A judge ordered the release of body camera video and other evidence from the shooting of a Chicago woman by an immigration agent in Brighton Park last October during a court hearing Friday.
The judge’s ruling grants the release of body camera footage, text messages, flock camera footage and other evidence from the shooting to the public.
The body camera footage ordered to be released is not that of Customs and Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum, who shot Martinez, but instead from the body camera of another agent at the scene. Exum was not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting.
Marimar Martinez requested the release of several pieces of evidence in her possession that she and her attorneys would allow her to “defend herself from a regrettable and unyielding tide of misinformation from the federal government regarding her case” in a motion to modify the protective order in her case.
“The ability to disclose evidence in this case is paramount to Ms. Martinez’s ability to combat the continuing harm being done to her reputation,” her motion states, later going on to say the release of evidence “is necessary to allow Ms. Martinez to ensure that debate is based in fact.”
Judge Georgia N. Alexakis ordered all of the evidence Martinez requested be released, with the exception of license plate reader camera data.
“We are very happy the judge saw it the way we see it, that the government can’t have it both ways,” Christopher Parente, Martinez’s attorney said after the hearing Friday. “You can’t call a U.S. citizen with no criminal history, who is a Montessori schoolteacher, a ‘domestic terrorist.'”
During the hearing Friday, federal prosecutors argued against the release of more than 200 text messages sent and received by the agents involved in the shooting — including texts where he talks about having pride in his shooting skills.
California Congressman Robert Garcia showed posterboard depicting texts from Exum during the hearing.
“Five shots, seven holes. I fired five rounds and she had seven holes. Put that in your book boys,” the agent said in a text message shown by Garcia.
Federal prosecutors argued the texts will only “further sully” the agent and his family.
“I don’t know why the United States government has expressed zero concern for the sullying of Ms. Martinez’s reputation,” Judge Alexakis said. Her ruling is based on having redactions of the names of all third parties, including Exum’s wife.
Martinez said in the motion to modify the protective order that she also requested the evidence be released as she believes it “would be useful for both the public and elected officials to know regarding how DHS responds in cases where their agents use deadly force against U.S. citizens.” The motion was filed on January 26, 2 days after ICU nurse Alex Pretti was killed by a federal officer in Minneapolis.
The evidence was previously blocked from release when the court granted the United States’ motion for a protective order because its “unrestricted dissemination could adversely affect law enforcement interests and the privacy interests of third parties,” according to court documents.
Martinez was shot on October 4 amid Operation Midway Blitz.
She testified in a Congressional Hearing Tuesday to a committee looking into allegations of excessive violence against immigration enforcement agents, recounting the day she was shot five times.
“As I continued to drive past the Border Patrol agents, I could hear my back passenger window shatter, and I felt bullets continue to pierce my body,” she said. “As I attempted to drive to a safe location, I began to feel lightheaded. I looked down and saw blood gushing out of my arms and legs and realized I had been shot multiple times.”
She called Exum her “attempted executioner” and said she wants the Trump administration to acknowledge she is “not a domestic terrorist.”
NBC Chicago reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for a response to the judge’s ruling but have not heard back.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson said “DHS stands by our press releases and statements. The facts of what happened did not change.”
Martinez’ attorneys and the federal government have agreed to make some redactions in the evidence before it is released. Those redactions will happen over the weekend, they said, so the earliest the evidence could released would be Monday.
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