Latest / Best of: Features / Prosecutor accused of misconduct in 'Broadview Six' case resigns, says US attorney 'scapegoated' her

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Prosecutor accused of misconduct in 'Broadview Six' case resigns, says US attorney 'scapegoated' her · Best of: Features

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  Prosecutor accused of misconduct in Broadview six case resigns, says US Attorney
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  Scapegoated her. This article is being
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  read by an automated voice generated by Everlett. Chicago, the AP,
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  a prosecutor who has been accused of misconduct over a failed attempt
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  to bring felony charges against six protesters of the Federal immigration crackdown
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  in Chicago, has resigned, saying she was being treated as a scapegoat
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  after the case fell apart. In a scathing letter Thursday to Andrew
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  Boutros, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, prosecutor Sherry
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  Mecklenberg wrote that she was retiring under protest. You have forced me
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  to choose between remaining silent while my professional reputation is destroyed, and
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  prematurely surrendering my cherished career. Mecklenberg wrote in the letter obtained by
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  the Associated Press. I choose the latter. Mecklenburg accused Boutros of laying
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  responsibility at my feet for a felony prosecution that you personally directed
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  over my objection that the case was better suited to misdemeanor charges.
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  I was a convenient target to be scapegoated and publicly vilified, she
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  wrote. Boutros office did not immediately return a request for comment on
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  the letter. Joel Bertoki, an attorney for Mecklenburg, declined to comment. During
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  protests last fall against the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in the Chicago
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  area, Boutreaux's office moved to press felony charges against six people for
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  allegedly conspiring to impede an officer during a protest at an immigration
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  detention facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview. A grand jury twice
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  refused to indict the group after Mecklenburg, an attorney on the case,
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  presented them with evidence. In the following months the charges fell apart,
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  and in May Boutros dismissed the case altogether. It was among a
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  string of cases in which the Trump administration leveled charges at anti
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  immigration enforcement protesters that did not ultimately stick. The protesters, who have
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  come to be known as the Broadview Six, have accused Mecklenburg of
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  prosecutorial misconduct in her interactions with jury members, and have asked US
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  District Judge April M. Perry to consider sanctions on her Perry is
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  scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case october first. In a
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  motion filed Thursday, Mecklenburg informed the court of her retirement and asked
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  to appear as an independent party in the case. The US Attorney's
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  Office had previously barred her from filing anything on her behalf, and
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  told her she could be disciplined or terminated if she did so,
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  the motion read. Terence Campbell, an attorney for Andre Martin, one of
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  the former defendants, said Mecklenburg's forced resignation letter raises a number of
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  serious factual disputes between her account and that of Boutre's office about
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  why the case was brought. Mace Osterman is a core member for
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  the Associated Press Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America
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  is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms
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  to report on undercovered issues.