ICE agent pleads not guilty to lying to FBI charge; bail set at $75,000
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A federal immigration agent who shot and wounded a man in north Minneapolis this winter pleaded not guilty in federal court in St. Paul on Friday to charges of lying to the FBI.
On Friday morning, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright set Christian Castro’s bond at $75,000 with conditions, including that he not break any laws and only travel between Minnesota and Texas. Castro also must stay in his residence from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and go through a mental health evaluation.
Wright ordered the parties to submit a motion to designate the case as complex and the proposed schedule for the case by Oct. 2.
Castro, 52, is also facing state assault charges for the shooting on Jan. 14. Castro is accused of firing through the closed door of a home and injured Julio Sosa-Celis, an immigrant from Venezuela, after a car chase involving Sosa-Celis’ roommate Alfredo Aljorna.
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The judge overseeing the state case set Castro’s bond Thursday at $200,000 with conditions that include pre-signing a waiver of extradition, surrendering his passport and electronic home monitoring. He’s also not allowed to talk with other ICE agents.
Prosecutors in the state case argued that Castro was a flight risk due to numerous phone conversations he had in prison with a Mexican resident about potentially purchasing property there. Castro posted bail and was released from the Hennepin County jail by Thursday evening.
The Department of Homeland Security initially claimed that the federal agent was assaulted by men with a broom and shovel and charged Sosa-Celis and Aljorna. That narrative fell apart and charges were dropped against the two men after footage emerged from a Minneapolis surveillance camera on the street. After being released from Texas jail, Castro was indicted by a federal grand jury on six counts of lying to the FBI.
Castro was arrested in downtown Minneapolis by state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents on Wednesday. His attorney said Castro had planned to surrender to state authorities. But Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said on Thursday that Castro hadn’t followed directions. State Attorney General Keith Ellison said on Thursday that he was dropping a lawsuit against the state of Texas over Abbott’s failure to extradite Castro.
“I hope I’ll never have to file another like it because we expect and we pray for cooperation between the states, as the Constitution requires,” Ellison said. “But of course, if we ever have to, we won’t hesitate to use the rule of law to seek justice for Minnesotans.”
