An uncomfortable and explicit morning: Some notes from Spokane's ICE protester trial

May 22-The trial of three protesters accused of conspiring against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during a summer protest in Spokane was riddled with unexpected and explicit up s and downs Friday.

The government rested their case against Bajun Mavalwalla II, Justice Forral and Jac Archer at the end of the day after a few smooth transitions from witness to witness. But the day didn't start that way.

A tense exchange

Friday began with a bit of tense cross-examination from federal defense attorney Andrea George, who was questioning Spokane County Sheriff's Deputy Brittan Morgan. Morgan testified how he had responded to the protest, that he had to step over protesters linking arms to block an ICE van and that people were shoving him on a police skirmish line - a line meant to direct protesters in a different direction.

His comments that day, caught on body camera, were shown in court. Morgan said he was angry he got called into work that day. Morgan was told by a supervisor to run lights and sirens, he said, and drove to the protest at nearly 100 mph listening to metal music.

He said to himself and others when he arrived at the protest location that he wanted to hit someone with a stick. He also referred to people with a derogatory word for women, which he apologized for on the stand and said he curses a lot in general.

George asked if what the jury was seeing was "the real you." He responded, "You saw me venting to my friends, ma'am.

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Morgan told George "you should probably ask them" when talking about other law enforcement officers that day.

After a brief break, Morgan was called back in to testify about a remark he made to a civilian in a previous encounter. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Perez asked him if he told a civilian at the gym to "eat a bag of" male genitalia. Morgan said yes and told jurors he was reprimanded.

ICE agent's racist posts

A Spokane-based ICE agent at the June protest shown on video footage pushing people in the crowd and pulling a stun gun was asked Friday about his racist and transphobic posts on social media, The Spokesman-Review reported.

Agent Jeremy Burlingame was replying to posts about Black women, calling them "ghetto garbage" and "thugs," referring to transgender people as "mentally ill," suggesting a woman could lose weight and calling for the deportation of a legal permanent resident.

He also posted about former Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart. Stuckart initiated the protest that day when he posted on Facebook for people to help him prevent the detention of two legal immigrants. Burlingame posted after the protest last year that Stuckart should be "charged for incitement at the federal level."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Cartier-Giroux sounded upset as she made Burlingame confirm he had written the racist and transphobic posts. He told her he was going through a hard time and his comments did not reflect the agency or himself.

People in the gallery of the courtroom often scoffed and laughed.

Burlingame deleted his account Thursday, a day before the government was able to question him about it.

He said he did not remember he had the account.

Some voice memos

One sheriff's office deputy testified and two Spokane police officers testified Friday about what they saw, what type of nonlethal weapons were used and why they were used. The consensus among officers was that they fired their nonlethal weapons, which shoot bean bag or foam rounds, at a few protesters because some ran toward them and attempted to throw deployed smoke canisters back at the officers.

Later, the government showed photos of the defendants appearing in the same spots during the protest together. They were surrounded by dozens of other people in the photos.

The government also showed Signal messages from Jac Archer where they shared Ben Stuckart's Facebook post to multiple people. Archer, who uses they/them pronouns, told their family they would be attending the protest and wanted their family to know for safety reasons. The government later played a voice memo from Archer, in which they say they intended to show up at the protest, link arms and be arrested.

Archer said they gathered names and emergency contacts from protesters in case they were injured or arrested that day, something they have done previously as a protest organizer for Spokane Community Against Racism.

"We showed up. It was beautiful. We were organized ... We made sure people were taken care of. People who didn't want to risk arrest brought snacks and water," Archer said.

Archer was not arrested that day. They are shown being pushed by ICE agents at the south gate of the parking lot of the ICE facility at 411 W. Cataldo Ave., and later sitting down in front of the gate with other protesters.

"As a community we were there for each other. We did not leave anybody by themselves, we had a plan and we communicated," Archer said. "There were things in place. As an experienced protester I emptied my backpack of any valuables ... I wanted to make sure there was nothing on me that could be misconstrued as a weapon ... We were not planning to fight in any way. Once we got arrested, we were not going to fight."

A motion for acquittal

All three defendants and their attorneys moved for an acquittal, a common move called a "Rule 29" in criminal trials by the defense claiming prosecutors did not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Archer's attorney Carl Oreskovich asked the judge for an acquittal.

"The question was the intent to commit the crime. What you see in the evidence is perhaps the willingness to risk arrest for failure to disperse, for locking arms," he said. "...There may be acts of vandalism, of punctured tires. Jac Archer had nothing to do with any of it."

Oreskovich continued: "Is there an agreement? Was there an agreement? ... All Jac did is go to protest with an intent to sit in front of a bus or an intent to lock arms ... My client's intent was to hold the line with other people, willing to lock their arms in acts of civil disobedience. There may be crimes, that they failed to disperse. But not this crime ... If there's a case that's appropriate for Rule 29, it's this."

Perez said the conspiracy wasn't to sit in front of the bus, but to block the exits of the building so the ICE agents couldn't leave.

"It was fighting back in such a way that law enforcement had to push back," Perez said. "We've established at every scene, officers talk about what they felt. The 'not moving' was concerning in such a way that people didn't feel comfortable going outside."

Pennell reserved her rulings on the matter until she sees the defense's evidence. The trial is set to resume Tuesday morning.

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