Federal prosecutors have dropped criminal charges against a woman accused of participating in a controversial January protest at a Minnesota church after the woman apparently did not attend the event at all.
Prosecutors notified a federal judge they intended to drop charges against Heather Danae Lewis, who was one of 30 people charged in connection with an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protest that disrupted a service at Cities church in St Paul. Officials have charged the protesters with civil rights crimes, saying they interfered with the right of the congregants at the church to exercise their religious beliefs. The media professional Don Lemon, who was at the event reporting on the protest, was among those charged.
Charging documents filed in February say Lewis was among a group that gathered in the parking lot of a supermarket, Cub Foods, before the protest for a “pre-operation briefing”. The documents also say Lewis was one of the people who entered the church and participated in several chants.
But a lawyer representing Lewis, Brock Hunter, told the New York Times that his client coincidentally was in the Cub Foods parking lot at the same time the protesters were meeting. She was there to pick up items she won at an auction, Hunter told the Times. He added that he thinks she might have been targeted because prosecutors obtained cellphone data to try to determine everyone who was in the parking lot at that time – and that Lewis also resembled a woman who appeared on video of the protest.
Prosecutors said they intended to drop the charges “with prejudice” – meaning they cannot be refiled.
“I am glad this simple case of mistaken identity is finally coming to an end for me, and I am happy that my family no longer has to worry that I could be arrested again at any moment,” Lewis said in a statement obtained by the Times. “This has been a stressful time for my family.”
The Trump administration’s justice department has touted the prosecution. But on Friday, a magistrate judge overseeing the initial stages of the case chided the justice department for being slow to turn over discovery.
“Here we are, months into a case that the government had an intense appetite to initiate, but cannot seem to keep up the pace when it comes to discovery obligations,” Douglas Micko, the magistrate judge, wrote. “This is unacceptable.”
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