Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros argued late Tuesday that it’s unnecessary to appoint an outside lawyer to probe for misconduct or potentially impose sanctions in the tainted “Broadview Six” case that has created a lasting credibility crisis for his office.
In a 52-page court filing, Boutros pushed back on motions by four of the six Operation Midway Blitz protesters urging U.S. District Judge April Perry to hold a hearing, open criminal contempt proceedings or appoint a special counsel to investigate the apparent prosecutorial misconduct that tanked the case.
Boutros said steps have already been taken to address longtime Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg’s conduct before the grand jury that handed up indictments against the six Broadview defendants.
He noted that his office has dropped their charges and agreed to cover attorneys’ fees, implemented “robust root-cause changes” and started the process of reviewing over 1,000 grand jury minutes “to determine that similar errors do not exist in other cases.”
But Boutros also noted that his office had endured a stinging rebuke by Perry “that has garnered widespread attention.”
During the May hearing where Boutros announced the permanent dismissal of charges against the four remaining Broadview defendants, Perry said she had “never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.” What’s more, the apparent misconduct had been redacted out of the transcripts given to her by Boutros’ office, Perry said.
“There can be no doubt that mistakes were made in the prosecution of this case,” Boutros acknowledged in his filing. “That is why the United States Attorney’s Office has dismissed all charges and is not contesting former Defendants’ entitlement to attorneys’ fees. It is also why the United States Attorney has implemented substantial root-cause reforms as part of a remediation plan.”
Boutros said the Broadview case was mishandled “during a time of immense pressure, upheaval, and emotion in the District because of Operation Midway Blitz,” the Trump administration’s pummeling deportation campaign in the Chicago area last fall.
The six defendants in the case, most of whom were involved in Democratic politics, were accused of a conspiracy to impede a federal agent outside of an immigrant processing facility in suburban Broadview on Sept. 26. Prosecutors alleged that a crowd pushed and damaged the federal agent’s SUV.
In his filing, Boutros acknowledged there was a virtual meeting a day after the incident in which Justice Department officials in Washington, U.S. attorneys from the Chicago office and federal law enforcement agencies discussed violence against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The Broadview incident was discussed and attendees were shown a video, but Boutros said he didn’t recall any mention of the names of protesters or their political affiliations.
During prosecutors’ first presentation to a grand jury on Oct. 9, Mecklenburg told grand jurors, “I would never ask you to charge somebody if I didn’t think there was probable cause … I don’t charge people unless I’m absolutely sure.” She was described only as an “experienced” prosecutor in Boutros’ filing
The jurors heard testimony from an FBI investigative agent and watched two videos from the scene before deciding not to indict that day.
On Oct. 16, prosecutors presented the case again to the same grand jury, this time with testimony from the agent who’d been driving the vehicle. One grand juror asked whether prosecutors were presenting new facts or “just a different view point,” and another decried the case as “a crock of s—.”
Grand jurors who said they couldn’t deliberate with an “open mind” were excused or excused themselves, according to the filing. The grand jury wasn’t asked to return an indictment that day.
On their third try on Oct. 23, prosecutors secured a grand jury indictment. That day, Mecklenburg admitted she did something she was “not supposed to do” — she had conversations with two grand jurors outside of the jury room.
Charged with conspiracy were former congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, Oak Park village trustee Brian Straw, former Cook County Board candidate Catherine “Cat” Sharp, 45th Ward Democratic committeeperson Michael Rabbitt, musician Joselyn Walsh and onetime Abughazaleh campaign worker Andre Martin.
Perry has said the transcripts of the grand jury revealed three types of wrongdoing. Mecklenburg put her personal credibility on the line to support the charges, excused grand jurors who disagreed with the feds’ case and acknowledged she’d had conversations with grand jurors outside the grand jury room, records show.
Perry discovered the apparent misconduct after defense attorneys urged her to review the unredacted transcripts of the grand jury proceedings. Ahead of trial, Perry demanded anyone involved in the initial decision to redact the transcripts to appear in her courtroom, leading to the dismissal of charges.
Perry told prosecutors that “trust has been broken.”
Since then, Boutros’ office has been engulfed in a crisis unlike any faced by his recent predecessors. Another judge dismissed charges in a separate fraud case tainted by prosecutors involved in the Broadview Six.
“Pandora’s Box has been opened,” said U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman.