As Marimar Martinez sat in a hospital bed last October, hours after she was shot five times in Brighton Park, friends and colleagues of the Border Patrol agent who fired his gun at her showered him with praise.
“You are a legend among agents you better f---in know that,” one text sent to Agent Charles Exum read. “Beers on me when I see you at training.”
That text was among a trove of evidence released by Martinez and her attorney Wednesday as they plan to file a civil suit against Exum and Department of Homeland Security officials, who labeled the 30-year-old Montessori school teacher as a “domestic terrorist” before prosecutors abruptly dismissed their case against her.
The new evidence includes texts to and from Exum following the shooting, surveillance photos and body camera footage from agents who were at the scene of the Oct. 4 shooting. Much of it contradicts the narrative spread by DHS, which alleged that Martinez “ambushed” Border Patrol agents and rammed them with her vehicle, Parente said.
“I think (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was hoping they would get some radical individual so they could support some of their false claims, but they picked the wrong victim to mess with,” Martinez’s attorney Christopher Parente said at a news conference Wednesday.
Martinez and her attorneys say they plan to file a federal claim Wednesday ahead of an eventual civil lawsuit against Exum.
Parente added that he believed federal prosecutors in Indiana have launched a...
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