Grand Jury Declines to Indict Two Chicago-Area ICE Protesters (3)

Charges were dropped against two Chicago-area protesters accused of assaulting law enforcement agents after a grand jury declined to indict them.

At a brief hearing Wednesday morning, Magistrate Judge Gabriel Fuentes of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted federal prosecutors’ motion to dismiss the complaint against Ray Collins and Jocelyne Robledo, who were arrested at a protest outside an ICE facility in the Chicago suburbs.

When Fuentes asked Assistant US Attorney Brian Havey to explain the reasons behind the motion to dismiss, Havey said the grand jury on Tuesday had returned a “no-bill,” meaning they declined to file a true bill of indictment.

The government has 30 days from the date of arrest to bring charges on these allegations, Havey said in court, so prosecutors can still pursue charges if they choose.

“Right now as things stand, the only decision made by our office is to dismiss this complaint. The case will remain open,” he said. “We have the time to decide where we want to go from here”

Bloomberg Law first reported the grand jury’s decision Tuesday night. Prosecutors on Wednesday morning filed a formal motion to dismiss the case against the two protesters.

No-bills are extremely rare, though they are growing more common in cities targeted by President Donald Trump with immigration raids, military deployments, and other federal resources to crack down on crime.

In court Wednesday, Fuentes asked Havey to specify the last time a grand jury declined to bring an indictment. Havey said it had also happened in the last few weeks.

When Fuentes asked the last time it happened apart from the last couple of months, Havey said he wasn’t sure but it happens “periodically.”

In remarks to reporters after the hearing, Collins’ attorney Richard Kling lauded the grand jury’s decision, saying they stood up for the First Amendment right to protest and rejected “Gestapo-type troops” on the streets.

Kling, a veteran attorney who teaches at Chicago-Kent College of Law, said he had never before seen a grand jury in the district reject an indictment.

Setback for Trump Surge

Prosecutors’ inability to secure this indictment continues a pattern mirrored in Los Angeles and Washington DC where local citizens on grand juries are providing a check on a White House-directed law enforcement takeover.

The development is a setback for the Trump administration’s surge into Chicago, with National Guard troops and senior DOJ leaders arriving Tuesday.

Charges were also dropped Wednesday against another demonstrator, Luci Mazur, who was arrested at a Broadview protest the same day as Collins and Robledo. Mazur was accused of grabbing the arm of a Border Patrol agent who was trying to push the crowd back.

Mazur had been charged with a misdemeanor, and such charges typically aren’t brought before grand juries. In court Wednesday, Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Snell said prosecutors chose not to continue with the case after obtaining additional video from the scene, and Fuentes granted the motion to dismiss the complaint.

Mazur is identified in court documents under a different first name.

Collins and Robledo were charged in late September with assaulting and impeding federal officers during a protest by the front entrance of an immigration facility. Defense attorneys were told Tuesday that the grand jury didn’t return a true bill of indictment, according to Kling.

It’s extremely rare for grand juries not to return indictments. Grand jurors don’t hear defense arguments and prosecutors are asked to meet a much lower standard of proof—probable cause—than when proving a defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

Robledo and Collins were charged under the same statute that Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed federal prosecutors to utilize nationwide.

Bondi ordered US attorney’s offices in a Sept. 29 memo to bring this charge against “any individual who assaults or forcibly impedes or intimidates” law enforcement officers protecting ICE facilities.

Andrew Boutros, the US attorney in Chicago, said Oct. 4 that the city’s prosecutors “will not hesitate to hold accountable those who attack and undermine the rule of law, including by resorting to violence and criminal mischief to interfere, obstruct, or impede the important work of the federal government.”

‘Less Than a Ham Sandwich’

Collins and Robledo were in a crowd of protesters Sept. 27 at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill., a location that has been the site of repeated demonstrations as federal immigration enforcement has escalated in the Chicago area.

In an affidavit, authorities alleged Robledo “pushed back” agents who were trying to push back the crowd, and agents detained her after seeing a gun at her waist. Collins, who saw the struggle, charged forward yelling at agents to get away from his wife, and the thumb of an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was injured in the scuffle with Collins, according to the affidavit.

Kling, in an interview, said Collins was coming to his partner’s aid after agents grabbed her and threw her against a wall. Both defendants were legally carrying guns but didn’t use or brandish them, Kling said.

Kling said it was notable that the grand jury likely had members on both sides of the political divide and still decided not to indict.

“You know the old saying that a good prosecutor could have a grand jury indict a ham sandwich?” Kling said. “Apparently the evidence against my client was less than a ham sandwich.”

Grand juries also pushed back in Los Angeles this year when the temporary US attorney ordered his office to pursue indictments in protest-related cases despite being advised by his prosecutors that there was insufficient evidence, Bloomberg Law reported.

The New York Times and other media outlets have also reported that Washington, DC grand juries failed to return indictments against multiple individuals charged with federal felony counts after the Trump administration ordered street sweeps and mass arrests.

That included the grand jury’s refusal to indict a former Justice Department employee accused of throwing a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection officer.