A federal grand jury is investigating the chaos that ensued in Evanston after U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents detained three citizens after an Oct. 31 collision between the agents’ SUV and a woman driving a red sedan, documents obtained in a records request show.
The City of Evanston received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice on Nov. 4, ordering its police department to release vehicle accident reports, body-worn camera video and any other recordings involving federal law enforcement officers and the public on Oct. 31. The subpoena also demanded that Evanston’s police record keeper testify before a grand jury on Nov. 19 at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.
No charges have been filed.
The subpoena, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn McCarthy, was addressed to the “Custodian of Records, Evanston Police Department,” and ordered this person to appear in federal court. It also gave the person the option to submit the documents and video before that date, which Evanston police chose to do.
Just before 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 6, Evanston Police Sgt. Tom Giese emailed FBI Special Agent Chris Ryan to say that Evanston Police Chief Schenita Stewart, Corporation Counsel Alexandra Ruggie and himself would be driving down that day to FBI headquarters on Roosevelt Road in Chicago to turn over the documents in person, per the documents obtained through an open records request.
Grand juries operate in secrecy for the most part. In the Nov. 4 letter, McCarthy asked that the city not publicly disclose the subpoena because it could interfere with the investigation, but noted that they are not required to comply with his request.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office declined to comment on the grand jury proceedings. Likewise, the city of Evanston declined to comment.
However, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss said the city of Evanston has referred the investigation of the traffic crash and the detainments of the three citizens to the Illinois Attorney General’s office and the Illinois Accountability Commission.
Evanston also released, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, body camera footage from a dozen police officers who responded to the traffic crash and ensuing protest at Oakton Street and Asbury Avenue. A review of the records showed that police officers were not at the scene to observe the federal agents detain three U.S. citizens, but arrived shortly thereafter.
At the scene on Oct. 31, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol team lead told an Evanston police sergeant that federal agents in a Chevrolet Tahoe were attempting to evade a red Acura that had been tailing them.
The driver of the red Acura “hit us from behind with her car,” the team leader told the sergeant.
Multiple witnesses of the crash told Evanston police that the agent driving the Tahoe slammed on their brakes to cause an accident. Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss has also made the same accusation.
Federal agents detained the driver, along with another man whom agents beat and dragged on the pavement, and Evanston resident Jennifer Moriarty. Moriarty spoke about her experience under federal custody in an interview with Biss in November.
Moriarty told Pioneer Press Monday that neither the FBI nor any other federal government entity has contacted her since she was held under federal custody on Oct. 31.
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law professor Paul Gowder told Pioneer Press that the subpoena is likely a fishing expedition for the federal government to seek evidence of its claims that protests against federal law enforcement agents are unruly, violent and cause for the National Guard to be called in.
Gowder said the feds have used their investigations to build a narrative that protestors are rioters, and at the same time, depict Illinois, Chicago and other municipalities as uninterested in helping federal agents.
A possible target of the investigation could be the detained citizens or local elected officials, he said.
A grand jury does not have to approve the government’s charges, Gowder said, referring to a case in Washington where prosecutors failed to obtain a felony indictment against a man who was seen on camera hurling a sandwich at a federal law enforcement official, according to the AP.
“I expect, quite frankly, that ordinary people are going to see that this is overreach, and they’re just not going to have it,” he said.
