CHICAGO \u2014 The woman who once faced charges for assaulting Border Patrol agents after being shot five times is no longer on the defensive, and is planning to launch her own civil lawsuit against Homeland Security and the agent who shot her.<\/p>\n
Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old Montessori school teacher\u2019s assistant and lifelong Chicagoan, is pursuing a Federal Torts Claim Act case against the federal government for Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum\u2019s alleged use of excessive force against her.<\/p>\n
The Federal Torts Claim Act allows individuals to sue the federal government for monetary damages if federal employees acting in their official capacities caused personal injury, death or property loss via a negligent or wrongful act.<\/p>\n
Martinez will seek tens of millions of dollars in damages when she gets her day in court, her attorneys said at a Wednesday news conference.<\/p>\n
The first step, however, is to file a FTCA complaint, which Martinez\u2019s lawyers said they would mail the same day. FTCA claimants must wait six months for a response to the complaint from the government before they may file a civil suit.<\/p>\n
Martinez\u2019s attorneys were confident the complaint would not receive a response, allowing them to file an official suit and have a bench trial in front of a federal judge for the Northern District of Illinois.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m confident, based on their track record, \u2026 we will get a fair trial, will hold this officer accountable, and we intend to fast forward this case,\u201d Michael Gallagher, one of the attorneys representing Martinez, said. \u201cWe want to be at trial by October.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evidence released<\/p>\n
Martinez\u2019s lawyers also shared evidence from her case that had been under seal, even though a judge had dismissed the assault charges against her with prejudice in November.<\/p>\n
A judge approved her request to unseal much of the evidence in the case last week. She\u2019s now seeking to defend her reputation by publicly releasing evidence from her case that she says will refute Exum and the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s claims that she is a \u201cdomestic terrorist\u201d with a history of doxing agents and that she rammed agents with her car.<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors released text messages, body-camera footage and photos from the scene. Martinez\u2019s team says they will release additional records that were not in the batch made public by the U.S. attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Martinez\u2019s team previewed some of those records during the news conference and discussed how the evidence undermines seven lies they identified as being weaponized by DHS in a \u201cmisguided smear campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou (get) to see why it mattered, why it matters that people can actually see the real evidence, as opposed to the false claims by our government,\u201d attorney Chris Parente said. \u201cI mean, we live in a strange time right now where we cannot trust our federal government. I\u2019ve never lived through anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lies outlined by Parente included the government\u2019s claim that Martinez is a domestic terrorist, that she has a history of doxing federal agents, that she rammed into agents with her car and boxed them in, that all of Exum\u2019s shots went through her windshield and that she was armed with a semi-automatic weapon.<\/p>\n
What the records show<\/p>\n
Martinez was on her way to donate clothes to her church last fall when she noticed a vehicle with Border Agents driving through her Brighton Park neighborhood, according to her attorneys. Photos of her vehicle show a black garbage bag filled with clothes in the back seat.<\/p>\n
The agents were in Chicago during an immigration enforcement campaign called Operation Midway Blitz.<\/p>\n
Martinez began trailing agents in her vehicle, following for about 15 minutes while honking and calling out \u201cLa Migra,\u201d a Spanish term for federal immigration enforcement officers, to alert her neighbors to the agents\u2019 presence.<\/p>\n
Then, as Martinez was driving alongside the CBP vehicle, her lawyers say Exum \u201cdeliberately swerved\u201d his vehicle into hers \u2014 contrary to DHS claims that Martinez \u201crammed\u201d her vehicle into the agents\u2019 car and boxed them in.<\/p>\n
After the incident, one of the agents interviewed by the FBI drew a diagram reportedly showing the arrangement of cars on the road, which would support the agents\u2019 version of events. A copy of that diagram was in the batch of records released by federal prosecutors.<\/p>\n
The drawing depicts three vehicles ahead of the Border Patrol vehicle on the road, followed by vehicles driven by Martinez and her co-defendant, whose charges were also dismissed with prejudice.<\/p>\n
However, video footage from a nearby auto shop showed two cars pass by, and then only after both cars were out of sight did the Border Patrol vehicle pass the shop.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can they claim they couldn\u2019t go forward? We just saw that those cars ahead of them went forward,\u201d Parente said. \u201cThey drew those cars in to justify a bad shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shooting itself was not captured on body camera video, as Exum did not have his camera turned on, an apparent violation of department policy.<\/p>\n
