U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement claimed that an undocumented man “rammed” his car into Vermont agents’ vehicles during a traffic stop.
The allegation was crucial to the agents’ insistence on raiding a South Burlington home on March 11, despite the hundreds of anti-ICE activists who had gathered to block their entrance.
“We’re gonna try to pull a warrant and grab the dude and prosecute him for assault on a federal agent,” ICE supervisor David Johnston said on the scene.
More than four months later, the U.S. Attorney has yet to bring such a charge — or any other criminal case — against the driver, a Honduran construction worker named Christian Jerez Andrade.
Meanwhile, a separate crash investigation completed by South Burlington police found evidence to charge Jerez Andrade with leaving the scene of an accident and grossly negligent driving. But the case has languished for months in the hands of local prosecutors.
The clash between activists, ICE agents and police outside the Dorset Street home that day has been intensely scrutinized. Yet the circumstances surrounding the car crash that triggered the standoff remain murky. Most of the day’s events were captured on body camera video from local and state police. ICE’s initial pursuit of Jerez Andrade— who they had mistaken for an undocumented Mexican man — was not.
The lingering absence of federal charges raises questions about the ICE agents’ version of events. The U.S. Department of Justice has been quick to charge hundreds of people across the country for their actions toward ICE agents, including numerous cases involving alleged vehicular “ramming.”
Asked if ICE still stood by its account, a spokesperson referred Vermont Public to the U.S. attorney’s office in Vermont, which declined to comment.
Vehicular attacks on agents have become a key talking point for ICE, which frequently refers to a “3,300%” increase in such attacks, without providing evidence or a timeframe for that alleged spike.
Many of those instances have not resulted in successful prosecutions, however. The Guardian analyzed 26 cases that ICE had mentioned in public statements and found that all but three were never charged criminally or were dismissed without a conviction.
Similarly, nearly half of all criminal cases involving alleged assault on ICE agents more broadly have unraveled in federal courts, according to an investigation by The New York Times.
Jerez Andrade has admitted to driving the car that was involved in a crash with ICE agents in South Burlington. He then fled and appears to have crashed into a parked car and a bystander’s minivan while driving the wrong direction on Dorset Street during morning rush hour, according to police statements and bodycam video from the scene. No one was seriously injured.
Jerez Andrade’s 19-year-old nephew, who was a passenger in the car, appeared to dispute ICE’s account in an earlier interview with VTDigger. The two men had tried to pull over, he told the outlet, but an ICE vehicle “hit their car from behind” and Jerez Andrade “panicked and sped off.”
Jerez Andrade’s attorney, Nathan Virag, initially agreed to discuss his client’s version of events but did not respond to subsequent messages.
Vermont Public has repeatedly requested the crash report prepared by South Burlington police, who led the state-level investigation. The department has denied those requests on the grounds that the case is still pending.
Chief William Breault said his department had completed its investigation and sent the file — which, he said, outlined specific possible criminal charges — to the Chittenden County state’s attorney’s office in May for review.
"I have reviewed the investigation and believe there is significant probable cause to support charges,” Breault said.
But State’s Attorney Sarah George said she was unaware of the case until Breault called her about Vermont Public’s most recent records request in mid-July.
George said she later determined the case had been assigned to a deputy state’s attorney who subsequently departed the office. She said she located and began reviewing the case following Breault’s call, but she has yet to decide whether to bring charges.
George initially told Vermont Public that she would have concerns if the investigation relied on statements that Jerez Andrade made to ICE agents.
“I’m skeptical of an interview that ICE is doing with anybody, and whether or not that’s an interview I would want to use in a prosecution,” she said.
After Vermont Public confirmed with Breault that the interview was conducted by an FBI agent, not ICE, in the presence of an attorney, George offered a second concern: FBI agents, she said, are "notoriously difficult to have available for testimony” in state court.
George, who is running for reelection in a contested Democratic primary next month, has been an outspoken critic of ICE. She has repeatedly declined to prosecute many of the activists whom local police had accused of resisting arrest or disorderly conduct during anti-ICE protests, including on March 11.
Jennifer Morrison, the state’s public safety commissioner, blasted George for dropping the March 11 cases, saying it would embolden activists to “cross the line into criminal behavior, placing the public and law enforcement at greater risk of harm.”
George has spoken at campaign events in recent weeks about a moral obligation to stand up to ICE in her work as prosecutor.
“We are elected officials. If not us, then who?” she said in a question-and-answer event with Winooski City Councilor and state representative candidate Al Turkos.
George told Vermont Public that her views on ICE are not the “primary factor” that she’s weighing in whether or not to bring criminal charges against Jerez Andrade.
“My understanding is he [was] driving the wrong way down Dorset Street. That’s dangerous behavior,” she said.
The stakes associated with any criminal charge — even a lower-level state charge, such as leaving the scene of an accident — are high for Jerez Andrade, who faces the prospect of deportation because of his immigration status.
George said she will consider such “collateral consequences” in her evaluation of the case. She also intends to consider “what punishment has already been done.”
Jerez Andrade was imprisoned for eight days following his arrest by ICE agents inside his home on a civil immigration offense. An immigration court judge in Massachusetts released him on bond while the government pursues a deportation order, which he is contesting.
