U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman on Tuesday declared a mistrial after a defense attorney wore a T-shirt on which there were photos of Civil Rights Era protesters while questioning potential jurors in the trial of nine defendants indicted in connection with a shooting at a North Texas ICE detention center.
Pittman said from the bench that attorney MarQuetta Clayton’s shirt, which she wore under a blazer, was an attempt to visually equate the civil rights movement to the Prairieland Detention Facility shooting, a position perhaps appropriate for argument to the jury, the judge said, but not via clothing to panel members in jury selection.
Pittman learned of the shirt, which featured images of Shirley Chisholm and Martin Luther King Jr., after Clayton had asked questions of the panel for 22 minutes. That a mistrial resulted from an article of clothing worn by an attorney in a courtroom in an attempt to sway a jury panel is highly unusual, the judge said.
“This has to be a first in the history of American jurisprudence, I would think,” Pittman said.
The judge said he was exasperated. “I’m left with no other choice,” he said. Pittman said the mistrial would cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. The judge said he would schedule a show-cause hearing in which Clayton will have to explain why she should not be sanctioned.
Jury selection began Tuesday morning with 75 potential jurors. Pittman said he was working to bring in a pool of 130 people next Tuesday to start the process again.
All other defense attorneys in the case opposed a mistrial.
Earlier Tuesday, as he questioned potential jurors to glean whether they would be fair and impartial, Judge Pittman used an analogy.
Someone with a deep connection to Texas A&M University may be able to put aside their bias and give the University of Texas a fair trial, the judge noted a couple of times in the echoey downtown Fort Worth courtroom jammed with nine defendants.
In the case at hand, the defendants have been indicted in connection with the July 4 shooting of a local police lieutenant outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Johnson County.
Judge Pittman wanted to know whether any of the 75 potential jurors held strong feelings about immigration enforcement or Antifa — and whether, if they did, the jury candidates would only consider evidence from the trial in verdict deliberation and set aside political sentiments.
About 20 potential jurors suggested that they opposed ICE efforts. “We’re a family of immigrants,” one potential juror said. A man raised his hand and said he held strong feelings “against ICE as an agency.”
“Respectfully, I don’t believe a college rivalry is equivalent to human rights, sir,” said the man, perhaps missing the point of the judge’s analogy. The case’s top count is attempted murder, but the relative culpability of each defendant is in question by their defense attorneys and could be a focus of the trial, which is expected to take about two and a half weeks.
Jury selection got underway with high courthouse security under the eyes of Federal Protective Service personnel and deputy U.S. marshals. Although much of the activity outside the Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado was recorded on video, the defendants’ use of monikers in encrypted written messages in advance of the shooting, avoidance of cellphones that would indicate their location and employment of other methods to maintain “op-sec,” has stymied the connection of behavior to individual defendant, the government has suggested.
The defendants’ attorneys refer to their clients as protesters. The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office describe them as attackers and domestic terrorists aligned with Antifa. Some ignited fireworks, others spoke from a bullhorn, still others spray-painted anti-ICE slogans on vehicles and an unoccupied guard booth.
One of the defendants, Benjamin Song, a 32-year-old former Marine Corps reservist who associates described to authorities as a cult-like ringleader who opposes the government on immigration enforcement and on other matters, shot Alvarado Police Department Lt. Thomas Gross, authorities allege. The lieutenant suffered one gunshot wound that entered near his shoulder and exited his back. Song was the only non-law enforcement shooter, the government alleges. He is accused of firing 11 rounds from a rifle. Gross returned fire with three rounds.
Song and the other defendants were motivated by the position that the migrants who are detained at the ICE facility are political prisoners, Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Smith asserted at an earlier hearing in the case.
Beyond Song, the defendants are Autumn Hill (referred to as Cameron Arnold in the indictment), Zachary Evetts, Meagan Morris (referred to as Bradford Morris in the indictment), Maricela Rueda, Seth Sikes, Elizabeth Soto, Ines Soto, Savanna Batten and Daniel Rolando Sanchez Estrada.
If convicted on the federal charges, the defendants face from 10 years to life in prison. They also face separate state charges. Seven other defendants pleaded guilty to federal charges in November and are awaiting sentencing.
“The Prairieland case is a protest case involving people expressing solidarity with detained immigrants,” Amber Lowrey, sister of defendant Savanna Batten, said in a written statement. “The federal government is trying to reframe protest activity as terrorism, and we’re seeing this attempted across the country, in Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland, and now here in Dallas-Fort Worth.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office argues the suspects used the fireworks to lure ICE personnel from the facility. The July 4 conflict began at 10:37 p.m. when people in the group started shooting fireworks at the detention facility, authorities have alleged. About 10 minutes later, one or two members of the group broke off to spray-paint vehicles and the guard booth. Two corrections officers emerged from inside the facility about 10:58 p.m. shortly after calling 911. Gross was shot about a minute later.
Read more at: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article314726809.html#storylink=cpy
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