Prosecutors say a Border Patrol mechanic in Maine attempted to “wipe off” some scuff marks but did no actual repairs on an immigration agent’s SUV after the agent shot a woman in Brighton Park last month.
A court filing by the U.S. attorney’s office late Monday provided a more detailed timeline of what happened to the agent’s Chevrolet Tahoe after the Oct. 4 shooting that left Marimar Martinez wounded.
Martinez’s attorney, meanwhile, filed a response Tuesday blasting the government’s “Karate Kid wax on, wax off narrative” about the vehicle as self-serving and arguing that a hearing should be held on the matter.
Martinez was charged with assault for allegedly intentionally ramming her car into the agent’s vehicle, leading him to open fire.
Martinez’s attorneys have alleged that before they could inspect the agent’s vehicle, he was improperly allowed by a supervisor to drive it more than a thousand miles back to his home base in Maine. U.S. District Judge Georgia Alexakis ordered the Tahoe brought back to Chicago on a flatbed truck and asked prosecutors for information on whether it had been repaired after the shooting.
According to the government’s filing, the Tahoe remained at the scene of the shooting for several hours as an FBI technician took photographs of the vehicle’s exterior. An FBI special agent then drove the Tahoe to the agency’s Chicago headquarters for processing, where the evidence technician inspected it, took additional photographs “and collected paint samples from the damaged areas,” the filing stated. The contents of the vehicle’s onboard computer were also downloaded and preserved,
After the processing was completed later that night, the agent was authorized to remove it from the FBI offices, according to the filing. Three days later, the agent drove it downtown to the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse to participate in an interview with prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office. After that, his monthlong deployment to Chicago ended and he “began the two-and-a-half-day drive back to his station in Maine” in the Tahoe, according to the filing.
The agent told prosecutors he did not “wash, repair, or alter” the vehicle before arriving at his station in Maine on Oct. 10, according to the filing. The agent’s ranking supervisor then authorized its repair, “understanding that the vehicle had been fully processed by the FBI and that, therefore, there was no further need to preserve the vehicle’s condition as evidence,” the filing stated.
On Oct. 14, a Border Patrol mechanic “began to work on the car to put it back into service,” using a brake cleaner on a shop rag to attempt to “wipe the scuff marks,” but used only light pressure and “did not repair any of scratches or dents on the vehicle,” the filing stated.
After receiving word from Chicago about the dispute over the car’s whereabouts, the supervisor at the Maine station ordered that the Tahoe not be serviced any further, the filing stated. On Oct. 23, the vehicle was picked up and transported by flatbed truck to Chicago, where it was inspected by Martinez’s attorneys at the FBI’s Chicago office.
In his response, Martinez’s attorney, Christopher Parente, wrote that the government’s “last-minute attempt to control the narrative and short circuit” an evidentiary hearing “demonstrates the absurdity of their handling of this situation.”
“There are many questions that need to be asked regarding not only what happened to this vehicle during the 25 days it was out of the FBI’s chain of custody, but also as to the motivations of the parties who asked for the evidence to be released and later repaired,” Parente wrote.
Martinez, 30, has pleaded not guilty to a single count of using a dangerous weapon to interfere with federal officers in the course of their official duties. Also charged with the same crime was Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, 21, who prosecutors say used his SUV to ram the same Border Patrol vehicle. Ruiz also has entered a not guilty plea.
A trial has been set for Feb. 2.
Prosecutors have said Martinez and Ruiz were both in a convoy of cars following agents on Oct. 4 as they conducted immigration enforcement operations in the Brighton Park neighborhood, and that before the crash and shooting near 39th Street and Kedzie Avenue, Martinez had been broadcasting the pursuit on Facebook Live, “laying on her horn” and “yelling loudly” at the agents.
After both Martinez and Ruiz struck the officers’ vehicle, one agent jumped out and opened fire, hitting Martinez five times. Martinez drove off after the shooting, but paramedics discovered her and her vehicle at a repair shop about a mile away, according to a criminal complaint. She was later taken by ambulance to a local hospital, where she was released after being treated for gunshot wounds.
Ruiz also drove away after the collisions, but law enforcement located him and his vehicle at a gas station about half a block away, the complaint stated.
All three agents were equipped with body cameras, but the camera of only one of the passengers was switched on at the time of the incident, according to the complaint.
The body-camera footage has not been released publicly. But Parente said in court he’d viewed it multiple times and that it showed that just before the shooting, one of the agents was captured saying, “Do something, bitch,” while his hands were on his assault rifle.
Prosecutors have alleged in court that the actions of both Martinez and Ruiz were “extremely dangerous and extremely reckless,” putting both the officers and potentially innocent bystanders in harm’s way.
Story by Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune.
