Overview
- Eileen O’Neill Burke, Cook County’s state’s attorney, personally reviewed the case and ordered prosecutors to dismiss it, her office said.
- Chicago police had charged 20-year-old Brett Heier with aggravated battery to a peace officer after an ICE agent reported being spat on at O’Hare’s Terminal 2.
- An ICE agent and a second agency official identified Heier through a photo lineup used by investigators.
- Police arrested Heier at his Lincoln Park apartment, and a judge released him at his first court appearance as the case initially moved forward.
- Heier’s lawyer said any spit may have only hit the agent’s shoe and could have been unintentional, noting Heier was on medication for a dental infection, while the episode unfolded during a DHS funding shutdown that brought ICE staff to airports and as the agency reports sharp rises in assaults and threats against its personnel.