St. Peter nurse, whose arrest by federal agents last winter went viral, sues government
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A St. Peter nurse is suing the federal government after ICE violently arrested her while she was observing federal enforcement activity in town during Operation Metro Surge.
Jamie Martens, 47, of St. Peter, is seeking $550,000 for alleged assault, battery, false arrest, negligence and emotional distress, according to a Nov. 9 court filing. Martens is a registered nurse administrative supervisor at the St. Peter State Hospital.
She filed the lawsuit after the federal government failed to address her claims for more than six months, said Ian Bratlie, an attorney representing Martens.
Under the Federal Torts Claims Act, individual officers can’t get sued and can’t be held liable. However, the plaintiff can sue the federal government for torts — a civil wrong that causes someone to suffer loss, harm or injury — committed by their officers.
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“Jamie is a remarkable woman and very brave to hold the United States government accountable,” Bratlie told MPR News. “We’re going to be able to show harms that they committed on her as part of our case against them, and I would just say that Jamie is both very brave and very courageous to move forward.”
The government has 60 days to respond either with an answer or a motion to dismiss.
The complaint alleges that federal agents engaged “in the unlawful and unprivileged act” including “assault, battery and false arrest against Ms. Martens,” and that the “federal officers, officials, and employees, at the direction of the Defendant, directly and proximately caused Ms. Martens to suffer mental and physical injuries.”
The names of the five federal agents involved in her arrest were not named in the lawsuit and they are only referred to as John Doe one through five.
“The federal agents had no legal authority to treat Ms. Martens as they did,” the complaint reads. “The federal agents disregarded the United States’ own policies regarding use of force, their arrest power, and the treatment of observers, among others.”
Martens had shared her Jan. 29 dashcam video with MPR News, which drew national attention. She spoke out anonymously at the time out of fear of retaliation or being detained again.
In the footage, agents in three vehicles started chasing her and trying to force her to pull over and eventually boxed her in. Three agents got out of the car in front of her with their guns drawn as they tried to force her out of the vehicle.
“Get out of the car! Get out of the car,” the agents screamed at her repeatedly in the footage, while she calmly responded, “No. I will not get out of the car.”
Martens could be heard speaking with other observers on speaker phone as she told them to call 911. The agents opened the car door, which unlocked automatically when she put the gearshift in park, and dragged her out and forced her to the ground and handcuffed her, and resulted in leaving her with multiple cuts, scrapes and bruises.
Martens had told MPR News that the agents had put her into one of their vehicles and started driving toward the Twin Cities and the Whipple Federal Building near Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, where ICE has an immigration detention facility.
According to the complaint, Martens’ husband had received a call from St. Peter Police chief Matt Grochow and “upon information and belief, Chief Grochow contacted ICE and had them bring Ms. Martens back to St. Peter.”
The vehicle turned around and brought Martens back to the St. Peter police station and left her with Chief Grochow and didn’t inform her on why she was brought back to St. Peter.
The complaint went on to say that “Chief Grochow apologized to Ms. Martens and said he couldn’t believe it had happened. He drove her home.”
No charges were filed against Martens.
On Jan. 31, the Department of Homeland Security called Martens an “agitator” and claimed that she was trying to ram agents and drove recklessly, which she disputes in the lawsuit.
The dashcam video was shown during a Feb. 12 U.S. Senate hearing with former ICE Director Todd Lyons, who defended his agency’s officers’ actions.
The arrest had “worsened injuries” from a recent hip surgery and physical therapy, and caused a tear in the L4 disc in her back, and according to the complaint, Martens now gets radio frequency ablation about four times a year and has been diagnosed with PTSD and has missed work and used paid-time off for treatment.
Meanwhile, another federal lawsuit was filed in Minneapolis by Aliya Rahman, the woman who was dragged from her vehicle on Park Avenue as she was on her way to a doctor’s appointment on Jan. 13.
