Oak Parker Brian Straw, one of six former defendants at one time charged by federal prosecutors with conspiracy related to a Sept. 26 demonstration near an ICE detention facility in Broadview, is scoffing at comments made by Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros in a recent court filing.
On June 16, Straw’s attorney, Chris Parente, filed a motion asking Judge April Perry to allow them to conduct discovery following dismissal of their case, for the court to hold an evidentiary hearing on sanctions and discovery, or to designate a Special Counsel “to investigate and, if warranted by the facts, prosecute responsible persons for criminal contempt.”
Boutros objected to it all in a 52-page brief on Aug. 4, while acknowledging that “mistakes” were made in the prosecution of the so-called Broadview Six case. He argued against both discovery being conducted and the appointment of a special prosecutor, saying his office has taken steps to address the alleged prosecutorial misconduct.
Should Perry still decide a special counsel is needed, Boutros said, that person should come from within the DOJ.
“Although the mistakes in this case are regrettable, this is not one of the ‘rare situations when a prima facie case of criminal contempt has been made out,” Boutros said. “And so, this court should reject former defendants’ request for a hearing on these matters or to appoint another attorney to investigate alleged misconduct.”
Straw, who is an attorney and also an Oak Park village trustee, was having none of it, saying justice requires accountability and transparency, and that the current DOJ can provide neither.
“The idea that this department of justice can be trusted to ensure accountability within its own ranks is simply not credible,” Straw said.
“The Office of Professional Responsibility, which Boutros notes he has made a referral to has lost more than 45% of its staff and its director during the Trump administration,” Straw said. “So in a time where referrals to OPR and judges, noting a raft of issues amongst prosecutors are at an all-time high, OPR has been both gutted and beheaded and can’t be relied on to provide real accountability.”
The Broadview 6 indictment came only after three grand jury sessions, during which several grand jurors openly questioned the prosecutor’s arguments, and prosecutors committed several violations of grand jury procedural rules, including twice talking with grand jurors outside the jury chambers.
All charges against two of the defendants were dropped in March. In May prosecutors dropped the lone felony charge against Straw and the other three, for conspiracy, leaving just a single misdemeanor count of forcibly impeding a federal agent. That charge was dropped days later, after Boutros took the rather remarkable step of appearing before Perry and admitting that prosecutors in his office had made “significant errors” during the extended grand jury process.
Responding to Boutros’s motion on Blue Sky on Aug. 4 Straw said, “The full brief is remarkable. While the U.S. Attorney attempts to downplay the misconduct, he admits to discussing the incident with Main Justice as early as Sept. 27 and having the Oct. 9 grand jury transcript as early Oct. 14.”
Straw and others have alleged that Boutros’s office is doing all it can to avoid any further court hearings on a matter that has gained national attention. Sunday night, Straw’s face was on the television screen as comedian John Oliver took the DOJ to task for its legally questionable behaviors on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
“If the justice department were to pay our attorney’s fees as they’ve suggested they will do, they will argue, as they have (previously) that we have no standing to conduct discovery in the case,” Straw said.
In that case, Straw said, “a special counsel should be appointed to ensure accountability and transparency. (Boutros) argued in its motion that if the judge is going to direct that someone conduct such an investigation, it should have DOJ appoint a lawyer to do so. But we do not believe that the DOJ has any credibility to investigate its own conduct,” Straw said.
“Especially when this U.S. attorney, on the day when all of this misconduct came to light, sent an office wide email in which he called the same prosecutors ‘courageous heroes.’”
Asked if he was saying that the fox would be guarding the hen house, Straw took several seconds, then replied, “I think that’s an accurate summary.”
Straw and his fellow former defendants have until Aug. 18 to respond to Boutros’s motion, although Straw wondered whether that would be enough time to respond fully to Boutros’s lengthy 52-page brief.
Once all the motions and responses and replies are on Judge Perry’s desk, she will consider them all and take an indeterminate amount of time before issuing a ruling. Straw declined to hazard a guess as to when that might be or how Perry would rule.