Assault charge dropped against U.S. citizen ICE allegedly shot from behind; lawyers say this isn't over
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Set us as preferred Federal prosecutors have dismissed an assault charge against a man whose lawyers say he was shot from behind by an immigration agent last year.The decision Monday to drop the charge against Carlos Jimenez, a U.S.citizen, of assault on a federal officer came after a prolonged effort by the Ontario man’s lawyers to get records related to the shooting, including the officer’s text messages.
Prosecutors said the messages did not exist.A judge ordered them to either produce the records or submit the officer’s sworn statement that they did not exist.
The same day, both sides signed an agreement that paved the way for the dismissal.Jimenez’s civil rights attorney, Greg Jackson, said he was filing suit against the federal government this week alleging malicious prosecution and abuse of process.
The suit will claim that federal agents lied about the incident and that the purpose of the government’s prosecution was to conceal agents’ behavior the day of the shooting.“ The criminal proceeding was initiated and maintained without probable cause,” Jackson said, reading from a draft copy of the complaint.“Carlos was complying with the officers’ instructions and posed no threat.”In an email, the Department of Justice said the case was dismissed because Jimenez adhered to the agreement reached between his lawyers and prosecutors.“He held up his end of the deal and stayed out of trouble,” spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy said in an email.
“In exchange, we held up our end of the deal and asked the court to dismiss the case, which it did.”McEvoy said that Jimenez had requested both the agreement and the pause to the judge’s order for prosecutors’ records.“A grand jury found probable cause to indict Carlos Jimenez for assaulting a federal officer with his car,” McEvoy wrote.
“He has no c...