A federal judge ruled Wednesday to grant pretrial release to the Oak Park man with an intellectual disability who was arrested at a Broadview ICE facility protest over the weekend, choosing to impose few of the restrictions sought by federal prosecutors.
Paul Ivery, 26, was arrested by federal agents at the protest at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27. He was charged with felony assault of a federal officer after allegedly threatening to kill a Border Patrol agent and pulling down the officer’s helmet during his arrest, according to federal investigators.
Ivery, described by those who know him as having a deep appreciation for local law enforcement, told federal investigators he was at the protest to express “his disappointment that ICE agents were disrespectful towards the Broadview Police Department and veterans,” according to the criminal complaint filed against him.
Judge Gabriel A. Fuentes ordered Wednesday Oct. 1 that Ivery be granted pretrial release without the house arrest restrictions federal prosecutors had requested. Fuentes said that federal pretrial release office who evaluated Ivery’s case determined he was “among the lowest risks it had ever seen.”
Ivery will appear before Fuentes again later this month. He is set to be released from custody at the Metropolitain Correctional Center at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Roughly two dozen friends, family members and Oak Park neighbors attended the hearing at Downtown Chicago’s Dirksen U.S. Courthouse to support Ivery. Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman and Cook County Commissioner Tara Stamps were among the well-wishers.
“It was a win for law and humanity and for our families in Oak Park,” Stamps said
Scott Sakiyama, an Oak Park attorney who is helping support Ivery’s family but is not representing him in court, said that while the Judge’s pretrial release ruling was cause for some celebration, the case against Ivery needs to be dropped.
“These charges are ridiculous and they should be dropped,” Sakiyama said. “Hopefully, the government will take some time to reconsider what they’re doing here. I think the judge subtly asked them to do that during the hearing, but hopefully it will be over soon.”
During the hearing, Fuentes read two letters of support for Ivery into the record during the morning’s proceedings — one from Scaman and one from a junior student at Oak Park and River Forest High School, where Ivery has worked as a hall monitor and cafeteria worker for the last four years.
In their letter, the student wrote that Ivery’s arrest made them “feel very scared for our Oak Park community.
“He is not a criminal, he is a kind person,” the student said in the letter. “He is always attentive and hard working.”
Fuentes reading from the student’s letter brought Ivery to tears at the front of the courtroom.
Scaman’s letter included personal commendations for Ivery from Oak Park Police Chief Shatonya Johnson, OPRF School Resource Officer Sgt. Manuel Ruiz and OPPD Sgt. Samantha Deuchler.
“Our officers know him as the kid who stops and salutes when he sees them on the street,” Scaman wrote in her letter. “Paul contributes to all that makes Oak Park special, he’s a beloved member of our community.”
Fuentes said the letters made an impact on his ruling.
“People think that they may write to the judiciary and write to the government and they will not be heard,” he said. “Well, they’re heard.”
Scaman told Wednesday Journal after the hearing that she had never been inside a federal courthouse before, but that she was driven to stand up for a resident who was exercising his constitutional rights.
“This has been an extremely traumatic moment for Paul, so I’m grateful for the ruling,” Scaman said. “I know that our community is going to embrace Paul so that this is a moment that he will able to move forward from in a healthy way.”
Ivery’s attorney Johnathon Brooks argued against every restriction the state sought.
“He is in this situation because of the oppression of the United States government,” Brooks said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Caitlin Walgamuth argued that Ivery’s release should come with orders that he be held on strict house arrest, placed under the custodianship of a neighbor and barred from interacting with minors while working at OPRF.
“The government’s position is that this is dangerous, erratic behavior,” Walgamuth said. “We would recommend that he not be in a role of authority for minors.”
She said that the government was alright with Ivery continuing to work at OPRF so long as he kept to the back of the cafeteria and away from students. She also suggested that Ivery’s intellectual disability served as grounds for a mandated custodianship. Fuentes rejected both of those arguments from the prosecution, saying that the suggestion that Ivery’s disability made more restrictions necessary was “ableist at worst.”
He said allowing Ivery to continue his normal work at OPRF was in all parties’ best interest.
“There is no way in the world I would tell him not to interact with minors,” he said. “My reaction to that was kind of visceral.”
Zoë Takaki contributed to this report.
