Federal prosecutors hid misconduct in ‘Broadway Six’ trial. What’s going on with other trials?
Prosecutorial misconduct led to the Justice Department’s misdemeanor case against four Illinois protesters to falter, ending a seven-month legal battle. The case enters closing proceedings while nearly 50 others await trials for throwing objects and disrupting a church service.
A federal prosecutor dismissing jurors and speaking to jurors outside of a courtroom led U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros’ Thursday request for a judge to dismiss misdemeanor charges against the remaining “Broadview Six” after learning of his colleague’s conduct, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The term was coined for six protestors who were originally charged with federal conspiracy charges in October for protests at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, just west of Chicago.
Protests at the facility made headlines after a pastor was allegedly shot with a pepper ball and U.S. House of Representatives candidate Kat Abughazaleh, a Democrat, was arrested. Abughazaleh was part of the Broadview Six.
U.S. District Judge April Perry admonished Boutros and his colleagues for their actions during grand jury proceedings and said they could lead to sanctions. The legal blunders came to light after comparing redacted and unredacted transcripts U.S. attorneys provided her, nonprofit news organization Capitol News Illinois reported Thursday. The government provided the transcripts weeks apart.
“I will tell your honor that as upset as you are, and have been — I, too, had not seen conduct like that, and it upset me — which is why we did dismiss that indictment,” Capitol News Illinois reported Boutros telling Perry.
The Broadview Six included Abughazaleh; Andre Martin; Michael Rabbitt, a Democratic committeeperson in Chicago; Cat Sharp, a Cook County Board candidate; Brian Straw, an Oak Park, Illinois, trustee; and musician Joselyn Walsh, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“I have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts,” the Sun-Times reported Perry saying.
The Justice Department previously dropped felony conspiracy charges against the group in March, but then filed misdemeanor impeding a federal officer charges against Abughazaleh, Martin Rabbitt and Straw on April 29, according to U.S. District Court records.
The dismissal was made official on Thursday against the remaining four protesters, but others charged during demonstrations in Illinois and Minnesota still await their days in court. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, nine known people still have non-immigration charges pending. A Straight Arrow analysis of court records in the U.S. District Court for Minnesota revealed more than a dozen charges are still pending related to Operation Metro Surge, a now-deadly enforcement plan the U.S. Department of Homeland Security carried out in the North Star state.
‘Broadview Six’ court battle ends
Abughazaleh celebrated the dismissal on her TikTok account and added that the prosecutorial misconduct was an “understatement.” She added the trial subjected her and the co-dependents to psychological and financial torture as they defend their case in court. She did not state what the group’s legal fees are.
“None of us regret sticking through this to the end,” Abughazaleh said in her TikTok video.
The case fell apart after Perry inspected unredacted grand jury transcripts she received and saw that Boutros dismissed jurors who disagreed with the charges, his office communicated with jurors and failed to disclose to the public and the defense about an initial grand jury rejection, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.
The defendants have since filed motions to preserve the case, according to court records.
Charges from Illinois, Minnesota operations
The Chicago Sun-Times has kept a record of all court cases stemming from Operation Midway Blitz and learned the Justice Department has lodged non-immigration charges against 33 people so far. The count includes only people for whom the publication was able to locate court records.
Most of the charges were for assaulting or resisting federal officers. Of the 33 charged, two pleaded guilty, while 24 were dismissed. The publication said that a grand jury declined to indict at least three people, another was acquitted in a trial, and prosecutors agreed to defer prosecution with four others.
Charges are still pending against Joel Gonzalez, Jake Babbe and Diego Emmanuel Reyes. No information is available on who the remaining six are. Court records indicated that Gonzalez is accused of forcibly impeding and interfering with U.S. Border Patrol Officers. Babbe is accused of forcibly impeding, intimidating and interfering with a U.S. Border Patrol Agent.
Reyes faces a charge of assaulting a federal immigration agent, the Sun-Times reported Thursday.
In Minnesota, more than a dozen federal charges are pending against 45 people. The charges stemmed from Operation Metro Surge, which was a targeted immigration enforcement to arrest people whom the government called “the worst of the worst.”
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi announced all of the charges in several social media posts where she claimed people assaulted federal officers, impeded operations or, in the case of independent journalist Don Lemon, disrupted an ongoing church service.
Prosecutors dismissed charges in at least two cases, and one defendant requested a jury trial, while others still have ongoing court proceedings.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
