I am so proud of Oak Park Village Trustee Brian Straw. Thanks to the dogged persistence of his defense counsel, Chris Parente, seeking un-redacted versions of the grand jury transcripts, the Feds today have dismissed all charges against the Broadview 6 for protesting at the Broadview ICE Detention Center last fall (where my wife and I protested one week later).
Turns out the Feds engaged in serious misconduct before the grand jury, dismissing jurors not inclined to indict (which kind of defeats the whole purpose of a grand jury).
This is prosecutorial misconduct of the highest degree, compounded by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Hogan overseeing the hiding and redaction of the improper conduct from copies at first given to District Judge April Perry.
Before Trump, the Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office was a place that played hard but fair, and trained many fine lawyers whom I worked for over the years, including U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Ilana Rovner and former U.S. Attorneys Dan Webb and Governor Jim Thompson. As well as many former AUSA’s who live in Oak Park. All of whom are honest, decent people.
The same cannot be said for AUSA Hogan, who willfully engaged in a political prosecution and degraded the cause of justice.
I have offered to buy Trustee Straw a beer in one month’s time, after he decompresses with his family from a nearly year-long nightmare. He represents the finest in public service to our town, and to fairness and lawfulness in our country.