An off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was charged with attacking a protester last month at a gas station in west suburban Brookfield, according to officials and the alleged victim of the attack.<\/p>\n
Robert Held, 68, said he followed ICE Officer Adam Saracco from the parking lot of the suburban Broadview ICE facility and was\u00a0filming as Saracco stopped for gas<\/a>. Held said he was standing on the sidewalk when the ICE officer started walking toward him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe increased his pace, and he came upon me, and he threw me to the ground, and he tried to take my phone,\u201d Held said in an interview. \u201cWhat came out of my mouth was, \u2018Calm down, you need to deescalate.\u2019\u201d\u2028\u2028Held said people nearby began honking their car horns, and Saracco eventually let him go.<\/p>\n The officer was charged with a misdemeanor count of battery in connection with the Dec. 27 attack at a gas station in the 9200 block of East 31st Street, according to Brookfield police and Cook County State\u2019s Attorney Eileen O\u2019Neill Burke\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Police said prosecutors \u201creviewed the case and declined to file felony charges, advising it was more appropriately charged as a misdemeanor.\u201d The state\u2019s attorney\u2019s office said the police department directly filed the charges after prosecutors recommended the misdemeanor charge following a review.<\/p>\n Held said police initially told him the case was being investigated as a felony because he was over the age of 60 and it occurred on a public sidewalk. He was later told prosecutors typically only charge felony battery in conjunction with another crime.<\/p>\n But Held was ultimately just grateful to see charges filed. \u201cI\u2019m pleased that there\u2019s going to be accountability and that justice will be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Held has been present at protests against President Donald Trump\u2019s aggressive deportation campaign in the Chicago area, frequently posting to his social media pages. Last fall he was detained while protesting at Broadview and held inside the facility for eight hours.<\/p>\n Officials wouldn\u2019t provide details of the alleged attack in Brookfield or confirm that Saracco works for ICE. His first court appearance was set forearly March.<\/p>\n The U.S. Department of Homeland Security didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment. Saracco couldn\u2019t immediately be reached.<\/p>\n An ICE official with the name of Adam Saracco has 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.<\/p>\n In one 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.<\/p>\n The man, James Chesire, said the ICE officers\u2019 \u201cdemeaning, violent, and unprovoked attack involved physical assault, verbal assault, and excessive use of force, causing Mr. Chesire physical harm and breaking an inviolable constitutional trust.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring this attack, several officers violently beat Mr. Chesire, at times while using derogatory racial slurs against him, with the goal of forcing him to endorse documents of unknown content, and of punishing him for not signing them without understanding their contents,\u201d the lawsuit claimed.<\/p>\n After Renee Macklin Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer earlier this month in Minneapolis,\u00a0O\u2019Neill Burke\u2019s office said<\/a>\u00a0ICE operations \u201chave resulted in unnecessary deaths, broken relationships between law enforcement and our citizens, and an untold amount of terror unleashed on communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, the office said it \u201cdoes not conduct independent investigations into criminal conduct\u201d and has no jurisdiction \u201cover federal agencies or facilities.\u201d Instead, it reviews \u201cevidence appropriately collected by law enforcement\u201d and makes charging decisions.<\/p>\n