Attorneys representing a producer for Chicago’s WGN television station who was temporarily detained by federal agents last week in Chicago, say the incident “should be alarming and horrifying to every person in this country”.
Debbie Brockman, a US citizen and a WGN employee, was arrested on Friday by federal agents during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) operation in Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood. Videos from the scene show Brockman being forced to the ground by two agents before she is handcuffed and put in a van.
At the time, a homeland security official claimed that Brockman “threw objects at border patrol’s car” and was “placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer”.
Later on Friday, WGN confirmed that Brockman had been released from federal custody and that no charges had been filed against her.
In a news release issued by attorneys representing Brockman on Tuesday, which was sent to the Guardian as well as several Chicago news outlets, her lawyers disputed the government’s account. They said they “adamantly deny any allegation that she assaulted anyone” and that “Brockman was the one who was violently assaulted by federal agents on her way to work” on 10 October.
Her lawyers say that at the time of the arrest, Brockman was “not acting in any professional capacity as an employee for WGN” but that she was just “walking to the bus stop as part of her morning commute when she was attacked by Border Patrol agents.
“Brockman, who is a US Citizen born in this country, was violently detained on Foster Avenue,” the statement continues. “As this occurred, individuals on the street began recording the incident and asked Ms Brockman her name.”
The statement says that she told the bystanders her name and that she worked at WGN, in the hopes that “someone would notify her employer so coworkers would know that she would not be arriving at work that day”, her attorneys said.
According to her lawyers, Brockman was held in federal custody for about seven hours before being released.
“She has not been charged with any crimes and she intends to pursue all legal avenues available to her to vindicate her rights and hold the federal authorities accountable for their actions,” the statement adds.
Brad Thomson, one of her attorneys, added in the statement: “If armed, masked, federal agents are snatching US citizens off the street as they walk to work and throwing them in unmarked vehicles, you can only imagine what these agents must be willing to do to our immigrant neighbors and people who dare to speak out against them.
“Ms Brockman was taken to the ground, battered, handcuffed, and her pants were pulled down exposing her bare buttocks,” Thomson said. “No one should be treated like that in this city, in this country or anywhere else in the world.”
Ice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the US Customs and Border Protection agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Guardian.
