Judge Holds ICE Agent In Contempt

The apparent arrogance of ICE agents is enough for almost anyone to hold them in contempt. They’re not nice. They violate human rights. They behave in an extrajudicial matter that reeks of an authoritative autocracy. They hide their face and have this bad habit of disappearing people, including mothers with children, right off the streets. Encounters with ICE usually result in being shoved into a black, unmarked van and whisked away without ever being told what one has done wrong.

That is exactly what happened when ICE agent Brian Sullivan detained Wilson Martell-Lebron last week. Martell-Lebron was tackled by masked men, shoved in a black van, and driven away. But this time, the arrest encroached on the turf of Judge Mark Summerville and anyone who knows anything about judges knows that you don’t want to piss them off in their own courtroom.

The problem is that Martell-Lebron was already on trial in Judge Summerville’s courtroom. The court had taken a break, and Martell-Lebron was on the courthouse steps when he was assaulted by ICE and taken away. Obviously, this meant that the defendant wasn’t there when Summerville reconvened the court.

From the bench, Judge Summerville said, “It’s a case of violating a defendant’s right to present at trial and confront witnesses against him. It couldn’t be more serious.” Summerville then immediately dismissed the charge against Martell-Lebron of making false statements on his driver’s license application- namely that he wasn’t Martell-Lebron. There is no way that case could legally proceed without the accused being present.

After that, Summerville filed the contempt charge against Sullivan, which could lead Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden to review the case to determine if any charges should be filed. Be sure, this is a sticky situation in which the question of whose jurisdiction is more important comes to bear, and the answer is something less than clear.

“It’s reprehensible,” Ryan Sullivan, one of Martell-Lebron’s lawyers, said. “Law enforcement agents have a job to see justice is done. Prosecutors have a job to see justice is done. There is no greater injustice in my mind than the government arresting someone, without identifying themselves, and preventing them from exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to a jury trial.”

Yet, this is exactly what ICE has been doing all over the country for the past six weeks. They never identify themselves. One doesn’t know if they’re being arrested, deported, kidnapped, or about to be killed by mobsters. While many have decried this tactic, no one has been able to stop it because of the seemingly unlimited immunity that ICE agents have.

“What we were challenging is that they arrested him in the middle of his trial and did not return him,” Summerville said. “If he had been brought to court on Friday morning by ICE, we would not have moved to dismiss. We would not be asking for sanctions. We would have just finished the trial.”

James Borghesani, a spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden, said, “We were dismayed and surprised when our prosecution of Wilson Martell-Lebron was interrupted by ICE apprehending him in the middle of his trial. Any claim that we were aware of an attempt to prevent Mr Martell-Lebron from exercising his right to a trial is false.,” he said in a statement. “It was our intention to try Mr. Martell-Lebron and hold him accountable for the crimes alleged in the complaint. Federal authorities should not have detained him and interfered with our efforts to hold him accountable.”

This has the potential to turn into a real mess. Questions to be answered include: Who has the priority jurisdiction? Can a federal officer be held in contempt for following orders? Does Judge Summerville have the standing necessary to hold Sullivan in contempt? Does the county’s District Attorney have any say in the matter at all?

Such tactics infringe on the rights of everyone and judges have a responsibility to uphold those rights. However, in this case, that has not prevented ICE from taking Martell-Lebron and putting him in a federal holding cell awaiting deportation.

We’re hoping that Judge Summerville pushes the matter as hard as possible. Someone needs to put ICE in check. We are not a police state and any attempt to create one using immigration authority needs to be stopped.