Minutes into his final argument to jurors Wednesday, a defense attorney for U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Luis Uribe brought up “the statement … that I know you all heard, and I know you all thought about.”
He meant Uribe’s quip on the witness stand a day earlier, as Uribe defended himself at trial against claims of sexual assault. When a prosecutor asked Uribe about one alleged assault, Uribe remarked that he “got a good workout in” and insisted the encounter was consensual.
It took defense attorney Michael Clancy less than 10 minutes to assure jurors during closing arguments Wednesday his client had given a “horrible answer” — born out of frustration.
But prosecutors seized on it.
“He made jokes,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shih told the jury. “Actually, he made a rape joke. Actually, he compared the rape … to a workout.
“I think that’s all you need to know about the defendant.”
Now federal jurors are considering Uribe’s fate, after hearing days of evidence that he robbed and sexually assaulted four women in Chicago’s suburbs between February and October 2022, when he was based at O’Hare Airport. The women were Chinese immigrants who spoke little English and had apparent ties to the sex work industry.
“Despite their trauma, despite their fears, four women — four victims — bravely came forward to tell the truth about what he did,” Shih told the jury. “And what he did was unleash long-lasting devastation upon these women.”
The jury retired to consider the case a little after 1 p.m. Wednesday, and they left for day around 4:30 p.m. Deliberations are expected to continue Thursday.
Uribe 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. He’s been in federal custody since his arrest last December, and the charges threaten to put him away for the rest of his life.
So with his freedom on the line, Uribe took the stand Tuesday. He admitted visiting prostitutes. But he denied raping anyone and said he had consensual sex with the women. He said a fifth woman, who also testified, had threatened to set him up if he didn’t help with her immigration issues.
Then, during cross-examination, Shih asked Uribe about using “physical fitness time” to leave work early for one of the encounters in question.
“You didn’t go to the gym,” Shih remarked.
“I still got a good workout in,” Uribe told him.
“You’re describing the rape … as a good workout?” the prosecutor shot back.
“It wasn’t a rape,” Uribe retorted. “It was consensual sex.”
Clancy on Wednesday asked jurors to “remember what [Uribe] had gone through” before making that comment. He said Uribe sat through more than a week of trial and had “had enough.”
“He was frustrated by all the lies,” Clancy said. “He was frustrated by all the accusations.”
And, Clancy told jurors, they “can’t consider that he said something so crass.”
“He may not be someone you like,” Clancy said. “He may not be someone that you are real happy was a law enforcement officer. … [But] they have not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he robbed or raped anyone.”
Prosecutors argued otherwise, largely based on the testimony of Uribe’s four accusers. Shih and Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Rothblatt pointed to evidence they said corroborated the women’s testimony, even though it was sometimes contradictory or unclear.
Rothblatt argued the discrepancies show “these victims are doing their best to recall what happened to them under traumatic circumstances.”
And, he compared their demeanor on the witness stand to Uribe’s.
One accuser, Rothblatt said, “was breathlessly crying … such that her vision was clouded. We had to clear the courtroom.”
But to Uribe, Rothblatt said, “that was just a good workout.”