A federal judge in Chicago has sharply criticised the Department of Justice after prosecutors abruptly dropped all charges against a group of anti-ICE protesters, known as the 'Broadview Six', following stunning admissions of serious misconduct in court.
Case Collapse
The high-profile case stemmed from demonstrations outside an ICE facility in the Chicago suburbs, where protesters including former congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh and local officials faced felony charges for allegedly banging on an officer's van. However, unsealed court documents revealed that prosecutors had improperly dismissed grand jurors who disagreed with them, communicated with a juror outside court, and submitted heavily redacted grand jury testimony to the judge.
Judge's Rebuke
District Judge April Perry expressed being 'incredibly shocked' by the documents. She stated, 'I treat every attorney who appears before me as an officer of the court. I put even more reliance on Department of Justice attorneys. Your sole goal is to do justice. That trust has been broken.' Perry noted that she had never seen such prosecutorial behaviour in hundreds of grand jury transcripts.
Prosecutorial Misconduct
During a closed-door hearing, Judge Perry highlighted that an assistant US attorney had excused grand jurors who disagreed with the government's case. It took three grand jury sessions to secure an indictment, with the first resulting in a 'no bill'. US Attorney Andrew Boutros acknowledged the misconduct, saying, 'I, too, had not seen conduct like that, and it upset me, which is why we did dismiss that indictment.'
Defence Reaction
Defence attorney Christopher Parente, a former federal prosecutor, described the misconduct as unprecedented. 'I have never even heard of something as bad as what took place in this grand jury session,' he said, suggesting a cover-up. 'I'm sick to my stomach as a former prosecutor and as a US citizen who has to live in this country with this Department of Justice acting so recklessly.'
Wider Context
The case had been gradually unravelling. Prosecutors dropped charges against two defendants in March and a felony conspiracy charge against the remaining defendants last month. The defence argued that the government's 'remarkable about-face' on the conspiracy charge came amid 'mounting national distrust' in the grand jury process. Similar collapses have occurred in other ICE protest cases in Washington, DC, where over a third of approximately 300 arrests have resulted in dropped charges.
Protester Victory
Abughazaleh, who had been protesting against ICE's 'unlawful behavior and how it treats our communities', celebrated the outcome. 'We were saying that enough is enough and that we won't stand for it. We fought back, and we won,' she told reporters.
