh, raised one final issue he jokingly said was of vital importance to the defense: an order from the judge allowing them to bring beverages into the courthouse, which usually bars outside liquids for security purposes.
Herman cited a recent order from another judge who made sure to specifically approve drinks “loaded with caffeine.”
“I may amend it to include ‘nonalcoholic,’” Perry said, prompting laughter in the courtroom.
