Woman found not guilty of assaulting FBI agent during ICE arrest outside DC Jail [View all]
Source: WUSA9
WASHINGTON — A jury found a woman not guilty Thursday of assaulting an FBI agent during an ICE arrest outside DC Jail.
The verdict comes after less than two hours of deliberation on the third day of the trial of Sidney Lori Reid, which had been marred by several issues with prosecutors’ evidence. Reid smiled and hugged her attorneys as cheers came from the gallery when the verdict was announced.
Reid was accused of assaulting FBI agent Eugenia Bates back in July while being detained. She was outside DC Jail filming Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who were waiting to arrest two people. As she was filming, ICE officer Vincent Liang grabbed her arms and began to detain her against a wall, surveillance video shown during the trial showed. .......
A felony version of the charge was rejected three times by grand juries, before U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro’s office moved to bring this lesser, misdemeanor charge. During grand jury testimony, Liang claimed that Reid was the one who made first contact. U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said Wednesday that video evidence showed that wasn’t true. He was not brought as a witness during the trial — something Abe questioned in closing.
Bates was the sole witness called by prosecutors and spent more than five hours on the stand across two days. Much of the questioning centered on her text messages following the incident, where she downplayed it and disparaged Reid as a "libtard." She didn't turn over additional text message evidence until early Wednesday morning, and in the middle of cross examination, Abe discovered one message was missing.
Read more: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/legal/sidney-reid-trial-not-guilty-fbi-agent-ice-arrest-assault-charge-dc-jail/65-fa3b180e-e72f-43d2-ad36-bbcc91fad9d0
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