Jury begins deliberations in Spokane ICE protester case

May 27-An Eastern Washington federal jury has begun deliberations to decide whether to convict or acquit three Spokane protesters accused of conspiring to impede or injure U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last year.

The agents were attempting to transport a group of detained immigrants to a Tacoma detention center in a bus on June 11 when former Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart posted a call to action on Facebook, asking people to join him in sitting around the bus to prevent it from leaving.

As hours went by, more protesters showed, including military combat veteran Bajun Mavalwalla II, who was arrested four days after the protest; activist and Gonzaga University Law School alum Jac Archer; and activist Justice Forral.

Protesters began linking arms around vans and in front of agents' cars. Then, the day grew chaotic - smoke canisters were deployed, there were multiple emotional scuffles in crowds of people and around 30 people were arrested for their role in the protest outside the ICE facility at 411 W. Cataldo Ave., The Spokesman-Review reported.

Nine people were charged in federal court; six of them pleaded guilty. The three defendants each face a fine and up to six years in prison.

For the government to prove there was a conspiracy, they must prove there was a plan or an agreement to complete one of four elements - that the defendants agreed to impede an agent in their duties using force, intimidation or threat, that the defendants agreed to injure an agent, that the defendants agreed to injure the agents' property or that the defendants agreed to injure the agents' property to hinder them in their duties.

It is not enough to prove conspiracy just because people acted in similar ways, according to the jury instructions.

The defendants had no explicit plan or agreement with others, the defendants' attorneys said in their closing statements Wednesday, but instead made their own decisions to show up and act similarly to other people.

There was also no force, intimidation or threat while being civilly disobedient, Archer's attorney Carl Oreskovich argued.

Archer shared Stuckart's Facebook post that day with others and later agreed to go to the protest themselves. Archer is heard and seen telling people to remain nonviolent. They also removed items from their backpack so it couldn't be mistaken as a weapon. Archer told people they would be willing to risk arrest for sitting in front of the bus, but that they would not resist being arrested if it came to that.

Archer is also seen collecting names and information of people who wanted to remain nonviolent but were risking arrest for bail purposes.

Video footage shows the protest became more tense and chaotic when Homeland Security Investigations and ICE agents walked directly into a crowd blocking the exit of a parking lot gate and immediately began pushing, grabbing people by the neck and shoving them toward the ground.

Archer is shown in the scuffle being pushed to the ground by a federal agent in the scuffle and later peacefully sitting in front of the gate after agents left.

"Jac Archer tells people, if you can't control your emotion, don't do it," Oreskovich told the jury. "Is that someone that intends to use force?"

Mavalwalla II is shown being pushed among the crowd by the gate, holding a sign, yelling at agents that the local police are not coming, and pulling his arm away from an officer who attempted to grab it from behind. He is also shown wearing gloves and twirling around nearby a police skirmish line, a method where police stand side-by-side to direct crowds.

His attorney Aine Ahmed acknowledged parts of the protest became volatile and people damaged property. But his client was not part of that, he said.

"I could know you're robbing a bank, and I could stand outside after and clap for ya - that doesn't make me a co-conspirator," he said, adding that his client was never seen putting hands on any federal agents, either.

"Mr. Mavalwalla is less than 1% of the population that is a combat veteran. If he wanted to use force, (it) would not have been like that," Ahmed said.

Andrea George, Justice Forral's attorney, told the jury that Forral was often seen wandering around from place to place on video footage, not speaking with people as if they were agreeing to a plan.

"Even if individuals refused to disperse ... sat outside a van ... linked arms, refused to listen to directives, engaged in disorderly conduct, it does not make them guilty of this crime," she said.

In closing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Cartier-Giroux said that the case is not about free speech, immigration or protesting. The government supports people's rights to disagree, she said.

"It's about violating the law. And no matter what adjective you use to describe the conduct, you are here to look at the conduct and see whether or not the evidence shows the conduct occurred," she said. "You may not like the decisions that were made. ... But your job here is not to decide if it could have been done better."

Cartier-Giroux said part of the crime is proving a reasonable person, according to the law, would feel afraid during the course of events. The agents said they felt afraid of the protesters outside as the crowd continued to grow, she told the court. When the protesters began interfering with Spokane police later in the evening, Cartier-Giroux argued the defendants were therefore impeding the agents, who were trying to gain protection from local law enforcement as a way to escape the building.

She also said the defendants made statements about what they planned to do that day that furthers the conspiracy.

"Forral is over there saying 'block the exit.' Why? Because the plan is to block the exit. The plan is to keep the detainees inside. The plan is to work together to do this," Cartier-Giroux said.

The jury was dismissed at 5 p.m. and will continue to deliberate Thursday morning.

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