Updated

Updated · The Associated Press · Sep 4

ICE Officer Castro Wins Release on $75,000 Bond After Denying 6 False-Statement Counts

Updated

Updated · The Associated Press · Sep 4

ICE Officer Castro Wins Release on $75,000 Bond After Denying 6 False-Statement Counts

Q: What is the real reason a federal prosecutor was fired while investigating civil rights violations in this controversial Minneapolis shooting?

The real reason has not been publicly established. What is documented is that Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Evans told lawyers for the victims that senior Justice Department officials and the U.S. attorney’s office overrode his push to bring a more serious civil-rights charge against ICE officer Christian Castro and limited the case to false-statements charges. ProPublica reported that Evans described himself as objecting “in the strongest possible terms.” After that became public, a source familiar with the investigation said Evans was fired and is now under investigation. That source disputed Evans’ account that Washington had definitively blocked civil-rights charges, saying the civil-rights probe is still active and that no final charging decision has been made. So the available evidence supports this much: Evans’ firing came after he disclosed internal charging disputes in a highly sensitive case. But officials have not publicly said whether he was fired for that disclosure itself, for how he handled the matter, or for some separate issue tied to the investigation now underway. In short, the timing strongly suggests his dismissal is connected to his unusually candid disclosure about internal DOJ deliberations, but any more specific motive remains unconfirmed by public records or official statements.

3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Sep 4

$75,000 unsecured bond and a GPS ankle monitor secured Christian Castro’s release Friday after the ICE officer pleaded not guilty in federal court in McAllen, Texas.
Six federal counts accuse Castro of lying that he was attacked with a broom and shovel before shooting Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during a January Minneapolis immigration operation.
The indictment says no one struck Castro as described and that he fired through a front door while standing, hitting Sosa-Celis in the leg as two men ran inside a home with a 1-year-old child.
Video evidence already led prosecutors to drop assault charges against Sosa-Celis and another man; Minnesota has separately charged Castro with assault and false reporting.
The case is the first Justice Department prosecution tied to Operation Metro Surge, while a separate civil-rights probe remains open and Sosa-Celis plans to seek damages.