Paul Ivery, a 26-year-old Oak Park resident, is currently being held in federal custody on charges of felony assault of a federal officer. He was arrested outside the ICE detention facility in Broadview at 6:30 p.m. Saturday Sept. 27 while attending a protest.
Oak Park neighbors describe Ivery as “neurodivergent,” with a special interest in police officers, and say that his intellectual disabilities should be taken into account in his case.
In the criminal complaint against Ivery, it says that Ivery “explained his disappointment that ICE agents were disrespectful towards the Broadview Police Department and veterans, which was his basis for attending the protest.”
Ivery was one of five protestors arrested by federal law enforcement outside the ICE facility over the weekend.
Broadview officials have opened three criminal investigations into actions taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the Department of Homeland Security in their city.
Broadview’s Mayor Katrina Thompson has said the relentless deployment of tear gas, pepper spray and mace at the ICE facility is harming police officers.
The criminal complaint against him alleges Ivery began shouting threats and expletives at a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer during the protest.
Ivery allegedly said he would kill the officer and taunted him and other officers to “do something,” according to the complaint.
Ivery then reportedly ran away from a Border Patrol officer before the officer tackled him, causing both of them to fall to the ground together, according to the complaint. While they were on the ground, Ivery allegedly grabbed the back of the Border Patrol officer’s helmet and pulled it down, according to the complaint.
Ivery reportedly waived his Miranda rights and agreed to speak to the Border Patrol investigators after the incident, according to the complaint. Investigators said he confessed to making the threat and to pulling the officer’s helmet down in the ensuing struggle, according to the complaint.
Investigators said that body-worn camera footage of the incident did not capture audio of Ivery speaking with officers, according to the complaint.
Michelle Mascaro is the owner of Happy Apple Pie Shop, a Harrison Street business which employs people with intellectual disabilities. Mascaro has known Ivery since he attended elementary school with her kids at Irving Elementary.
“Paul is a very caring person,” she said. “Paul is very engaged in making sure things are done right, that rules are followed. He loves the police. He’d say he wanted to be a police officer. … He wanted to have things in order, he wanted people to be safe.”
She shared that Ivery participates in lots of local activities, including Best Buddies, which her daughter also takes part in. Ivery also works part time in food service at Oak Park and River Forest High School, the school he attended.
Mascaro “couldn’t believe it,” when she heard that Ivery was arrested for felony assault of a federal officer.
“I just thought that cannot be, that would not be Paul,” she said. “I’ve never experienced him as violent or in any way combative.”
She said she does not believe he went there with the intent to hurt anybody.
“I think he got caught up in a really bad situation. And what I’ve heard from other people who were at that event, that night it was pretty awful. And it wasn’t anything from the people on the street who started it. It was from the other side,” she said.
Mascaro said that the court should “consider that he has an intellectual disability that makes it hard for him to process things in a way that a typical person might process something.”
She said she is very concerned for him and his mental health.
“I don’t think he understands what’s going on,” she said “I think that for Paul, he’s in a situation where he doesn’t have his family, his mom, or his friends, he can’t ask a question. I think it’s a harsh system, and I don’t think that it’s set up for a person who has an intellectual disability to be able to navigate it.”
Ivery has been held at Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center awaiting a detention hearing. He will appear before Judge Gabriel A. Fuentes Wednesday, Oct. 1.
Wednesday Journal will cover that hearing and continued protest.