However, one of the agents in the back seat did activate his camera, capturing the moments before and after the shooting, in which Exum appears to veer sharply to the left in the direction of Martinez\u2019s vehicle. Both vehicles came to a stop before Exum exited his car and shot Martinez five times, all in under two seconds.<\/p>\n
Those shots, he claimed, were all directed through the windshield of Martinez\u2019s car, something he and other agents repeated in their statements to the FBI. That would support the claim that Martinez was driving directly at agents when Exum shot her.<\/p>\n
Yet attorneys for Martinez said the evidence contradicts that claim, showing three bullets on the passenger side of her car.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a car length away from this guy, and he\u2019s a firearms instructor,\u201d Parente said. \u201cIf she\u2019s truly driving right at him, you\u2019re going to have all five shots straight through the driver\u2019s side of the windshield. Well, what do you have? Because she\u2019s not driving at him, she\u2019s driving away from him, you have three bullets on the passenger side.\u201d<\/p>\n
In statements released after the shooting, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin justified the shooting in part by claiming that Martinez was armed with a semi-automatic weapon.<\/p>\n
Martinez, who attorneys said has a valid concealed carry license, had a gun stored in a bright pink holster, snapped shut at the bottom of her purse. Agents in the case did not claim at any point that Martinez took out the weapon or pointed it at them.<\/p>\n
Martinez, Parente added, is a U.S. citizen who has no criminal record.<\/p>\n
McLaughlin also posted a statement on X, quoting Martinez as saying, \u201cHey to all my gang let\u2019s f\u2014 those mother f\u2014\u2013s up, don\u2019t let them take anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, attorneys for Martinez say that the evidence they are set to release shows that statement was made in an unrelated ICE report by someone not connected to Martinez. DHS has issued no retraction and the post remains visible online.<\/p>\n
Parente also argued that Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s written \u201cRespect for Life\u201d policy is a lie, pointing to a screenshot of an email in which then-Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino congratulated Exum on his \u201cexcellent service in Chicago\u201d and offered him an extension of his retirement age.<\/p>\n
The email was sent just hours after Exum shot Martinez, while she was still in the hospital and her survival was uncertain, before the completion of any investigation into the shooting.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople want to know why no one did CPR to Miss Good when she was dying in the streets of Minneapolis,\u201d Parente said, referring to Renee Good, the woman fatally shot by an ICE agent last month. \u201cIt\u2019s because the agents were probably checking their phone to see what their reward was going to be for killing them, right? Because this is what the culture is at Border Patrol, you\u2019re getting emails from the highest levels within hours of a shooting, rewarding you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attorneys also highlighted a number of text messages sent and received by Exum from other agents, including texts calling him \u201ca legend among agents\u201d and promising to buy him beers to celebrate.<\/p>\n
In one with his \u201cPosse Chat,\u201d a group chat with other Border Patrol agents, an agent asked Exum \u201cAre they supportive?\u201d apparently asking about DHS leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cBig time,\u201d Exum replied. \u201cEveryone has been including Chief Bovino, Chief Banks, Sec Noem and El Jefe himself\u2026 according to Bovino.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez\u2019s lawyers interpreted \u201cEl Jefe,\u201d Spanish for \u201cthe Boss,\u201d as a reference to President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
Most people would walk away quietly after their case was dropped, Parente said. But for Martinez, it was important to be a voice for others, like Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, all killed by federal agents in similar encounters around the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have your own government call you something as hurtful and as harmful as a domestic terrorist when you know you\u2019re not is just unacceptable,\u201d Parente said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why Miramar instructed her team to continue to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 The woman who once faced charges for assaulting Border Patrol agents after being shot five times…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":584498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,253277,5386,1818,425,50,3546,80,290],"class_list":{"0":"post-584497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-courts-police-fire","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-local","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-people","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-state"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116057376449863712","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}