A federal judge has agreed to review grand jury transcripts in the case of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent accused of robbing and sexually assaulting prostitutes in Chicago-area hotel rooms after it was revealed the grand jury that returned the indictment also handled the now-dismissed “Broadview Six” case.
U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso made the decision amid requests by lawyers for Luis Uribe that the indictment against him be dismissed, arguing the grand jury had been “irrevocably tainted by government misconduct.”
The Special June 2024 Grand Jury, which sat each Thursday for nearly a year, heard testimony from some of the witnesses against Uribe on Oct. 9, the same day the panel refused to indict the Broadview case, defense attorney Michael Clancy revealed in a motion this week.
In a lengthy hearing Wednesday, Clancy said he was entitled to a full-blown evidentiary hearing over the conduct of Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg before that grand jury, even though different prosecutors handled Uribe’s indictment.
Clancy likened the situation to an entire pot of water being spoiled by the addition of “some bad meat.”
“Once you put in some bad meat into that water, you can take out all of the spoiled stuff,” Clancy said. “You can take all of (Mecklenburg’s) conversations, you can take out all of her antics….the water’s still bad.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shih told the judge the soup analogy was “interesting,” but in reality, Mecklenburg had nothing to do with the indictment against Uribe and that any allegations of issues with the grand jury when it came to his case were “speculative.”
“Absent the defendant being able to point to some specific prejudice that he suffered, there is no basis to dismiss the indictment,” Shih said.
Shih also confirmed he initiated and conducted Uribe’s grand jury case and that at no point was Mecklenburg ever involved.
In his argument, Clancy also said he’s been working with federal prosecutors in Chicago for nearly 30 years and never would have imagined that such things went on in the grand jury.
Defense attorneys deserve to know whether the misconduct stopped with Mecklenburg, Clancy said, noting that the U.S. attorney’s office has previously dismissed charges in other cases to avert an evidentiary hearing that could force top brass in the U.S. attorney’s office to testify under oath.
“I’m not the only one on the defense bar sitting back and saying “Wait a second,'” Clancy said. “I don’t want to go back to the beginning of time with her actions, but to say ‘Well, we’re sure it was just her,’ they can’t say that.”
Alonso said he would take a look at the grand jury transcripts in Uribe’s case and decide what to do before the Sept. 8 trial date.
The judge did, however, shoot down another argument by Clancy that “mistranslated” testimony by a Mandarin interpreter had also tainted the grand jury proceedings. Alonso called it a “red herring,” saying prosecutors did what they could to fix the issue on the fly, including having an FBI translator submit a revised and corrected transcript before asking the grand jury to return the indictment.
The case is the latest example of continuing fallout from the Broadview Six debacle, which has led to charges being reduced or dismissed against half a dozen other defendants so far and prompted calls from Democrats for U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros to step down.
U.S. District Judge April Perry is also considering whether to order discovery and hold hearings into possible sanctions in that case.
Uribe, 45, was charged in an indictment unsealed in December with 10 counts of deprivation of civil rights under color of law and one count of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. If convicted, Uribe faces a mandatory minimum seven years in federal prison and a maximum of life.
Prosecutors alleged Uribe used his service weapon and badge to force victims — who were all of Chinese descent — to submit to sex or provide him with cash on six separate occasions in 2022. One of the four victims was attacked three different times, prosecutors said.
At the time of the alleged offenses, Uribe, a U.S. Marines veteran, was a CBP officer assigned “primarily” to O’Hare International Airport and worked on both customs and immigration issues.
As word of the attacks spread, another sex worker was allegedly tasked by a China-based boss to meet with Uribe at a seafood buffet restaurant in the northwest suburbs, according to the charges. The goal, prosecutors said, was to surreptitiously get Uribe’s photograph so people could be warned, and also to offer him a deal: free sex if he stopped attacking workers.
“Defendant agreed, however, he did not abide by the terms of the bargain,” prosecutors said.
On Oct. 2, 2022, Uribe attacked a third woman, Victim C, at a hotel in Schaumburg, again brandishing his gun and badge and demanding cash and sex, prosecutors said. Two days later, Schaumburg police interviewed that victim and collected forensic evidence from the room.
The fourth victim, Victim D, was attacked at a different hotel in Schaumburg a short time after she’d reported Victim C’s assault to their boss, prosecutors said. In that incident, Uribe allegedly was “about to rape” Victim D when there was a knock at the door and he fled the hotel.
Tollway records analyzed by the FBI showed Uribe had left work at O’Hare that day and traveled toward Schaumburg, prosecutors said. While on the highway, he allegedly searched in Google Maps for the hotel where Victim C was staying.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
