Federal prosecutors said they would narrow allegations in the case against Illinois’ 9th Congressional District frontrunner Kat Abughazaleh and five co-defendants during a Thursday status hearing at the Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse.
Prosecutors told Judge April Perry they intend to “strike the second clause” of the indictment, which alleged an intent to injure an agent who was driving an SUV toward the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Broadview, Illinois on Sept. 26.
In October, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois filed conspiracy charges against the six co-defendants for their protest actions at the Broadview facility. The prosecution alleged the defendants conspired to “interrupt, hinder, or impede” the activities of a federal law enforcement officer by surrounding his government vehicle, “bang(ing) aggressively” and pushing on it, damaging the vehicle by etching the word “PIG” and breaking a side mirror and windshield wiper.
All six defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges in November. The trial date is currently set for May 26. Defense attorneys have since sought to narrow and clarify the conspiracy charge.
Thursday marked the first status update hearing since lead prosecutor and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg withdrew from the case earlier this month after being assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mecklenburg is not expected to return to Chicago until next year.
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Hogan said that the prosecution would review the case’s other two clauses — a conspiracy to stop the immigration agent from discharging his duties as well as “injure” his property — although it was unlikely that either would be removed.
He added that his team would examine new evidence presented by the defense, referring to new bodycam footage from the Sept. 26 protest.
On Monday, the defendants filed a motion stating that the videos “unequivocally show” Abughazaleh moving away from the vehicle. The motion also describes the defendants, among others, as engaging in a “Jericho walk” silent protest at a public crosswalk in Broadview, with Broadview police officers supervising. A Ford Expedition vehicle driven by an ICE agent then “turned his three-ton SUV directly into that crowd,” according to the motion.
The attorneys wrote that, like Abughazaleh, the co-defendants “all independently moved away from the SUV within seconds after they found themselves in its path.”
“If a car is turning into you as you are standing in a designated area, one of the natural reactions is to put your hand on the car and make it stop,” Abughazaleh’s attorney Joshua Herman said during the hearing.
Perry noted that the prosecution was arguing for a “tacit, or implicit, agreement” of conspiracy rather than an “explicit one.” Prosecutors also acknowledged that it was a “spontaneous” conspiracy.
Much of Thursday’s hearing was in response to the defense attorneys’ bid for a bill of particulars that would request the government to clarify the identities of all the alleged conspirators, the timeframe and which clause of the conspiracy law each defendant “conspired to violate,” as well as identify “all ‘threats’ made” and the “objects of the conspiracy.”
However, Perry said that the Seventh Circuit is “quite clear” that the government is not constitutionally required to “reveal the details of how it plans to prove its case.”
Ultimately, she denied the defense’s request for a bill of particulars. She added that this is “not a complex case,” given the limited timeframe and the catalog of video evidence from the bodycams.
“You fundamentally do not believe that the evidence does not support a crime or a conviction,” Perry told the defense. “A bill of particulars is not going to solve that problem. A jury will.”
The next status hearing is scheduled for March 31 at 10 a.m.
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Related Stories:
— May trial scheduled for case charging Abughazaleh for actions tied to Broadview ICE facility protest
— Attorneys for Abughazaleh, five co-defendants push for spring trial date
