A federal magistrate judge has released Marimar Martinez, the woman charged with assaulting Border Patrol agents after she rammed their vehicle and attempted to run down one of the agents.
Judge Heather K. McShain of the Northern District of Illinois did so because Martinez had no criminal record before the crime federal prosecutors allege she committed.
Martinez, 30, and accomplice Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, 21, face charges in connection with following the agents, then boxing them in, then ramming their vehicle, which was providing security for a convoy of other agents.
McShain also released Ruiz.
The Crime
Martinez, driving a silver Nissan Rogue, and Ruiz, driving a black GMC Envoy, thought it would be a bright idea to chase the agents’ silver Chevy Tahoe.
The agents told the FBI, the criminal complaint says, that myriad “civilian vehicles drove aggressively and erratically towards the CBP Vehicle, including by driving within inches of the CBP Vehicle, pulling up alongside both the passenger’s and driver’s side of the CBP Vehicle, and disobeying traffic laws, including running red lights and stop signs, driving in the wrong lane, and driving the wrong way down one-way streets in order to pursue the CBP Vehicles.”
After the CBP Tahoe pulled away from the other vehicles to divert the attackers, “a dark pickup truck cut in front of the CBP Vehicle, the Martinez Vehicle drove up along the driver’s side of the CBP Vehicle, the Ruiz Vehicle drove up along the passenger’s side of the CBP Vehicle, and another vehicle drove near the rear of the CBP Vehicle.”
Martinez, the complaint alleges, “side-swiped” the driver’s side of the CBP Tahoe. Ruiz “drove into and struck the rear right quadrant of the CBP Vehicle.”
After Ruiz and Martinez trapped the SUV, the agents exited the vehicle. Martinez drove her Nissan Rogue at an agent, who then fired five shots at her. Ruiz and Martinez fled the scene, and were later captured.
Planned Attack
Martinez’s attorney, Christopher Parente, “called into question the government’s version of events, including what was captured on the body camera of one of the agents in the vehicle,” Chicago Tribune reported.
Parente claimed that body-camera footage showed an agent saying, “‘Do something, bitch,’ while his hands were on his assault rifle.”
How this justifies what Martinez is alleged to have done is unclear.
Parente also claimed that the real problem in Chicago is not illegal-alien anarchy and far-left illegal-alien enablers. Rather, it is “trigger-happy agents in fatigues and armed with assault rifles driving around unfamiliar neighborhoods in an unmarked vehicle whose only markings were an Uber logo,” as the newspaper paraphrased his remarks.
Federal prosecutor Sean Hennessy explained why Martinez must remain behind bars, and also the obvious. The attack was no impulsive act. It was planned.
“Martinez had been broadcasting the pursuit on Facebook Live, ‘laying on her horn’ and ‘yelling loudly’ at the agents,” the newspaper reported of the prosecutors argument:
“This was intentional,” Hennessy said. “They were not there by mistake. This was not the spur of the moment.”
McShain’s reply: Meh.
“McShain agreed that the charges were serious, but said the defendants’ lack of criminal history, community support and full-time employment tipped the scale to being released on bond,” the newspaper continued:
“This is a horrible situation,” the judge said. “It is a miracle to me that no one else was more seriously injured.”
Criminal Complaint
It is indeed a miracle, given what the criminal complaint alleges.
“Once the CBP Vehicle had stopped and the [Border Patrol agents] exited the CBP Vehicle, MARTINEZ drove the Martinez Vehicle at BPA 1.”
That is why he fired five shots at the woman, and why she landed in the hospital.
Ruiz and Martinez face charges of resisting, impeding, and assaulting a federal agent.
For leftists who mightn’t understand, Chicago’s top cop, Larry Snelling, explained that border and ICE officers are federal law-enforcement agents. Ambushing their vehicles, boxing them in to trap them, then ramming them, aren’t just crimes, he said. They are deadly force. Thus, officers will respond appropriately — with deadly force.
“If you box them in with vehicles, it is reasonable for them to believe that they are being ambushed and that this could end in a deadly situation,” Snelling said.
“If you ram any vehicle, especially that one that contains law enforcement agents, and that’s any law enforcement — local, state, federal, county — and you do this intentionally, this is considered deadly force,” Snelling firmly averred:
Deadly force is anything that can cause great bodily harm or death. When you plow into a vehicle that contains law enforcement agents, you’re using deadly force and they can use deadly force in response to stop you.
Nonetheless, McShain sprung Martinez and Ruiz from the federal lock-up on Monday. Maybe she missed the police superintendent’s lesson in the law.
Supporters of Martinez and Ruiz packed the courtroom to the rafters.
“One called out ‘We love you!’ as Martinez was led from the courtroom,” the newspaper reported. “Another told Ruiz, ‘Keep your head up. Pray.’”
Barring a plea deal, they’re probably praying for a trial judge like McShain.
