Chicago's U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros informed a federal judge that his office is dropping the remaining criminal charges against four people who had been indicted for their roles in protests outside the Broadview immigration holding facility last year. The dismissals come as a trial had been scheduled to begin on Tuesday, May 26.
The four defendants named by Boutros are Kat Abughazaleh - a former journalist who recently lost a Democratic primary for a U.S. House seat - Andre Martin, Michael Rabbitt and Brian Straw. According to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office, the charges are being dismissed with prejudice, which prevents prosecutors from refiling the same counts.
All four had been facing misdemeanor counts alleging they impeded a federal officer. Prosecutors had previously dropped a felony conspiracy charge against the group last month. The four were among a larger group identified in connection with the demonstrations outside the Broadview facility, which drew persistent public attention during the Trump administration's immigration enforcement campaign known as Operation Midway Blitz.
Statements from defendants and counsel
In a statement responding to the court action, Brian Straw - a shareholder at the law firm Greenberg Traurig and an Oak Park Village Board member - said he was relieved by what he described as his exoneration. Straw added that contesting the charges over the preceding seven months was not solely about him or his codefendants.
Attorneys for Andre Martin, Terence Campbell and Valerie Davenport, issued a statement saying Martin and his co-defendants "have been living under the threat of going to prison simply for exercising their First Amendment rights as decent, honorable citizens and seeking to protect their fellow human beings."
A spokesperson for the Chicago U.S. Attorney's Office declined to provide additional comment beyond court filings and the dismissal notice.
Allegations and context of the Broadview protests
Prosecutors had alleged that during a September 26 protest outside the Broadview facility, the defendants crowded a government vehicle operated by a federal agent and obstructed its movement into the facility. The indictment accused the demonstrators of banging on and pushing the vehicle, scratching the word "pig" into its body, and breaking a rear windshield wiper.
Those demonstrations occurred amid an enforcement surge by federal immigration agents under Operation Midway Blitz. According to reporting of the events, that campaign resulted in thousands of arrests from September through December and saw frequent clashes between agents and demonstrators at the Broadview holding center and in multiple Chicago neighborhoods. Body-camera footage documented agents firing at two people - one of whom died - and showed threats to shoot others. The footage and accounts also recorded repeated use of tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets at near-daily demonstrations outside Broadview.
Wider inquiry and related legal developments
The cases tied to the Broadview demonstrations have faced scrutiny as prosecutors reassessed charges. Earlier this year, two other defendants in the so-called "Broadview Six" - Catherine Sharp and Joselyn Walsh - had their cases dropped entirely by prosecutors.
An independent commission established by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker recommended last month that local prosecutors investigate potential misconduct by federal agents. Separately, Illinois State Police announced an investigation this month into the death of Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, who was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in suburban Chicago.
Other prosecutions connected to the broader enforcement campaign have also unraveled. On November 20, the Chicago U.S. Attorney's Office dropped charges against Marimar Martinez, who had been shot five times by a Border Patrol agent after authorities said she tried to ram agents with her car. Martinez, a U.S. citizen and Montessori school teacher in Oak Park, had been indicted on October 5 on a charge of impeding a federal officer with a deadly weapon. In a separate matter, a Chicago jury in January acquitted Juan Espinoza Martinez of a Justice Department charge that he had plotted to kill a prominent Border Patrol official.
What prosecutors have said
Boutros previously said his office was "constantly evaluating the facts and law in our Operation Midway Blitz cases, as well as new information when it is brought to our attention." That reexamination of evidence and legal theory formed the backdrop for the recent withdrawals and earlier dismissals related to the protests outside Broadview.
The dismissal of these misdemeanor counts with prejudice closes the federal criminal proceedings against Abughazaleh, Martin, Rabbitt and Straw in connection with the September demonstration. It leaves broader questions for local authorities and oversight bodies concerning the conduct of federal agents and the outcomes of other investigations already underway.