A WGN staffer has filed a $10 million claim against the federal government after she was forcefully detained and released without charges last October during “Operation Midway Blitz” in Lincoln Sqaure.
Debbie Brockman, a United States citizen who worked for the station’s creative services department at WGN, submitted administrative complaints against the United States Customs and Border Protection in pursuit of relief under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which offers a path to suing the feds.
The claim alleges Brockman suffered headaches, pain, tenderness, contusions, anxiety and nausea among other physical and emotional injuries during the arrest. Brockman asserts claims for assault and battery, false imprisonment, false arrest, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“It’s horrific that a government agency supposedly established to keep America safe is terrorizing communities, killing people, and violently targeting individuals they assume are not citizens,” Brockman said in a statement attached to the announcement of the claim Tuesday morning. “We are not safe with these armed, masked agents lurking in our neighborhoods showing little to no regard towards the lives of the people who live here.”
Brockman was walking to a bus stop for work around 8:35 a.m. Oct. 10 when federal agents threw her to the ground, handcuffed her and put her in a federal van, the claim states.
Video reviewed by the Sun-Times shows a black SUV stopped diagonally in front of the federal agents’ silver Chrysler minivan just as they were about to leave. The agents did not try to go around the SUV. Instead, an agent got out of the van and walked up to the SUV, trying to open its door. When that was unsuccessful, the agents returned to the van and quickly pulled away, hitting the side of the SUV as the van sped away.
When the agents were driving away, the Homeland Security Department’s statement claims Brockman “threw objects” at a Border Patrol car. Agents then arrested her for assaulting a federal law enforcement officer.
Brockman was released without charges after she was held in federal custody for seven hours, said Brad Thompson, her lawyer.
“The outrageous actions of the federal agents who attacked Ms. Brockman demonstrate that they believe they can terrorize our communities and snatch our neighbors off the streets with impunity,” Thompson said in a statement Tuesday morning.