Over a dozen cases dropped against Minnesota protesters accused of assaulting federal agents during ICE operation

Federal prosecutors are continuing to dismiss charges initially brought against people in Minnesota for allegedly assaulting federal officers during the winter. 

WCCO dug through court filings and identified at least 18 people whose cases are now dropped. A federal judge officially dismissed the charges for 15 of them; three are pending a judge’s approval after prosecutors filed motions to dismiss the charges. At least 17 cases are still pending, with judges denying defense dismissal motions in several of them. 

Richard Painter, a legal expert with the University of Minnesota and former chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, said that it’s clear to him that federal prosecutors brought several cases forward without sufficient evidence. 

“It appears that the United States Attorney’s Office in Minnesota is bringing some weak cases against protestors,” Painter said, adding that he believes that there was pressure from the Trump administration to charge people. 

According to court records, defense and government attorneys alike asked for case dismissals for a variety of reasons. 

Juan Carlos Rodriguez Romero was accused in December of ramming into ICE vehicles in St. Paul, prompting an ICE agent to fire his weapon, hitting no one. On June 8, United States Attorney Daniel Rosen signed off on a dismissal motion based in part because prosecutors “thoroughly reassessed the evidence” and concluded that they were not confident that they could obtain and sustain a conviction against Rodriguez Romero. 

In January, ICE leadership acknowledged that ICE agent Christian Castro may have lied under oath about what happened the night he shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in north Minneapolis. This led to the assault charges against Sosa-Celis and another man being dropped; Castro is now facing charges in Hennepin County for the shooting and for falsely reporting a crime.

Just a week after that incident, federal officers said Paul Johnson violently resisted arrest in north Minneapolis. On Thursday, Rosen signed a motion to dismiss the charges against Johnson. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota acknowledged issues raised by Johnson and his legal team, including allegations that agents shackled him to a bed at HCMC without access to his phone for days. 

“Based on newly received discovery, the government intends to pursue an investigation into allegations raised in Mr. Johnson’s filings; therefore the interests of justice support dismissal of this case,” Rosen’s motion reads in Johnson’s case. 

In the more than 30 cases WCCO reviewed, one name appeared across a variety of different cases. HSI Special Agent Richard Berger submitted sworn affidavits prompting probable cause for the arrest of Johnson and nine others, whose charges were ultimately dismissed. Berger submitted affidavits in at least 12 cases that are still ongoing. 

In a hearing in Gillian Etherington’s case in April, which is still ongoing, U.S. District Court Magistrate David Schultz said that he became “concerned with the veracity” of multiple affidavits related to federal officer assault cases that came from Berger. Schultz said that in multiple instances, Berger “did not have any personal knowledge of the events described in the affidavits that he has submitted to this court as sworn affidavits.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security ignored questions from WCCO about whether there has been an internal review of incident reports or legal filings. The spokesperson instead provided a statement describing Johnson, who prosecutors are dropping the federal case against, as an “anti-ICE rioter.” 

U.S. prosecutors in Minnesota on Tuesday announced charges against 15 people they say conspired to “violently oppose immigration law enforcement,” though Rosen failed to describe a single example of injuries to federal agents when repeatedly questioned.

When asked what makes the latest slate of indictments different than other cases that have been dropped, Rosen said he doesn’t think any cases have “failed in any way.”

“Read the indictment and you’ll understand the magnitude of this case,” Rosen said. “You watch how this case plays out, you watch how the evidence plays out and the evidence will prove it all out.”