Chicago
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Thursday was presupposed to be a day of no surprises for Marimar Martinez, the lady who was shot after allegedly ramming the car of a Border Patrol agent she had been following. She was headed to a routine court listening to.
But earlier that day, defense lawyer Christopher Parente realized a bit of proof that may be essential to the case was not in Chicago.
“I was informed about two hours before the hearing that the agent’s vehicle was gone,” Parente instructed NCS.
“Gone,” because it turned out, was greater than 1,000 miles away. Department of Justice lawyer Aaron Bond stated in court the agent was instructed he might take it again to his house in Maine.
Parente stated he was involved transferring the vehicle so far-off might go away it open to being altered, and his concern appeared justified in one other listening to 4 days later.
A authorities lawyer stated some repairs may have been “processed or at least approved,” however couldn’t say whether or not any work had truly been accomplished.
US District Judge Georgia Alexakis was “troubled by what I’m hearing in terms of the repair work in particular,” the Biden appointee stated Monday.
While the authorities has accounted for the lacking SUV, Parente says there are extra inquiries to reply in terms of the the place, the how and the why of the SUV’s lengthy journey.
Martinez, a 30-year-old American citizen, and her co-defendant, Anthony Ruiz – who was driving a special vehicle – each entered not responsible pleas to a federal cost of assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers. They are accused of “aggressively and erratically” following after which ramming a Border Patrol vehicle on October 4 because it was on safety element on Chicago streets.
The incident occurred as Chicago grew to become one among the epicenters for the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, with common protests at a suburban ICE facility and dramatic raids and patrols in the coronary heart of the Windy City.
Both Martinez and Ruiz left the scene of the crash, prosecutors say, though Parente said his shopper drove “to a safe place where she pulled over and called 911” to report the taking pictures. She was handled at a hospital for gunshot wounds and launched.
They have not denied they have been intently tailing the Border Patrol vehicle by Chicago streets. But Parente says Martinez, who was shot 5 occasions after the crash, didn’t trigger the wreck, arguing the agent was the one who truly initiated the contact by sideswiping his shopper, making the situation of his vehicle essential to her defense.
“The cars are the big issue,” Parente stated.
The Border Patrol agent is anticipated to testify about his actions associated to the vehicle at a November 6 standing listening to. A trial for Martinez is about to start out in February.
Surveillance video obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times exhibits the automobiles of Martinez and Ruiz following intently on the sides of the authorities SUV before the incident, however the solely identified video of the crash itself comes from a body-worn digicam.
Parente, who has seen the bodycam video however just isn’t allowed to share it below a court order, told NCS it exhibits the agent behind the wheel turning into his shopper’s vehicle, with one agent heard saying “Do something, b*tch” before pictures have been fired.
He additionally stated the authorities has put out deceptive info on Martinez. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin stated in a news release Martinez was “armed with a semi-automatic weapon.” But Parente told NCS his shopper is a licensed gun proprietor and had a handgun in her purse however by no means brandished it. The prison criticism towards her doesn’t point out she had a firearm.
A lady is accused of ramming a Border Patrol agent with a automobile. Her lawyer says that’s not what occurred
At some level after the crash, the agent, who has not been publicly named, was allowed to return house to Maine with the SUV as a result of it was his “personal vehicle,” Bond instructed the court final week. It was not clear if Customs and Border Protection had consulted with prosecutors before giving that permission, Parente stated.
The criminal complaint said the vehicle is owned by CBP, not the agent. NCS reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for remark and asking for clarification on how the agent is related to the SUV. Through a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office, Bond declined to remark.
At the Monday listening to, Assistant US Attorney Ronald DeWald stated the agent took the vehicle to a secured parking space of a CBP station in Maine.
As Martinez’s and Ruiz’s automobiles stay impounded in an FBI storage, Alexakis instructed the authorities to return the SUV to Chicago. No alteration is allowed – not even a automobile wash – before the defense will get a glance. And this time, it will likely be making the journey on the again of a flatbed tow truck.
