Introduction
Introduction Statistics Contact Development Disclaimer Help
.-') _ .-') _
( OO ) ) ( OO ) )
.-----. ,--./ ,--,' ,--./ ,--,'
' .--./ | \ | |\ | \ | |\
| |('-. | \| | )| \| | )
/_) |OO )| . |/ | . |/
|| |`-'| | |\ | | |\ |
(_' '--'\ | | \ | | | \ |
`-----' `--' `--' `--' `--'
lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Pirro’s office fails three times to win felony indictment of alleged
attacker of FBI agent
By Katelyn Polantz, CNN
Updated:
7:11 PM EDT, Tue August 26, 2025
Source: CNN
The US attorney’s office in Washington, DC, that’s run by Donald
Trump-appointee has struggled to secure a grand jury’s approval of at
least one indictment in federal court this month, in an indication of
possible issues arising with the office’s crackdown on crime.
In one case this month — related to an FBI agent and an immigration
officer allegedly scrapping with a detainee — the federal grand jury
in Washington voted “no” three times.
The court record doesn’t say why the grand jury refused to approve
the felony assault charge against DC resident Sydney Lori Reid each
time it was presented over the past month, after she was arrested in
late July for assaulting or impeding federal officers.
Grand jury indictments are infamously easy to secure – and it is
exceedingly rare for a grand jury to refuse to approve an indictment
prosecutors present.
“We are the tip of the spear. We are the ones who take these cases
into court, and the burden is on us to prove these cases. And we
welcome that burden beyond a reasonable doubt,” US Attorney Jeanine
Pirro said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, when asked by
CNN’s Evan Perez about the grand jury’s refusal to indict in the
Reid case.
“Sometimes a jury will buy it and sometimes they won’t. So be
it,” Pirro added. “That’s the way the process works.”
In the federal system, a prosecutor must show the grand jury enough
evidence for there to be probable cause of a crime, and they only need
at least 12 grand jurors out of anywhere between 16 and 23 on the
confidential panel to vote to indict.
However, the grand jury’s repeated refusal in Reid’s case comes as
the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to law enforcement,
especially with the federal takeover of policing in the city, has come
under intense scrutiny.
Pirro’s office has also pushed in recent weeks for charging
defendants in Washington with tougher crimes, especially in cases where
a felony could be charged rather than a lesser misdemeanor and when the
cases relate to assaulting police. Critics of the policy changes in
Washington’s legal community have said the approach may lead to that
may not survive scrutiny in the justice system.
In the case the Washington-based grand jury didn’t approve, the
prosecutor’s office had sought the indictment of Reid, who court
filings say is a gang member, for assaulting an officer in July.
“An indictment has not been returned in this case,” Pirro’s
office wrote in a public filing to the judge on Monday about Reid’s
charges. “As was previously disclosed by the Court to defense
counsel, a third grand jury returned a no true bill.”
Instead of the felony Pirro’s office had pushed for, Reid will be
charged with a misdemeanor, prosecutors told the judge on Monday
afternoon.
Tezira Abe and Eugene Ohm, lawyers from the federal public defender’s
office who represent Reid, said in a statement Tuesday: “Three grand
juries have now declined to indict Ms. Reid for felony assault on a law
enforcement officer … The U.S. attorney can try to concoct crimes to
quiet the people, but in our criminal justice system, the citizens have
the last word. We are anxious to present the misdemeanor case to a jury
and to quickly clear Ms. Reid’s name.”
Reid has been appearing before a magistrate judge in DC’s federal
court since the arrest while awaiting the indictment. Now that a
misdemeanor will be charged, without needing a grand jury’s approval,
she will be able to enter a plea.
Asked about the failure to get a felony indictment, Pirro’s office
told CNN: “In spite of that a United States magistrate judge held
there was probable cause that a felony assault on a federal officer had
occurred.”
The statement referred to legal arguments the magistrate judge had held
– another unusual note in the case – as the prosecutors struggled
to secure an indictment. The disclosures on Monday that the US
attorney’s office would charge Reid with a misdemeanor rather than a
felony after failing to secure the indictment also ended that
proceeding with the magistrate judge.
Investigators wrote in that Reid struggled and fought with the
immigration officer, “flailing her arms and kicking and had to be
pinned against a cement wall,” so much so that the hand of an FBI
agent who had tried to help during the fight scratched a cement wall.
Reid’s in a court filing this month that the federal prosecutors
didn’t have enough indication of intent to charge the crime as a
felony.
This story has been updated with comments from Jeanine Pirro and Sydney
Lori Reid’s attorneys.
<- back to index
You are viewing proxied material from codevoid.de. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.