Many charges brought by Chicago US Attorney's Office stemming from Operation Midway Blitz dropped

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The one Operation Midway Blitz case that made it to trial for an alleged murder-for-hire plot resulted in a not guilty verdict this week.

It's a shocking turn of events to experts who tell the ABC7 I-Team the office typically has a more than 90% conviction rate.

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Marimar Martinez was called a domestic terrorist by the Department of Homeland Security, shot five times by a federal immigration agent and charged with ramming Border Patrol vehicles in October of last year. Luci Mazur was charged with forcibly resisting a federal officer during a protest outside of the Broadview ICE facility in September. And Nathan Griffin, the manager of the Laugh Factory comedy club, was charged with assaulting a federal officer last October.

When it came time to present evidence in court, criminal federal charges stemming from Operation Midway Blitz were dropped by the U.S. Attorney in Chicago for all three people.

"That doesn't happen in the old system when you're not blitzing and you're actually investigating, right? But instead...they're looking for the quick press releases, and they apparently don't seem to care about whether they get a conviction," said former Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Parente.

Now a defense attorney, Parente represented Martinez in her case and tells the I-Team the dynamics of the U.S. Attorney's Office have radically changed from his perspective. He's also representing one of the Broadview Six, charged with damaging government property at a protest in September.

"These federal prosecutors could be doing human trafficking cases, child exploitation cases, fraud cases, public corruption cases, all the stuff that the people of this district actually care about. They do not care about some broken windshield wiper," Parente said.

Attorneys for Juan Espinoza-Martinez echoed that sentiment after their client was found not guilty this week in an alleged murder for hire plot against Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, saying in part, "Twelve ordinary citizens stood between an overreaching government and an innocent man. They demanded proof, not politics. This verdict is a reminder that juries see through political prosecutions."

The dropped charges and not guilty verdict come at a time when the U.S. Attorney's Office is bleeding talent. At least seven top prosecutors are part of an unprecedented leadership exodus from the Northern District of Illinois this year, not counting one of the lead attorneys on the Espinoza-Martinez case who also resigned unexpectedly.

"People don't typically become federal prosecutors because they want to, they want to handle immigration cases, and that seems to be the focus of the office right now," Parente said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has brought 31 non-immigration criminal cases to court related to Operation Midway Blitz. So far, there have been zero convictions.

The I-Team reached out to the U.S. Attorney's Office, but they declined to comment.