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Crime, Law and Justice
Jon Collins

Judge orders full review of grand jury materials in St. Paul church protest case

Cities Church is seen
Cities Church is seen on Summit Avenue in St. Paul on Jan. 19 as a St. Paul police squad waits outside the building. The church was quiet a day after anti-ICE protesters disrupted a Sunday worship service, interrupting the gathering to voice opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in the Twin Cities.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News

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A U.S. District Court judge has ordered the federal government to turn over all grand jury materials for her review in the cases of 38 people facing conspiracy charges for an anti-ICE protest at a St. Paul church in January.

Independent journalists, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon and Twin Cities local Georgia Fort, are charged with conspiracy. Cities Church was targeted by protesters on Jan. 18 because one of the church’s pastors, David Easterwood, helped lead the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in St. Paul during the government’s surge into Minnesota this winter.

Defendants had argued it was likely the federal government grossly misrepresented facts and misstated the law to grand jurors in order to secure an indictment.

Grand jury proceedings are generally secret. But the Justice Department’s actions have been more scrutinized since a federal judge in Chicago uncovered prosecutorial misconduct in a case involving anti-ICE activists, which led to charges being dropped.

Defendants in the church conspiracy case challenged a June ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko that denied a motion to disclose all grand jury materials involved in the indictments. Micko ruled in July that he’ll look at some grand jury materials in camera to decide whether prosecutors misled jurors, but he limited what would be examined.

Judge Laura Provinzino wrote in an order released Tuesday that the court will examine all grand jury materials in order to rule on the defendant’s objections to Micko’s denial. She’ll be looking at more materials than Micko has agreed to examine.

Provinzino will examine prosecutors’ presentation to grand jurors at hearings in January and February. She said in the order that the materials should also include any introductions, legal instructions, witness testimony, and answers to questions by jurors.

Provinzino set a deadline of Aug. 25 for the government to send her the grand jury materials.