Transcripts show tension, improprieties during ‘Broadview 6’ hearings: ‘This case...was a crock of sh-'

Nine minutes into her second attempt to secure an indictment against the group of Operation Midway Blitz protesters who would become known as the “Broadview Six,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg excused a grand juror who called the case a “crock of sh--.”

When a grand juror asked Mecklenburg if the feds had “unlimited tries” as she and a colleague sought charges against the six people who demonstrated outside a suburban immigration facility, Mecklenburg replied, “I don’t think we have to worry about that.”

And on the very first day, when she told the panel she had a “very interesting case,” she urged the grand jurors to “trust” her. She said, “I would never ask you to charge somebody if I didn’t think there was probable cause,” adding, “I don’t charge people unless I’m absolutely sure.”

Those are just a few examples of the alleged prosecutorial misconduct revealed Tuesday by the extraordinary release of transcripts from the normally secret grand jury proceedings that led to the tainted “Broadview Six” conspiracy indictment. U.S. District Judge April Perry, who discovered the improprieties last month, authorized the transcripts’ release Tuesday afternoon.

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They show grand jurors pushed back against the feds’ case, questioning whether an immigration agent at the center of it should have driven his SUV into a crowd of protesters. One grand juror even asked, “if he is afraid of running over people, isn’t the right thing to do to stop?”

“Didn’t you hear the testimony,” Mecklenburg shot back, “that he said he was afraid to stop because he was afraid they were going to break the windows and pull him out and he would be injured?”

The “Broadview Six” case revolved around a Sept. 26 protest outside the immigration facility in Broadview, where a crowd surrounded, pushed, scratched and otherwise damaged a federal agent’s SUV. From that crowd, prosecutors charged only six people, all largely involved in local Democratic politics, raising questions about selective prosecution and freedom of expression.

Charged with conspiracy were former congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, Oak Park village trustee Brian Straw, former Cook County Board candidate Catherine “Cat” Sharp, 45th Ward Democratic committeeperson Michael Rabbitt, musician Joselyn Walsh and onetime Abughazaleh campaign worker Andre Martin.

The case slowly began to fall apart this spring. The final collapse came in spectacular fashion May 21, when Perry revealed the apparent misconduct that she said had also been redacted out of grand jury transcripts given to her by the feds.

Perry said a prosecutor had improperly put her credibility on the line to support the criminal charges. The judge said there were “substantive” communications with grand jurors outside the grand jury room, and that a prosecutor excused grand jurors who didn’t agree with the case.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros permanently dismissed the remaining charges, insisting he didn’t know about the misconduct until late April. The fallout has lasted for weeks, though.

A chorus of Democratic officials has called for Boutros’ resignation, 111 ex-federal prosecutors who served here concluded there’d been a “failure of leadership” in his office, and a federal judge on Tuesday said Boutros’ team had created a “credibility crisis.”

The controversy all revolves around the feds’ alleged abuse of the grand jury system, normally cloaked in secrecy. Grand juries are generally made up of 16 to 23 people who hear only from prosecutors and their witnesses. Twelve members of the panel must concur to indict.

While they’re meant to be a check against overzealous prosecutors, grand juries have long been viewed cynically. There’s even a famous saying that prosecutors can convince a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.

That didn’t seem to be the case when Mecklenburg and Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Skiba brought the “Broadview Six” case to grand jurors on Oct. 9, Oct. 16 and Oct. 23.

Mecklenburg began on Oct. 9 by telling grand jurors “this is a very interesting case. It’s a little different.” Then, she told the panel that Skiba “will vouch for me.”

However, it’s considered improper for prosecutors to use their personal credibility in such a way.

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“I would never ask you to charge somebody if I didn’t think there was probable cause and, you know, you’ve asked me before ‘well, what about this person?’” Mecklenburg told the panel. “And I said, ‘I don’t charge people unless I’m absolutely sure.’”

Later in the presentation, a grand juror asked whether it was appropriate for the immigration agent to drive his SUV into the crowd of protesters on Sept. 26, touching off the confrontation outside the Broadview facility.

“The testimony was that he said he was concerned about stopping for his own safety and he was concerned about the safety in the front,” Mecklenburg told the grand juror. “So he had to balance it. And this is not testimony now, but I would argue he did a pretty good job of balancing it because nobody got hurt.”

The grand jury apparently rejected the case Oct. 9, prompting Mecklenburg and Skiba to try again Oct. 16. Grand jurors actually walked out of the proceedings that day, court records show. That’s also when a grand juror asked Mecklenburg whether the feds get “unlimited tries.”

“I hope you don’t have your mind made up already that I’m going to need more tries,” Mecklenburg said.

But a member of the panel soon asked, “are you actually presenting any new actual facts or just a different viewpoint on your side?”

That’s when Mecklenburg asked if the grand juror would be able to listen with an open mind. The grand juror retorted, “I heard this case, like, last week and I thought it was a crock of sh-- then and I still think it is.”

Mecklenburg told the grand juror to “excuse yourself.”

Federal rules of criminal procedure only empower “the court” to excuse a grand juror. In Chicago, that would be U.S. District Chief Judge Virginia Kendall.

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Mecklenburg began to count the number of remaining grand jurors. The hearing continued and a grand juror told her, “I don’t think I can vote,” so the grand jury foreperson told her they were down to 16. Meanwhile, the agent who drove the SUV was expected to testify.

“I will say I’m a little disappointed that there are people who didn’t want to hear the agent,” Mecklenburg said. “Disappointed.”

The proceedings were called off early that day, without any attempt to present an indictment, records show. So Mecklenburg and Skiba wound up appearing a third time, on Oct. 23. That’s the day the grand jury finally handed up the indictment against the “Broadview Six.”

Boutros had also appeared before grand jurors earlier that day, asking them to raise their hands if they were “struggling with a certain type of cases, such as the immigration cases.”

However, the presentation of evidence began with a revelation from Mecklenburg, according to the transcript. She told the group, “I had conversations with two grand jurors outside of the grand jury room. So I need to put it on the record.”

Mecklenburg said she ran into a grand juror in the elevator who apologized to her and said he “shouldn’t have walked out the way he did.” The second told her, “I understand that people have feelings, but we have to apply the facts to the law,” Mecklenburg said.

Still, Mecklenburg called the revelation a “mea culpa” on her part. She told the panel, “I did something today that I’m not supposed to do.”

And, she said, “I’m the one who knows the rules.”