U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Luis Uribe told a jury Tuesday he “never raped anybody.”
He visited prostitutes and hid it from his wife, he said. But he assured jurors that “no means no.” And “stop means stop.” And he swore he “never hit a woman” in his life — “ever.”
Then, when a prosecutor asked the federal officer accused of sexual assault whether he’d used “physical fitness time” to get away from work for one of his alleged attacks, Uribe quipped in front of the jury, “I still got a good workout in.”
“You’re describing the rape … as a good workout?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shih asked Uribe, incredulously.
“It wasn’t a rape,” Uribe shot back. “It was consensual sex.”
Uribe spent a little more than an hour trying to explain himself Tuesday, as his trial nears its end at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. Prosecutors and defense attorneys have each rested their case, setting the stage for closing arguments and jury deliberations.
But first, Uribe told jurors he’d been threatened by a supervisor in a Chinese prostitution ring who asked him repeatedly for help with immigration issues, only to have him shoot her down.
He said the the woman wound up warning him by text message, “if you don’t help me with all my immigration issues — help my boss — it’s going to be bad for you. I suggest you help me. If you don’t help me, I’m going to tell my sisters to testify against you.”
Now, prosecutors have accused Uribe of six attacks in Schaumburg and Naperville between February and October 2022, when Uribe was assigned to O’Hare Airport. He is charged with 10 counts of deprivation of civil rights under color of law and one count of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.
Defense attorney Michael Clancy told the jury last week there’s no evidence Uribe robbed and raped four women, as prosecutors allege.
Uribe told jurors Tuesday his encounters with prostitutes were always consensual. He said that, if he knew he’d be patronizing a prostitute after work, he would leave all of his “tools” behind — including his handcuffs, baton, knife and gun.
“I never threatened to shoot anybody,” Uribe testified.
Sometimes he offered jurors details about his visits with prostitutes, including one encounter he said ended with a hug. But when pressed by Shih on whether he had sex with his alleged victims, Uribe told him, “I don’t recall the specific instances. I paid for sex. So my belief is, I did.”
Uribe also explained his relationship with the purported supervisor he said threatened him in 2022. He told jurors that, after his first sexual encounter with her, she learned he worked in immigration enforcement. He said her face lit up “like she hit the jackpot or something.”
Then he had more than 10 additional encounters with her in 2021 and 2022, he told the jury. Every time, he said, she asked for help with immigration issues for herself or others.
That woman testified Monday, and she acknowledged failing to tell the feds about many of her visits with Uribe. She also denied having any kind of supervisory role in the prostitution ring.
Uribe said he eventually met with that woman at a seafood buffet in Hoffman Estates. During the meeting, he said, she had him speak with her boss using a video app on her phone.
“The boss wanted to know how she could come into the U.S., because she was stuck in China, and how she could get more girls into the U.S., because they were also stuck in China,” Uribe explained.
Uribe insisted to the jury that, at the time of the meeting, there were no flights from China coming into the United States because of COVID-19. The meeting purportedly took place in March 2022, and Shih later challenged Uribe on the claim.
“I do recall them telling me, ‘How do I get into the U.S. from China, because there’s no flights,’” Uribe told the prosecutor.
It was months later, in October 2022, that the purported supervisor sent her threatening text message, according to Uribe.
During his cross-examination, Shih pointed out that all of Uribe’s alleged victims were Chinese. They didn’t speak fluent English. And they all had ties to illegal activity.
He told Uribe, “It would be less likely that anybody would believe them. … That’s why you preyed on them?”
“How did I prey on them?” Uribe retorted. “I didn’t prey on nobody.”