Article Summary
- A rare federal misdemeanor trial is set for next week in the case of the remaining “Broadview Six” protesters even after prosecutors dropped the overarching felony conspiracy charge against them earlier this month.
- Defense attorneys are still hopeful that U.S. District Judge April Perry’s examination of grand jury transcripts will provide a basis for them to request a total dismissal in the case before trial begins.
- Perry on Monday ruled that prosecutors could use protest chants and the word “mob” during trial, but denied a request that the jury take a field trip to the federal immigration facility where the protest occurred.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
CHICAGO, Ill. (Capitol News Illinois) — Prosecutors are set to try the remaining “Broadview Six” immigration protesters in a rare federal misdemeanor trial next week, after a lengthy pretrial conference Monday ironed out final details right down to the configuration of defense tables in the courtroom.
The trial is scheduled to begin after Memorial Day and run for two weeks. But defense attorneys are still hopeful it might be avoided after U.S. District Judge April Perry agreed to read unredacted transcripts from inside the grand jury room.
Lawyers for the defendants, including former congressional candidate Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh, have all but accused prosecutors of misconduct in the three separate grand jury sessions this fall that led to their clients’ October indictment.
The grand jury indicted the original six defendants on a count of felony conspiracy for their involvement in a late September protest outside a federal immigration facility in Chicago’s near-west suburb of Broadview for allegedly conspiring to “interrupt, hinder, and impede” a federal immigration agent from the “discharge of his official duties.” They were also each charged with individual misdemeanor counts, which are not charged by a grand jury.
But after dropping all charges against two of the defendants in March, prosecutors made another surprise announcement last month, telling U.S. District Judge April Perry that they’d decided to drop the conspiracy charge. While defense attorneys framed it as a win for their clients, they also suggested the feds’ unexpected move was a strategic way to avoid having to hand over unredacted grand jury transcripts. That set off a week of dueling accusations between defense lawyers and prosecutors over the speed at which the conspiracy charge was dropped and what went on in the grand jury room.
Read more: Conspiracy charge dismissed for ‘Broadview 6’ as other ICE protesters sue over DNA collection | ‘Broadview 6’ defense accuses feds of keeping grand jury transcripts secret, reneging on dropping conspiracy charge | Feds say they’ll drop conspiracy charge against remaining ‘Broadview Six’ protesters
Finally on Monday, the judge agreed to take a look at the transcripts at the urging of Chris Parente, an attorney for Oak Park village trustee Brian Straw, one of the defendants. Echoing arguments he’s made to Perry over the last month, Parente suggested that even the smallest untoward comment could’ve “tainted” the grand jury process, though the judge said it was her understanding that the redactions in version of the transcripts she’d previously seen were likely caused by tech issues and not anything nefarious.
Still, Parente argued that if Perry found something relevant in the transcripts, defense attorneys could make a motion to nullify the remaining misdemeanor charges “and we wouldn’t have to have a trial in this case.”
Canceling the trial would also be “saving resources,” Parente said, referring to a decision Perry had made moments before denying a request from both government and defense lawyers for a jury field trip during trial. In motions last week, both argued it would be beneficial for the jury to see the intersection outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview, about 13 miles west of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.
But the judge balked, citing concerns over the field trip becoming a spectacle that would draw a crowd of protesters, which could then taint the jury.
“To blow a half a day on this, I think, is not a great use of time and taxpayer money,” Perry said after pointing out that the site of the incident was merely “an intersection” and “not an exotic locale they’ve never seen before.”
Charges, trial
The case stems from a Sept. 26, 2025, demonstration outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, which at the time was the epicenter of protests against the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.”
Social media video of the protest posted by Abughazaleh, an influencer-turned-congressional candidate, captured the moment she and dozens of others surrounded an ICE vehicle that drove through the crowd, banging on its windows. Others charged include Abughazaleh’s deputy campaign manager, Andre Martin, and Chicago 45th Ward Democratic Committeeman Michael Rabbitt.
Read more: ‘Broadview Six’ plead not guilty to charges of ‘impeding’ agents outside ICE facility | Democratic candidates, officeholders indicted for ‘impeding’ agent outside ICE facility
The vehicle’s windshield wipers were damaged and someone scratched “PIG” into its side. Though the government previously has acknowledged it isn’t alleging any of the defendants perpetrated those specific acts of vandalism, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Hogan on Monday argued with Perry that he would try to prove that they participated in what he called a “joint venture,” which he said was “obvious” from video of the incident.
“Oh, I disagree,” the judge said, though she did rule to allow prosecutors to use protester chants as evidence in trial.
In October the group was charged with the overarching conspiracy count in addition to individual charges of misdemeanor simple assault of a federal officer, which does not require physical contact.
Read more: Charges dismissed for 2 of ‘Broadview 6’ ICE facility protesters
It’s rare for a federal trial to proceed on only misdemeanor charges, but Perry noted she would tell the group of prospective jurors — all 90 of them — the trial could take up to two weeks.
Also on Monday, the judge made rulings on minor aspects of the trial. But even those weren’t conflict-free. Defense attorneys, for example, wanted to ban prosecutors from using the word “mob” to describe the crowd of protesters. Molly Armour, a lawyer for Abughazaleh, complained that the term “implies some level of criminality.”
Incredulous, Perry shot back that the government had “actually charged your clients with criminality” so it shouldn’t necessarily be a surprise that prosecutors would want to be free to imply such a thing to the jury.
“And if it’s not proved, it’s not proved and they look foolish,” the judge said, chiding the lawyers for asking to bar things from trial that she deemed “worth arguing about before the jury.”
“Same with calling ‘Agent A’ a ‘victim,’” Perry said. “If they argue he’s a victim, you’ll be able to share your thoughts on his lack of victimhood.”
(Reporting by Hannah Meisel, Capitol News Illinois)
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
This article first appeared on Capitol News Illinois and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