“It’s a reasonable request,” stated Alexakis. “There’s only so much you can tell from photos.”
Still, Parente instructed the choose he couldn’t imagine a key piece of proof had been faraway from the state by one among the principal figures in the case.
“This is not just the driver, this is the shooter,” Parente stated incredulously in court.
Parente isn’t the solely lawyer who was amazed the authorities’s Chevy Tahoe was allowed to go away the state. Patrick Griffin, a San Diego lawyer who has dealt with civil circumstances involving Border Patrol automobiles, stated the defense has a proper to get entry to the SUV.
“This is not some novel concept. This is as basic as it gets,” Griffin instructed NCS. “It’s 101 that the vehicle needs to be maintained and needs to be able to be examined by the defense.”
Although Alexakis agreed the automobile must be returned, Griffin says there’s a excessive bar before the authorities could be punished for permitting the automobile to be taken away.
In the 1984 Supreme Court decision California v. Trombetta, justices stated prosecutors aren’t required to protect proof until they have a cause to imagine it might assist the defendant.
“If it’s just not obvious that the evidence would be exculpatory, then you must show bad faith,” stated Griffin.
Even then, the Supreme Court stated, it may not matter if the defense has different proof that may nonetheless show innocence.
Parente, stated he had requested the court to order DHS “to preserve and maintain any and all records, emails, text messages, documents, notes and other materials related to” the Martinez case.
While Parente has targeted in court on the bodily situation of the SUV’s exterior, the most necessary piece of proof might be inside the Tahoe. Most automobiles now have an occasion information recorder – the EDR – that’s just like an airplane’s “black box.”
“It can show all the data that leads up to a crash,” stated Griffin. “Did the person swerve? Did they hit the brakes? What was the speed? And this is really just fundamental evidence that is necessary to determine what happened.”
ICE detainees and officers have been immediately moved
It just isn’t the first time concern has been raised about necessary components in a Department of Homeland Security-related case being rapidly moved from one state to a different – though it often includes folks fairly than bodily proof.
Multiple individuals who have been arrested in immigration circumstances this yr – together with Mahmoud Khalil, Badar Khan Suri and Rümeysa Öztürk – have been rapidly moved tons of of miles away to distant detention amenities shortly after being taken into custody, irritating the efforts of their households and attorneys to realize their freedom.
Last week, Arthur Berto, a 13-year-old boy who was taken by ICE after an arrest for allegedly threatening one other scholar at college, was transferred to a juvenile facility in Virginia.
The Massachusetts-based federal choose in that case dominated he didn’t have the authority to resolve whether or not Berto must be freed as a result of the baby had crossed the Massachusetts border an hour before his household’s petition was filed. Defense lawyer Andrew Lattarulo instructed NCS final week he was nonetheless working to search out an lawyer in Virginia to characterize his shopper.
Even ICE officers have typically been troublesome to trace down.
In a separate case in Chicago difficult federal brokers’ use of riot management munitions and tear gasoline towards protesters and journalists, Judge Sara Ellis requested an ICE interim area director to testify in court and clarify why an order she issued seemed to be ignored.
But the authorities announced one enterprise day before the Monday listening to the official had been reassigned to Washington, DC, and other officials would have to testify in his place.
Ellis stated she would settle for the last-minute substitution so long as these officers can reply her questions.
But till the defense crew truly will get a glance at the vehicle and if anything has modified in the 2,000-mile spherical journey, authorized specialists say it’s not clear whether or not the Trump administration shall be punished for permitting it to be moved.
“The question arises whether the car will have been altered in a material way,” stated Richard Friedman, a University of Michigan regulation professor who has written books on the guidelines of proof. “If they haven’t done anything to the car, then maybe ‘no harm, no foul’ if they bring it back.”
Whether guidelines of proof have been truly damaged or not, Martinez’s lawyer says it ought to elevate concern.
“This was a case involving the Border Patrol shooting of a US citizen in broad daylight and lack of integrity in this investigation is alarming,” Parente instructed NCS.