CHICAGO — The text messages a Border Patrol agent sent to colleagues and family members after he repeatedly shot a Chicago woman in October can be released to the public, a federal judge ruled Friday. In messages previously made public, the agent bragged about his marksmanship.
U.S. District Judge Georgia Alexakis stated in court that the text messages provide insight into the agent’s and the Department of Homeland Security’s credibility, as well as into how DHS leadership perceived the shooting.
The agent, Charles Exum, shot Marimar Martinez five times on Oct. 4, after she allegedly rammed her car into agents’ vehicles. Martinez denies ramming them and said agents were the aggressors. Exum did not have his body camera turned on during the incident.
In one text message previously released, he bragged about his shooting skills, writing: “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.”
Government lawyers argued that the release of Exum’s text messages would further sully the agent and his family.
The judge pushed back. “I don’t know why the United States government has expressed zero concern for the sullying of Ms. Martinez’s reputation,” Alexakis said.
Martinez’s attorney, Chris Parente, said his team would work over the weekend with government lawyers on redactions, and Martinez’s legal team would be releasing the evidence no earlier than Monday.
Martinez pleaded not guilty in October to Justice Department charges that she used her vehicle “to assault, impede, and interfere with the work of federal agents in Chicago.” The government dropped its case against Martinez, but her lawyers say officials have refused to correct the record after branding her a “domestic terrorist.”
On Friday, DHS declined to change its stance. “DHS stands by our press releases and statements,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The judge ruled Friday that more evidence in Martinez’s case could be made public, including emails, text messages, investigative reports and statements by higher ranking DHS officials. Martinez's lawyer said these will shine a light on their thinking and how they are instructing their officers. As part of this ruling, body camera footage from an agent who was in the vicinity of the shooting can also be released, as well as photos and reports from after the crash and audio from Martinez’s 911 call.
Alexakis noted that DHS has not publicly addressed that they dropped the case with prejudice — meaning they cannot seek to charge her in the case in the future.
In court filings, Parente wrote that recent fatal shootings in Minnesota show why the evidence in Martinez's case is important to the public interest.
“Based on recent events in Minneapolis, Minnesota, involving the execution of two U.S. citizens who were engaged in similar peaceful protests as Ms. Martinez at the time of their killings, Ms. Martinez believes certain information disclosed in her case, and currently subject to the Protective Order, would be useful for both the public and elected officials to know regarding how DHS responds in cases where their agents use deadly force against U.S. citizens,” he wrote.
Parente also laid out a series of high-ranking officials in the Trump administration who had made misstatements about Martinez.
That included an Oct. 6 post FBI Director Kash Patel shared from a different account that included a video on X that read: “This is the video where Marimar Martinez, aka La Maggie, rammed a white DHS vehicle who had their emergency lights on. Another DHS black SUV then attempts to ram Marimar’s SUV from behind. One DHS agent is on the passenger side firing shots. Democrats are insane.”
As of early Friday, Patel had not taken down that post.
Martinez’s attorneys also asked for the release of Flock surveillance camera footage from 30 days before the shooting — arguing that it would show her engaged in everyday activities and rebut DHS’ statements that she has a history of doxxing federal agents and ambushing them.
The judge ruled in favor of releasing that footage but not license plate reader camera data, saying it would have “little value” to clear Martinez's name.
At one point during the court hearing, Parente said there would be no need to release any of the footage if the U.S. government publicly said that Martinez is not a domestic terrorist. The judge said the court wasn’t expected to handle negotiations such as that.
After the hearing, lawyers for Martinez said they will continue to fight to clear her reputation.
“You can’t call a U.S. citizen with no criminal history who’s a Montessori school teacher a domestic terrorist, which is such a loaded word in this country, and repeat it over and over as late as yesterday,” Parente said.
