A federal judge last week dismissed charges against two men accused of assaulting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent during a Jan. 14 confrontation in Minnesota during which an agent shot one of the men in the leg.
In a Feb. 13 order, U.S. District Court Judge Paul A. Magnuson granted a Department of Justice (DOJ) motion to drop the charges against Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. The top federal prosecutor in Minnesota, Daviel Rosen, asked the judge to dismiss the charges, citing “newly discovered evidence” in the case that was “materially inconsistent with the allegations” in the original affidavit and preliminary-hearing testimony that was based on information provided to the FBI. The dismissal was issued with prejudice, meaning the charges cannot be refiled.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said Feb. 13 that two officers were placed on administrative leave after video evidence suggested they gave “untruthful statements” during sworn testimony about events leading up to the shooting, according to Reuters.
“Upon conclusion of the investigation, the officers may face termination of employment, as well as potential criminal prosecution,” Lyons added.
Aljorna and Sosa-Celis had been charged in a federal criminal complaint with forcibly assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers.
From the outset, federal officials offered conflicting accounts of the incident.
A day after the confrontation, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Sosa-Celis fled the scene of a “targeted traffic stop” in his vehicle, crashed into a parked car, and then continued to flee on foot. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that when an ICE agent caught up to Sosa-Celis, two men attacked the agent with a broom handle and a snow shovel, at which point Sosa-Celis allegedly broke free and also struck the officer. According to McLaughlin, the officer then fired a “defensive shot to defend his life,” which wounded Sosa-Celis, Zeale News reported.
But a Jan. 16 FBI affidavit offered a different account. It stated that Aljorna, not Sosa-Celis, fled the scene in a vehicle, and Sosa-Celis struck the officer first with a broom handle while the agent attempted to arrest Aljorna. The affidavit alleged that Aljorna then broke free and joined the attack.
The document also noted that the officer had “poor or sporadic lighting” conditions and had difficulty seeing the alleged assailants when he fired a single round “towards the vicinity” of the men.
Frederick Goetz, a lawyer representing Aljorna, welcomed the judge’s decision to dismiss the charges.
“It is my understanding that the video surveillance evidence that captured the incident was materially inconsistent with the federal agent's claims of what happened,” Goetz said in a statement to CBS News. He added that the alleged assault was “not backed up by the video evidence.”
The Jan. 14 encounter sparked a new wave of protests in an already volatile environment in Minneapolis, which had seen two U.S. citizens fatally shot by federal officers in the weeks prior. On Jan. 15, President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act if state officials failed to contain the unrest. In the weeks since, the administration has adjusted its posture and signaled a de-escalation of operations in the state. Border Czar Tom Homan announced Feb. 12 that federal officers would begin drawing down operations in the state over the next week.