An activist and attorney pushed Cook County prosecutors on Tuesday to file a felony charge against the federal immigration agent he says attacked him at a gas station late last year in suburban Chicago.
Robert Held, 68, told reporters he followed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Adam Saracco from the ICE facility in suburban Broadview on Dec. 27, then filmed as Saracco stopped for gas in Brookfield. Held said Saracco eventually started walking toward him and pushed him to the ground.
Saracco appeared in court in Maywood Tuesday for a status hearing in the misdemeanor battery case stemming from the incident. Held told reporters he now wants the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to upgrade the charge to a felony.
“My hope and expectation is that the state’s attorney will do the right thing and hold ICE accountable, and in this case, the agent that committed a criminal act against me,” Held said during a news conference outside the courthouse.
Held argued that, because the alleged attack occurred on a public sidewalk and he is over the age of 60, the agent should face a felony charge. But he acknowledged prosecutors haven’t appeared receptive to this argument.
However, the state’s attorney’s office said a felony charge would require proof that Saracco knew Held was over the age of 60. Prosecutors also noted that they rarely pursue aggravated battery charges based solely on the location of the alleged attack.
Prosecutors said they proceeded with a misdemeanor battery charge based on the facts of the case.
“We evaluate evidence in a consistent manner to ensure everyone is treated equally and held to the same legal standards. In order to charge a defendant with an offense and secure a lasting conviction, prosecutors must be able to prove every element of a crime,” the state’s attorney’s office said in a statement.
Saracco’s attorney asked for a new court date Tuesday and “implied” there were mitigating factors that would justify a further delay of the case, Held said. Another hearing was scheduled for June 23.
Saracco is the first federal agent facing prosecution in Cook County in the wake of Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign in the Chicago area last fall.
Saracco also was been named in a handful of lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, all of which were dismissed.
In a case filed in late 2016, an immigrant of African descent claimed Saracco and other ICE officials attacked him earlier that year at the ICE offices in Chicago.
Former U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo, who led a state commission tasked with documenting the alleged abuses of Midway Blitz, joined Held outside the courthouse and urged Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke to “evaluate the agent’s misbehavior” and consider upgrading the charges against Saracco.
“We do not understand why victims in Cook County are having to go through a very difficult process of seeking accountability,” Castillo said. “Our state’s attorney should be more sympathetic to her victims than she currently is.”
Last week, Cook County Circuit Judge Erica Reddick rejected the arguments of a broad coalition, including Castillo, that sought a special prosecutor to investigate allegations against federal agents. Reddick said it was up to local law enforcement to investigate and bring the cases to the state’s attorney’s office to review for charges.
Castillo said the panel he led, which was assembled by Gov. JB Pritzker, found evidence that federal agents committed numerous crimes against members of the public during Operation Midway Blitz, and he hoped law enforcement agencies would open investigations.
Adam Saracco was charged with misdemeanor battery in the late December attack at a gas station in suburban Brookfield. Robert Held, the attorney and activist who says he was attacked, told reporters Tuesday that he expects prosecutors “will do the right thing” by upgrading the case to a felony.
Adam Saracco was charged with misdemeanor battery in the late December attack at a gas station in suburban Brookfield. Robert Held, the attorney and activist who says he was attacked, told reporters Tuesday that he expects prosecutors “will do the right thing” by upgrading the case to a felony.
