A federal grand jury has indicted an ICE officer on charges of making false statements about the nonfatal shooting of a man during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota last winter, according to a person familiar with the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
The charges against the officer, Christian Castro of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, represent a rare instance of President Trump’s Justice Department accusing a federal agent of criminal wrongdoing at work.
Mr. Castro, who had been previously charged in state court, was among the thousands of federal agents who flooded Minnesota over the objections of local officials. Those agents made thousands of arrests, clashed regularly with residents and shot three people during the campaign, leaving two U.S. citizens dead.
The indictment against Mr. Castro was filed under seal and officials expect to make it public once he is in custody.
Prosecutors said Mr. Castro shot and wounded Julio C. Sosa-Celis, who is from Venezuela and who lacked legal status in the United States. The Jan. 14 shooting was followed by hours of protests and vandalism.
Top Trump administration officials initially came to Mr. Castro’s defense. But unlike the administration’s position in other shootings, federal officials publicly distanced themselves from Mr. Castro in the weeks that followed. Criminal charges against Mr. Sosa-Celis and another man were dropped, Mr. Castro was suspended and video footage emerged that contradicted key aspects of the initial federal account.
It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Castro had hired a lawyer for the federal case.
Federal prosecutors were still considering whether to file civil rights charges against Mr. Castro, the person familiar with the case said on Thursday.
Three other people familiar with the case — Robin Wolpert, a lawyer for Mr. Sosa-Celis; Frederick J. Goetz, a lawyer for a roommate of Mr. Sosa-Celis who has been classified as a victim in the case; and a third person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information — said in August that prosecutors were preparing to charge Mr. Castro with civil rights crimes. Ms. Wolpert and Mr. Goetz said they’d been informed of those plans by prosecutors and that the charges did not materialize on the timeline they had provided.
See here for the most recent update. There is now of course the question of whether Castro can be found or if he hotfooted it to Mexico as some people warned about before Greg Abbott helped spring him from jail. The Thursday episode of the What Next podcast discussed this case, with guest Quinta Jurecic reporting that she had received a statement from Abbott’s office basically saying they had law enforcement eyes on him. So we’ll see. Texas Public Radio has more.
UPDATE: Christian Castro has turned himself in to federal authorities. But the legal fights are not over.
Christian Castro was taken into federal custody on charges of making false statements to investigators about the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in January, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.
The federal charges follow Castro’s release from jail last week after Texas’ governor refused to immediately sign an extradition warrant to hand him over to Minnesota authorities, who have charged him separately with assault and false reporting of a crime related to the same shooting.
[…]
Earlier this week, a federal prosecutor working on the case told lawyers for Sosa-Celis and other victims that Justice Department officials blocked the prosecutor’s push to bring a more serious civil rights charge against the officer for the shooting, ProPublica reported on Wednesday.
But the person familiar with the investigation disputed the prosecutor’s characterization, saying the civil rights probe is continuing and there has been no final decision on whether to bring additional charges. The prosecutor, Matthew Evans, has been fired and is under investigation for alleged obstruction of a grand jury probe, the person said.
An automatic email response from Evans’ Justice Department account said he was on leave. Other attempts to reach him were not immediately successful.
An attorney for Sosa-Celis said the Justice Department has “grossly undercharged this case,” adding that Castro’s statements were made to “cover up the fact that he shot my client through the door of an occupied house without a self-defense justification.”
“Mr. Sosa Celis wants Mr. Castro to be held fully accountable for his crimes,” said the attorney, Robin Wolpert. The American Liberties Union of Minnesota said Thursday that Sosa-Celis also plans to seek damages from the federal government.
Not clear what will happen with the state charges. I’m sure there will be more legal wrangling over them.