Charlotte immigration agents losing key surveillance video in a case accusing protesters of assaulting them is “troubling,” a federal judge said Monday. But it’s not enough to justify tossing charges, he said.
Neither are the false statements agents once made about protesters Heather Morrow and William Stanley, U.S. District Judge Matthew Orso said during a two-and-a-half-hour hearing Monday morning. The final case stemming from the Trump administration’s “Operation Charlotte’s Web” will go to trial next week, he ordered.
Morrow, a former Mecklenburg county commission candidate, and Stanley, a local college student, are accused of assaulting agents while protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol during the agencies’ weeklong operation in Charlotte in November.
Despite their attorneys’ objections and claims the federal government has mishandled their cases, Morrow and Stanley will go before a federal jury on federal misdemeanor charges of assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with government officials. They also face petty misdemeanor offenses of: obstructing entrances on a federal property; disrupting government officials’ duties and failing to comply with officials’ orders.
If convicted, they face up to a year in prison or a $100,000 fine for the misdemeanor charge and one month or $5,000 fines for each of the petty charges.
Several U.S. citizens in Charlotte faced similar federal assault charges while...
Charlotte immigration agents losing key surveillance video in a case accusing protesters of assaulting them is “troubling,” a federal judge said Monday. But it’s not enough to justify tossing charg...