Another case against ‘Operation Charlotte’s Web’ activist dropped
Federal prosecutors are dropping a case against a man who followed U.S. Border Patrol agents during “Operation Charlotte’s Web.”
Joshua Long followed and logged federal agents during their brief but intense campaign in the Queen City last year.
On Nov. 18, agents cornered Long in a parking lot after he had been documenting them, pointed a gun at him and arrested him, then held him in an FBI office for about six hours, he and others previously told The Charlotte Observer.
He left the FBI office with an obscure piece of legal paper: a Civil Violations Bureau ticket. The ticket alleged that he committed misdemeanor simple assault on a federal officer, but gave no other information.
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina Criminal Division Chief Craig Randall said in an email Wednesday that the ticket will be dropped, said Long’s attorney, Xavier T. de Janon.
De Janon said the email did not explain the decision. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina confirmed prosecutors were dropping the issue but did not elaborate why.
“We continually evaluate cases as they progress and will add or dismiss charges when appropriate. We have determined not to proceed with Mr. Long’s citation,” spokesperson Lia Bantavani said.
Charge is latest to fizzle
Few charges against activists and others entangled in “Charlotte’s Web” have survived the legal system.
Miguel Angel Garcia Martinez faced more than 20 years in prison because of a felony assault, resist and impede case before it was dropped last month. In December, a judge tossed Cristobal Maltos’ case for the same charge.
“I mean, from the start, all of these charges were suspicious,” de Janon said. “They followed a trend nationwide that is now very publicly seen in Minneapolis: The federal agents bring charges against as many people as they can, and then they move on to the next city, right?”
But long after agents have moved on, the charges they left behind are often dropped or flounder in court, he said.
“Charlotte was just the next chaotic stop for the federal government,” de Janon said.
Still facing charges are Heather Morrow and William Stanley, who are alleged to have obstructed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at their office off Tyvola Centre Drive.
Morrow at first faced a felony assault charge. It survived a week.
Prosecutors dismissed it shortly after her attorney — also de Janon — published a bystander video that contradicted federal agents’ claims about what happened.
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.