The remaining criminal charges against Oak Park Trustee Brian Straw and his “Broadview 6” protest co-defendants have been dismissed with prejudice just days before their trial was set to begin.
The government moved to drop the charges after U.S. Judge April Perry ordered the U.S. Attorneys on the case and their supervisors into her courtroom for an emergency closed door conference Thursday. That order came after she reviewed unredacted transcripts of the grand jury proceedings that led to the group’s indictment last year at the request of defense attorneys, finding that several improper actions by federal prosecutors during the grand jury process had tainted the last seven months of legal fighting from the start.
The original felony conspiracy charge had been dropped earlier this month, and the government had already abandoned its case against two of the original defendants. The trial for the four remaining defendants on misdemeanor charges had been expected to begin Tuesday, May 26.
The case stemmed from alleged illegal actions at an anti-ICE protest outside the federal immigration detention facility in Broadview last September.
Oak Park’s Straw, 45th ward Democratic committeeman Michael Rabbit, Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh, who fell four points shy of winning Illinois’ 9th district congressional primary last month, and Andre Martin, who worked on Abughazaleh’s campaign staff, are all now free from criminal prosecution.
This is a developing story.