The first guilty plea tied to Operation Midway Blitz was scaled back Thursday as a Chicago man pushed back against prosecutors’ claims that he’d intentionally crashed into a vehicle carrying federal officers.
In October, at the height of the Trump administration’s pummeling deportation campaign in the Chicago area, Anthony Gonzalez Alvarez joined a caravan of cars tailing a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle through the South Side.
Prosecutors alleged that Alvarez purposefully hit the vehicle with his truck, and he was charged in October with assaulting officers.
Alvarez then pleaded guilty in April to concealing information about a crime, a felony, admitting he falsely told the Chicago Police Department his Ford F-250 had been stolen after his collision with officers. That gave the feds their first guilty plea tied to Midway Blitz.
But in June, prosecutors told U.S. District Judge LaShonda Hunt a “potential legal issue” had come up, and they said they’d offered Alvarez a chance to plead guilty to a misdemeanor instead.
The news came three weeks after U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros confirmed he’d spoken to grand jurors on Oct. 23 to address “high tension” during Midway Blitz. That happened to be the same day grand jurors handed up an indictment against Alvarez.
The revelation came about because of the “Broadview Six” scandal, which revolved around alleged misconduct by a veteran prosecutor in Boutros’ office before grand jurors. Boutros has said “there was nothing wrong” with his own grand jury appearance.
Regardless, Alvarez never pleaded guilty to the charge in the Oct. 23 indictment. He waived indictment in April and pleaded guilty to a crime alleged in a separate charging document.
Now he’s withdrawn that guilty plea from April. And Thursday, Alvarez pleaded guilty again — this time to a misdemeanor count of forcibly interfering with federal officers.
Still, the downgraded charge is another setback for prosecutors in the 33 known nonimmigration cases that were brought in relation to Operation Midway Blitz.
One other defendant has pleaded guilty. Twenty-five have been cleared. Grand jurors refused to indict at least three of the 25, and another member of that group was found not guilty at trial.
In the first Midway Blitz-related sentencing last week, Hector Gomez got 30 months in prison after admitting to firing a gun near immigration agents.
In Alvarez’s case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Stern told the judge Thursday morning that three CBP officers were traveling together in a vehicle on Oct. 3.
Alvarez, driving his truck, joined a caravan that was following the CBP vehicle, Stern said. After the CBP vehicle turned from West 61st Street onto South Kedzie, she said, Alvarez drove his truck into the rear passenger side of the CBP vehicle in an attempt to interfere with the officers.
After hearing those allegations in court, Alvarez huddled with his attorney. He then told the judge he didn’t agree with all of Stern’s claims. He disputed that he’d driven his truck into the CBP vehicle intentionally.
“I did, in fact, hit their car. On accident,” he said. “To avoid me hitting the car in front of me that braked pretty hard.”
He added: “I dodged a car in front of me because they braked pretty hard, and that’s when I swerved toward them.”
The hearing was postponed until Thursday afternoon, when Stern presented a change in the factual basis of Alvarez’s plea.
The driver of the CBP vehicle attempted to lose the caravan, speeding up and driving into the wrong lane of traffic, Stern said. Alvarez followed the CBP vehicle, ending up in the wrong lane of traffic himself and striking the car, she said.
Alvarez agreed that everything in Stern’s revised account of the incident was true and pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor. Hunt said she’d accept the plea, pending a presentencing investigation due in October.
Alvarez’s sentencing is set for Nov. 19, and his attorney Ricardo Meza said he expects he could get up to six months’ probation.