The Colorado district attorney who charged a federal immigration officer with assault after a protester was forced to the ground during a demonstration in Durango said Thursday that politics did not influence his decision to bring the criminal case, which is expected to test the boundaries of immunity for federal agents.
Sixth Judicial District Attorney Sean Murray is one of just a few prosecutors across the country who have pursued criminal charges against federal agents for their actions during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
On Tuesday, he filed misdemeanor assault and petty offense criminal mischief charges against U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Nicholas Rice.
Murray told The Denver Post on Thursday that he did not consider that broader political landscape when he filed the case.
“Affirmatively no,” he said. “I tried to set that aside. I don’t think it is relevant to that decision-making process.”
He was aware of the political implications, he added, and he did consider federal statutes and federal use-of-force guidelines as he considered the case. Politics, though, didn’t factor into the decision-making, he said.
“At the end of the day, it shouldn’t matter, as long as there is an analysis about supremacy clause immunity,” he said, referencing the broad legal protections federal agents have when acting in the course of their official duties.
“It is a slightly different posture, procedurally, than a typical case when someone can’t claim that,” he said. “So there is an added layer of analysis to the charging decision in that regard. But I think itap incumbent upon state and local prosecutors to enforce the criminal code.”
Murray emphasized that all defendants are considered innocent unless and until proven guilty, and declined to discuss the specifics of the case against Rice.
The began investigating the case in October at the request of Durango police Chief Brice Current in the wake of a widely-circulated video that showed a masked federal officer snatch protester Franci Stagi’s phone, drag her across a street and throw her to the ground during an at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Durango.
Stagi, a retired hypnotherapist, said she reached for the officer’s shoulder to get his attention after she lost her phone. She said he put her in a chokehold and threw her down an embankment next to the street. She said she still experiences pain in her arm while doing everyday activities, like putting on her jacket.
“It did open my eyes to how quickly I can be under someone else’s control, and itap frightening,” said Stagi, whose legal name is Anne Francesca Stagi.
The Justice Department has taken a hard line against state efforts to arrest or prosecute federal agents, citing the broad legal protections. Late last year, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said arrests of federal officers performing their duties would be “illegal and futile,” citing the Constitution’s supremacy clause and federal law.
Legal experts say those protections are significant but not absolute and that the supremacy clause does not provide blanket immunity.
In a statement on the Colorado charges, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said states do not have the authority to investigate such cases.
“Federal officers acting in the course of their duties can only be investigated by other Federal agencies,” the statement read.
The department said it was still investigating what happened in the incident.
Murray said Thursday he expects Rice’s case to move to federal court for the debate on federal immunity. He added he considered that potential defense as he decided whether to bring charges.
Stagi said Wednesday she was disappointed Rice was charged with less serious crimes. The assault charge, a misdemeanor, carries a maximum sentence of just under a year in jail. But she hopes the prosecution sends a message that immigration officers can’t tackle people indiscriminately and use excessive force.
Across the country, at least two other federal agents have been charged with crimes amid the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement effort.
Earlier this month, a federal immigration agent was charged with two counts of second-degree assault by a county prosecutor in Minnesota amid investigations into the actions of several officers during the immigration crackdown in the Minneapolis area.
ICE officer Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. is accused of pointing his gun at occupants of a car after pulling alongside them on a Minneapolis-area highway. Investigators say Morgan said he feared for his safety after the vehicle swerved in front of him.
Outside Chicago, an off-duty ICE agent has been charged with misdemeanor battery for throwing to the ground a 68-year-old protester who was filming him at a gas station in December. The Homeland Security Department says the agent acted in self-defense.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
